UWP - Print multiple xaml sheets using a single print command - xaml

Is there a way to accomplish the above.

There is a PrintHelper object in Windows Community Toolkit, you only have to instantiate the PrintHelper object and call AddFrameworkElementToPrint method to add the mutiple XAML controls you want to print.
In addition, when you initialize the object, you need to pass a XAML panel that will be used to host printable control. It needs to be in your visual tree but can be hidden with Opacity = 0, like below. For more details, you can refer to this document.
MainPage.xaml:
<StackPanel>
<Canvas x:Name="PrintCanvas" Opacity="0"/>
<Button Click="Button_Click">click</Button>
</StackPanel>
.cs:
private async void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var printHelper = new PrintHelper(PrintCanvas);
printHelper.AddFrameworkElementToPrint(new BlankPage1());
printHelper.AddFrameworkElementToPrint(new BlankPage2());
await printHelper.ShowPrintUIAsync("Title");
}

Related

UWP Binding: Changing backgrounds in XAML using C#

Suppose I am making a simple UWP application which navigates through several pages. I would like to have a common background for all pages, depending on which background a user has selected from the Settings page.
I have a SettingsPage.xaml with a comboBox (and Grid Background that needs to change):
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<ComboBox Name="ColourSelect" SelectionChanged="ComboBox_SelectionChanged">
<ComboBoxItem Name="Red">Red</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem Name="Green">Green</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem Name="Blue">Blue</ComboBoxItem>
</ComboBox>
</Grid>
Which interfaces with my SettingsPage.xaml.cs file:
private void ComboBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
// Change background
if (Red.IsSelected) { } // Change to Red.png
else if (Green.IsSelected) { } // Change to Green.png
else if (Blue.IsSelected) { } // Change to Blue.png
}
I have set up my App.xaml to contain a background resource, but I'm not sure how to bind it to the C# in Settings.xaml.cs.
<Application.Resources>
<Style TargetType="Grid" x:Key="CommonBackground">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="{ <!-- Some image. How to bind? --> }"
</Style>
</Application.Resources>
What should I return to bind the user decision to the Application resources?
Thank you in advance!
This requires few changes in different pieces of application. Follow my steps.
In this case I a am creating two Resources. One that will maintain the Settings Combobox Colour Scheme. Second one is BitMapImage in Resource.
So my Application.Resource will look something like below.
<Application.Resources>
<image:BitmapImage x:Key="BackgroundSource" UriSource="ms-appx:///Assets/Red.png" />
<x:String x:Key="BackgroundBrush">Red</x:String>
</Application.Resources>
Make sure you are adding xmlns:image="using:Windows.UI.Xaml.Media.Imaging" in your App.xaml.
Now Create a Static Method inside App.xaml.cs that will be used to update Background to the Page during Run time. It should be something like below.
public static void UpdateBGColors(string Color)
{
switch (Color)
{
case "Red":
Current.Resources["BackgroundSource"] = "ms-appx:///Assets/Red.png";
break;
case "Green":
Current.Resources["BackgroundSource"] = "ms-appx:///Assets/Green.png";
break;
case "Blue":
Current.Resources["BackgroundSource"] = "ms-appx:///Assets/Blue.png";
break;
default:
Current.Resources["BackgroundSource"] = "ms-appx:///Assets/Red.png";
break;
}
}
Now Your combobox_SelectionChanged should look like below.
private void ComboBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
ComboBox cb = sender as ComboBox;
ApplicationDataContainer localSettings = ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings;
localSettings.Values["BackgroundBrush"] = (cb.SelectedValue as ComboBoxItem).Content;
App.UpdateBGColors((cb.SelectedValue as ComboBoxItem).Content.ToString());
}
Now you need to wire up the Background of each page to the Resource BackgroundSource. So anywhere you want the background to be set based on settings add below lines of code
<Grid>
<Grid.Background>
<ImageBrush ImageSource="{StaticResource BackgroundSource}" />
</Grid.Background>
......
</Grid>
At this point, if you change the setting in setting page and if you navigate back to original page that you came into setting page, The background should be set automatically to whatever you selected in Settings.
But you also want to make sure the same background is loaded when the app is opened next time. To do that in App.xaml.cs, Add below lines in the beginning of OnLaunched Event.
ApplicationDataContainer localSettings = ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings;
if (localSettings.Values["BackgroundBrush"] != null)
{
UpdateBGColors(localSettings.Values["BackgroundBrush"].ToString());
}
Since in settings page, you are saving BackgroundBrush Everytime you change the Combobox Item, Whenever your app is loading, Based on the BackgroundBrush BackgroundSource will be assigned to correct Uri and will be used as Page Backhground.
Full Repo is available Here
Good Luck.
[Update] You can use this, and after save your settings.
SettingsPage.xaml
<Grid>
<Grid.Background>
<ImageBrush x:Name="colorImage" Stretch="UniformToFill"/>
</Grid.Background>
<ComboBox Name="ColourSelect" SelectionChanged="ComboBox_SelectionChanged">
<ComboBoxItem Name="Red">Red</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem Name="Green">Green</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem Name="Blue">Blue</ComboBoxItem>
</ComboBox>
</Grid>
SettingsPage.xaml.cs
private void ComboBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (Red.IsSelected)
{
ChangeColorImage("ms-appx:///Assets/Red.png");
}
else if (Green.IsSelected)
{
ChangeColorImage("ms-appx:///Assets/Green.png");
}
else if (Blue.IsSelected)
{
ChangeColorImage("ms-appx:///Assets/Blue.png");
}
}
private void ChangeColorImage(string imageUrl)
{
// using Windows.UI.Xaml.Media.Imaging;
BitmapImage imageSource = new BitmapImage(new Uri(imageUrl));
colorImage.ImageSource = imageSource;
}

