I'm trying to set the fill property of several instances of the same usercontrol from XAML in order to distinguish them. I'm using a dependency property in the C# codebehind of the control and referring to that in the XAML when I instantiate the control. Here's a simplified example of what I've tried, first the XAML of the user control:
<UserControl x:Class="RectangleFillUserControlTest.RectangleFillTest"
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"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="50" d:DesignWidth="150">
<Grid>
<Rectangle x:Name="rect" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="50" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="150"/>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
Now the codebehind:
namespace RectangleFillUserControlTest
{
public partial class RectangleFillTest : UserControl
{
SolidColorBrush fillBrush;
public static readonly DependencyProperty FillColourProperty = DependencyProperty.Register
("FillColour", typeof(string), typeof(RectangleFillTest), new PropertyMetadata(string.Empty));
public string FillColour
{
get { return (string)GetValue(FillColourProperty); }
set
{
SetValue(FillColourProperty, value);
if (value == "red") fillBrush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red);
else fillBrush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Green);
rect.Fill = fillBrush;
}
}
public RectangleFillTest()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
}
}
I instantiate the control in the main window and try to set the fill colour to red:
<Window x:Class="RectangleFillUserControlTest.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:RectangleFillUserControlTest"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid Background="#FF1D2CC3">
<local:RectangleFillTest FillColour="red"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
But the rectangle remains unfilled, even when I run the project. Can anyone help please?
Cheers,
Tim
I will explain why is is not working and how to solve.
1.- A Dependency Property is only called when the usercontrol has that dependency property in the visual tree.
In case you want to do in that way, you need to add for instance :
new PropertyMetadata(string.Empty, ValueChanged));
and there change the value:
public static readonly DependencyProperty FillColourProperty = DependencyProperty.Register
("FillColour", typeof(string), typeof(RectangleFillTest), new PropertyMetadata(string.Empty, ValueChanged));
private static void ValueChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
var control = d as RectangleFillTest;
var fillBrush = new SolidColorBrush();
if (control.FillColour == "red")
fillBrush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red);
else
fillBrush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Green);
control.rect.Fill = fillBrush;
}
public string FillColour
{
get
{
return (string)GetValue(FillColourProperty);
}
set
{
SetValue(FillColourProperty, value);
}
}
That is explicit for your logic, in case you need a more generic code for any color, etc using binding the property to the rectangle, just tell me.
There are two things wrong with your dependency property.
First, its type should be Brush
, not string, because that is the type used by properties of WPF controls like Shape.Fill
or Control.Background
. WPF provides automatic type conversion from strings like "Red" or "#FFFF0000" in XAML to type Brush.
Second, you should not have anything else than a call to SetValue
in the setter method of the CLR wrapper. The reason is explained in the XAML Loading and Dependency Properties article on MSDN:
Because the current WPF implementation of the XAML processor behavior
for property setting bypasses the wrappers entirely, you should not
put any additional logic into the set definitions of the wrapper for
your custom dependency property. If you put such logic in the set
definition, then the logic will not be executed when the property is
set in XAML rather than in code.
So your dependency property declaration should look like this:
public static readonly DependencyProperty FillBrushProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register(
"FillBrush", typeof(Brush), typeof(RectangleFillTest));
public Brush FillBrush
{
get { return (Brush)GetValue(FillBrushProperty); }
set { SetValue(FillBrushProperty, value); }
}
To react to property changes, you would now register a PropertyChangedCallback with property metadata. But you don't need to do that here, because you could simply bind the property in the UserControl's XAML like this:
<Rectangle Fill="{Binding FillBrush,
RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType=UserControl}}" ... />
You need to bind your Dependency Property to the Fill property of your Rectangle in the xaml of your UserControl. You'll have Something like this :
<Rectangle x:Name="rect" Fill="{Binding FillColour, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType=RectangleFillTest}}" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="50" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="150"/>
Also, in your dependency property, it's type should be Brush, and not String.