The name 'InitializeComponent' does not ex

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If I create a new project in Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and select "WPF Application" and tries to build the generated application, I get the error

The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context.

I got a similar error this morning when I tried to build my current project. Yesterday, I had no problem compiling and running it.

I created a new project and got the error whenever I compiled the project. I have just sent the project to a colleague, and he has just compiled without any errors.

What is wrong?

Answer 1

I just encountered this problem, and it turned out to be that my project is stored in my user folder, which is stored on the network, and we had a momentary network outage. I did a build; it complained that my files had been modified outside the editor (they hadn't; the file locks just got borked), and it built fine, removing the error regarding the InitializeComponent() method.

BTW, in case you're wondering, developing something from a network drive is bad practice. It becomes particularly problematic when you're trying to leverage .NET's managed code; in my experience, it freaks out every time you build. I forgot to put this little throw-away project in the proper folder, and ended up paying the price.

Answer 2

There's a very specific reason for this, and it's in the project settings. This usually happens whenever you try to add a WPF control/window to a .NET 2.0 class library or project. The reason for this error is that the project does not know it's building a WPF control or window and therefore tries to build it as a C# 2.0 project.

The solution involves editing the .csproj file. Right click on the project causing the problem and select “Unload Project”. Right click the unloaded project and select “Edit .csproj”. The .csproj file will open and you can see the XML. look for the following line:

<Import Project=…..

It's near the end of the file, and the only line that you have is probably

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

This tells Visual Studio to build the project as a .NET 2.0 project. What we want to do is to tell Visual Studio that this is actually a WPF project, so we have to add the following line:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.WinFX.targets" />

This line will tell Visual Studio to build the project as a WPF project. Now your .csproj file bottom should look like this:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.WinFX.targets" />

Save the .csproj file, right click it in Solution Explorer and select “Reload Project” compile and that's it, you're all done!

Answer 3

This solved it for me.

I had commented out the resources in the App.xaml file

<Application x:Class="MyApp.App" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
  <Application.Resources>
    <!--<ResourceDictionary>
      <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary
            Source="/PresentationFramework.Aero, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=MSIL;component/themes/aero.normalcolor.xaml" />
      </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
    </ResourceDictionary>-->
  </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Commenting thiis back in to fixed the build error.

<Application x:Class="MyApp.App" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
  <Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
      <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary
            Source="/PresentationFramework.Aero, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=MSIL;component/themes/aero.normalcolor.xaml" />
      </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
    </ResourceDictionary>
  </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Digging a bit deeper I found that the app.g.cs file in {Project}\obj\debug only contained the following when I left the resource commented in.

/// <summary>
/// InitializeComponent
/// </summary>
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCodeAttribute()]
public void InitializeComponent() {
    if (_contentLoaded) {
        return;
    }
    _contentLoaded = true;
    System.Uri resourceLocater = new System.Uri("/MyApp;component/app.xaml", System.UriKind.Relative);

    #line 1 "..\..\..\App.xaml"
    System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(this, resourceLocater);

    #line default
    #line hidden
}

Answer 4

I've encountered this a couple times and keep forgetting what causes it. I ran into this when I renamed the namespace on my code behind file but not in my XAML.

So check if you've done the same.

The namespace and class names need to match since they are both part of a partial class

namespace ZZZ
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow
    {
         //...
    }
}

<!-- XAML -->
<Window x:Class="ZZZ.MainWindow">

Answer 5

So I realize this is an older question, but we were having a similar issue. We were able to build a project using VS2012, but not using msbuild from the command line. I went into the .proj file and noticed it didn't have a record for "ProjectTypeGuids" under the default "PropertyGroup" section, so I added this:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

which is the project GUID for WPF. I then deleted and re-added the UserControl and it started working. I'm not sure if I had to do that last step, but it works for me now.

Answer 6

The Build Action for the .xaml file must also be set to "Page", when moving a xaml file between projects this setting gets lost (in VS 2010 at least).