RenderTargetBitmap messes up the WebView scaling

I have a very simple repro case of RenderTargetBitmap.RenderAsync overload messing up the WebView scaling. All I have on the MainPage is a WebView and a button:
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<WebView Source="http://bing.com"></WebView>
<Button Content="Render me"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
VerticalAlignment="Bottom"
Click="ButtonBase_OnClick" />
</Grid>
In code behind there's only a simple event handler
private async void ButtonBase_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
RenderTargetBitmap rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap();
await rtb.RenderAsync(this, 1280, 720);
}
This is what the page looks like before RenderAsync call:
and this is what happens after the call:
Any idea why and how to prevent this? Note that it only happens if I call
await rtb.RenderAsync(this, 1280, 720);
but NOT if I call the overload without the scaling
await rtb.RenderAsync(this);
EDIT: Due to the first answer I received, I wanted to clarify why the aspect ratio is not the problem here, but only serves the purpose of proving that there actually is a problem. Think of the following scenario - very high DPI screen where only a lower resolution screenshot is needed - even if you scale it down with the RIGHT ratio, it still messes up the WebView. Also, for my scenario, resizing the screenshot manually afterwards is not an option - the RenderAsync overload with scaled dimensions is much much faster and I would really prefer to use that method.
Very strange behavior...
I found one very dirty (!) fix to this. I basically hide and show the webview (wv) again.
private async void ButtonBase_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
RenderTargetBitmap rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap();
await rtb.RenderAsync(wv, 1280, 720);
wv.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
await Task.Delay(100);
wv.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
}
I'm not proud of this solution and the webview flashes, but at least it's not 'blown up' any more...
This is a bit of a hack too, but I found that if you set the contents of another control through a WebViewBrush and then render that control, then the source WebView doesn't get any scaling. I have modified the XAML you provided so it looks like this:
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Border x:Name="Target" Width="1280" Height="720" />
<WebView x:Name="webView" Source="http://bing.com" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"></WebView>
<Button Content="Render me" Grid.Row="1"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
VerticalAlignment="Bottom"
Click="ButtonBase_OnClick" />
</Grid>
In your case, you should opt to set the Border control behind your WebView (however, don't change its Visibility or put it outside of the window bounds, as RenderAsync will fail). Then, on the code behind, set the Background of the target control to an instance of a WebViewBrush that feeds on the WebView:
private async void ButtonBase_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
WebViewBrush brush = new WebViewBrush();
brush.SetSource(webView);
Target.Background = brush;
Target.InvalidateMeasure();
Target.InvalidateArrange();
RenderTargetBitmap rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap();
await rtb.RenderAsync(Target, 1280, 720);
var pixels = await rtb.GetPixelsAsync();
}
You will get your final image without any issues caused to the source WebView (however, note that the final image will look distorted since the aspect ratios don't match). However this comes with a few caveats, the most important one being that the WebView size must match the one of the RenderTargetBitmap or you will get empty areas.
Instead of using fixed values, use VisibleBounds to get the current window size.
Here's the code:
private async void pressMe_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var windowBounds = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().VisibleBounds;
RenderTargetBitmap rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap();
await rtb.RenderAsync(this, (int)windowBounds.Width, (int)windowBounds.Height);
}

