Xamarin Forms - How to display content from one xaml inside another - xaml

Question

I'm used to Android development, and am having some difficulty accomplishing what I would think is a simple task.
I have a MasterDetailPage (called ContainerView.xaml).
The Master is my navigation bar (called NavbarView.xaml).
The Details is supposed to be a page with a fixed title bar, and a "view" I can can swap per user choices.
The Details page is called MainView.xaml.
The Title I'd like to display at the top and is called TitleBarView.xaml.
Then I have a number of content pages such as Page1View.xaml.
in my ContainerView.xaml:
<MasterDetailPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MyApp.ContainerView"
IsGestureEnabled="True"
MasterBehavior="Popover"
Title="MasterDetail Page">
<MasterDetailPage.Master>
</MasterDetailPage.Master>
<MasterDetailPage.Detail>
</MasterDetailPage.Detail>
</MasterDetailPage>
in my NavbarView.xaml - this is the Master
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MyApp.NavBarView"
Title="Nav Bar">
<ContentPage.Content>
<StackLayout Orientation="Vertical">
<Label Text="{Binding Item1}"/>
<Button Text="Options" Command="{Binding Option1Command}"/>
</StackLayout >
</ContentPage.Content>
</ContentPage>
in my MainView.xaml - this is the details
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MyApp.MainView"
Title="Main View">
<ContentPage.Content>
// what to put here to show the TitleBarView.xaml?
// what to put here to show my content xaml pages?
</ContentPage.Content>
</ContentPage>
in my TitleBarView.xaml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ContentView xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MyApp.TitleBarView">
<ContentView.Content>
<StackLayout Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Text="{Binding Item1}"/>
<Button Text="Options" Command="{Binding OptionsCommand}"/>
</StackLayout>
</ContentView.Content>
</ContentView>
and a generic content view, of course there will be many others I want to switch between
<ContentView xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MyApp.Page1View">
<ContentView.Content>
<StackLayout Orientation="Vertical">
<Label Text="{Binding Info}"/>
<Button Text="Log In" Command="{Binding GoToPage2Command}"/>
</StackLayout >
</ContentView.Content>
</ContentView>
I am using the MVVM model and have this code, but can't seem to get just the basics working.
The Master page displays fine.
If the Details page is just a simple page, it works, but I can't figure out how to insert the TitleBar and swap out the "Content".
ContainerView containerPage = new ContainerView();
ContainerViewModel containerVM = new ContainerViewModel();
containerPage.BindingContext = containerVM;
NavBarView navigationBar = new NavBarView();
navigationBar.Title = "Navigation Bar"; // required, otherwise I get an exception.
NavBarViewModel navigationBarVM = new NavBarViewModel();
navigationBar.BindingContext = navigationBarVM;
MainView mainView = new MainView();
mainView.Title = "MainView";
MainViewModel mainViewVM = new MainViewModel();
mainView.BindingContext = mainViewVM;
TitleBarView titleBar = new TitleBarView();
TitleBarViewModel titleBarVM = new TitleBarViewModel();
titleBar.BindingContext = titleBarVM;
Page1View page1 = new Page1View();
Page1ViewModel page1VM = new Page1ViewModel();
page1.BindingContext = page1VM;
mainView.Content = new StackLayout()
{
Orientation = StackOrientation.Vertical,
Children =
{
new Label { Text = "I'm Content!" },
new Label { Text = "I'm Content!" },
//titleBar.Content,
//loginView.Content
}
};
containerPage.MasterBehavior = MasterBehavior.Popover;
containerPage.Master = navigationBar;
containerPage.Detail = new NavigationPage(mainView);
I'm sure I'm missing a fundamental concept. Any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

Xaml can instantiate any control, defined in code or in Xaml, so in case of TitleBarView, you can instantiate it in any Xaml by
<xmlnsprefix:TitleBarView />
The problem is to set the right xmlnsprefix. Every xaml file define a few xmlns and you can add your own, like this:
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyApp"
and it'll mean that the Xml namespace 'local' will reference the clr namespace 'MyApp' in the current assembly.
So you MainView becomes:
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyApp"
x:Class="MyApp.MainView"
Title="Main View">
<ContentPage.Content>
<local:TitleBarView />
</ContentPage.Content>
</ContentPage>