Following a first question on WPF Cascading Binding,
I remarked that I had more Resources than desired defined in both the MainWindow and the UserControls:
This is well seen in Snoop
- the MainWindow XAML has an "instance" of a MainWindow ViewModel that paints the 2 usercontrol in green and blue
- additionnaly there are 2 instances of usercontrol viewmodels for each of the 2 UserControls that would paint the inner circle in red
- My first Intention in the Usercontrol was to be able to see "live" how my control would look like ( I painted it red to distinguish this "model" from the green and blue circles in the Main Window)
- My Resources are very cheap to create, so no matter if I have 2 extra resources that are still living in my application, but I would anticipate the time where my Resources will be more expensive...
Finally my question is :
How can I conditionnaly let Resources be created in "low level" control ( so that I can have a preview in the view of the control ) but prevent this creation when running the full application ( or the view of the Main Window ) because I will bind to the Resources of this upper level.
Many thanks in advance.
Best Regards.
NGI
I prepared simplified way out displaying one data during design time and latter during run time. Hopefully you will find it useful and adjust to your case.
XAML:
<Window.Resources>
<DataTemplate x:Key="DesignModeDataTemplate">
<TextBlock Text="Design mode"/>
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate x:Key="RunTimeDataTemplate">
<TextBlock Text="Run Time"/>
</DataTemplate>
<local:IsInDesignModeConverter x:Key="IsInDesignModeConverter"/>
</Window.Resources>
<ContentControl>
<ContentControl.ContentTemplate>
<MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource IsInDesignModeConverter}">
<Binding Source="{StaticResource DesignModeDataTemplate}"/>
<Binding Source="{StaticResource RunTimeDataTemplate}"/>
</MultiBinding>
</ContentControl.ContentTemplate>
</ContentControl>
Converter:
class IsInDesignModeConverter : IMultiValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
if ((bool)(DesignerProperties.IsInDesignModeProperty.GetMetadata(typeof(DependencyObject)).DefaultValue))
return values[0];
return values[1];
}
public object[] ConvertBack(object value, Type[] targetTypes, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
As a result it display Design mode text during design time and Run time when running.
In your case instead of TextBlock you can insert already defined resources.
I will finally try to answer my own question
Result is as awaited no "duplicate resources" in the lower level ViewModel instances
The result in snoop:
The XAML code
<UserControl x:Class="BindingMCVE.UserControl1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:BindingMCVE"
d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance {x:Type vm_nmspc:my_usercontrol_vm}, IsDesignTimeCreatable=True}"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="100" d:DesignWidth="100"
xmlns:vm_nmspc="clr-namespace:BindingMCVE.ViewModel"
>
<UserControl.Resources>
<!--No resources created in XAML-->
</UserControl.Resources>
<Grid>
<StackPanel Height="100" Width="100">
<Ellipse Fill="{Binding my_color}" Height="50" Width="50" />
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
Note the new line:
d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance {x:Type vm_nmspc:my_usercontrol_vm}, IsDesignTimeCreatable=True}"
And there is absolutely no other modifications !!
The trick is to use the IDE to support you ( if you are unaware of the syntax that will result in the XAML ).
I will try to illustrate what I did.
Choose your object, and in the format menu choose Set Design Time DataContext
Then choose your DesignInstance ( here the ViewModel my_usercontrol_vm) and do not forget to tick IsDesignTimeCreatable
This created the magic line in the Ellipse declaration but I moved it on the top of the XAML.
So this answered my question. It is possible with no deep knowledge on WPF/XAML to make all your subviews (controls) "rendered" without the additional cost of wasted resources of viewmodels
To give echo to what Maximus gave in the first answer, I found also another post (will try to find it again and quote it in a next edit) using directly the function DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode( )
public partial class UserControl1 : UserControl
{
public UserControl1()
{
InitializeComponent();
if ( DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode(this))
{
//Do what you want here for design time specific actions
}
}
}