Change button background image when click in Windows Phone using XAML only?

So basically I want to have a button with a certain background image.
For example, when the app is loaded you would see a button with it's background image as image1.png and then when it is clicked you see image2.png as the background image. Then when you click again, the background image is switched back to image1.png.
Even though I have done this in C#, I want to do it in XAML because every time you click a button it automatically lights up according to the theme color, and the only way to get rid of that is via XAML.
Here is my code so fa:
<Button x:Name="Buttons" Content="" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="155,0,0,69" BorderBrush="Transparent" Width="140" Click="Button_Click" Height="141" VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
<Button.Background>
<ImageBrush Stretch="Fill" ImageSource="/Assets/image1.png"/>
</Button.Background>
</Button>
Thanks in advance!
Try this,
http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2013/02/15/customize-windows-phone-togglebutton.aspx
Here, the ToggleButton that ships with the SDK has been templated to add a clicked and unclicked image.
Alternate Solution with a checkbox:
Creating own toggle button in WP8?
VisualStudio 2017 "Blank App"
XAML
<Button x:Name="button" Content="Button1" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="400,20,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderTransformOrigin="-1.258,-5" Click="Button_Click" Height="80" Width="80"/>
C# (Set the original image in the properties of the button: right-click -> Brush -> image)
private void Button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
button1.Background = new ImageBrush { ImageSource = new BitmapImage(new Uri("ms-appx:/Images/timerg.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)) };
}
or C#
private void Button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
BitmapImage bmp = new BitmapImage();
Uri u = new Uri("ms-appx:/Images/timer.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
bmp.UriSource = u;
// NOTE: change starts here
Image i = new Image();
i.Source = bmp;
button1.Content = i;
}

Windows Phone 8.1 Toggling the visibility of a TextBlock in a DataTemplate

I'm building a Windows Phone 8.1 Hub Application. One of the hub section contains a ListView that displays a list of articles. I'd like to add a Textblock to this hubsection which displays a message when the articles failed to download. The XAML Code is below:
<HubSection
x:Uid="ArticlesSection"
Header="ARTICLES"
DataContext="{Binding Articles}"
HeaderTemplate="{ThemeResource HubSectionHeaderTemplate}">
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<ListView
AutomationProperties.AutomationId="ItemListViewSection3"
AutomationProperties.Name="Items In Group"
SelectionMode="None"
IsItemClickEnabled="True"
ItemsSource="{Binding}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource BannerBackgroundArticleTemplate}"
ItemClick="ItemView_ItemClick"
ContinuumNavigationTransitionInfo.ExitElementContainer="True">
</ListView>
<TextBlock
x:Name="NoArticlesTextBlock"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="center"
Style="{StaticResource HeaderTextBlockStyle}"
TextWrapping="WrapWholeWords"
TextAlignment="Center"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</HubSection>
The problem I'm having is that I can't access the TextBlock from the C# code. Is there an easier way to do this?
The problem I'm having is that I can't access the TextBlock from the C# code.
Yes, since the TextBlock is defined inside a DataTemplate, the TextBlock won't be available until the DataTemplate has been applied. Thus, the x:Name attribute won't automatically generate a variable reference in the InitializeComponent method in your *.g.i.cs file. (Read up on XAML Namescopes for more information).
If you want to access it from your code-behind, there are two ways:
The first way is the simplest: you can get a reference to the TextBlock in the sender argument of the Loaded event handler for that TextBlock.
<TextBlock Loaded="NoArticlesTextBlock_Loaded" />
Then in your code-behind:
private TextBlock NoArticlesTextBlock;
private void NoArticlesTextBlock_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
NoArticlesTextBlock = (TextBlock)sender;
}
The second way is to traverse the visual tree manually to locate the element with the required name. This is more suitable for dynamic layouts, or when you have a lot of controls you want to reference that doing the previous way would be too messy. You can achieve it like this:
<Page Loaded="Page_Loaded" ... />
Then in your code-behind:
static DependencyObject FindChildByName(DependencyObject from, string name)
{
int count = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(from);
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(from, i);
if (child is FrameworkElement && ((FrameworkElement)child).Name == name)
return child;
var result = FindChildByName(child, name);
if (result != null)
return result;
}
return null;
}
private TextBlock NoArticlesTextBlock;
private void Page_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Note: No need to start searching from the root (this), we can just start
// from the relevant HubSection or whatever. Make sure your TextBlock has
// x:Name="NoArticlesTextBlock" attribute in the XAML.
NoArticlesTextBlock = (TextBlock)FindChildByName(this, "NoArticlesTextBlock");
}
Jerry Nixon has a good page on his blog about this.

Blend 4 Passing Data Context with Navigate To

I have a list of customers with various pieces of information. I have a list box with their names. When I select an entry I see more information about the customer on the screen. I want to "Navigate To" another screen when clicking on the user's name with more of their information. I can't figure out how to pass information about the entry to the next screen to accomplish this.
Here is the list box that the user chooses from to begin with.
<ListBox x:Name="scheduleListBox"
ItemTemplate="{DynamicResource ItemTemplate}"
ItemsSource="{Binding Collection}"
Margin="8,8,8,0"
Style="{DynamicResource ListBox-Sketch}"
Height="154"
VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
Here is the TextBlock that could be clicked to go to the other screen. It is changed based on what the user selected from the ListBox.
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Customer}"
HorizontalAlignment="Left"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
Width="150" Margin="104,0,0,0"
Style="{DynamicResource BasicTextBlock-Sketch}">
<i:Interaction.Triggers>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="MouseLeftButtonDown">
<pi:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="V02Screens.Customer_Status"/>
</i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>
</TextBlock>
I'm kind of hoping that there is something I can do in Expression Blend 4 or in the XAML.
In Windows 8, you can pass the entire object to the receiving page.
Like this:
// main page
private void ListBox_SelectionChanged_1
(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
var _Item = (sender as ListBox).SelectedItem;
Frame.Navigate(typeof(MainPage), _Item);
}
// detail page
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
this.DataContext = e.Parameter;
}
In WPF & SL, you can save reference to the SelectedItem in your View Model.
// main page
private void ListBox_SelectionChanged_1
(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
var _Item = (sender as ListBox).SelectedItem;
MyModel.SelectedItem = _Item;
// TODO: navigate
}
// detail page
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
this.DataContext = MyModel.SelectedItem;
}
I hope this helps.
In WPF you can supply an object to the Navigate command which contains anything you want, including whatever data you might want to show on the next page. Then on the target page (the one you navigate to), you have to handle the load completed event.
In your first page you might navigate with...
this.NavigationService.Navigate( somePage, someContainerObject );
Then you might retrieve it on somePage with...
// Don't forget to subscribe to the event!
this.NavigationService.LoadCompleted += new LoadCompletedEventHandler(container_LoadCompleted);
...
void container_LoadCOmpleted( object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
{
if( e.ExtraData != null )
// cast e.ExtraData and use it
}