Creating responsive element in XAML - xaml

I am absolutely new in UWP and its responsive design, so I need help.
Where's the problem?
e.g. I need 4 responsive buttons on landing page, but in each view it looks quite the same. So the button doesn't change, but looks same on desktop, and same on the phone emulator (or when I change screen resolution). For better description, there are some screens:
Buttons on large 23" screen - looks good, but...
..buttons on small 5" screen (portrait) - buttons are larger then canvas...
So my question is: How to make buttons responsive?
Here is my sourcecode:
<Page
x:Class="STCApp.MainPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:STCApp"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d">
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="83*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="998*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button x:Name="button" Content="Button" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="83" Width="480" Background="#33DCFF00"></Button>
<Button x:Name="button_Copy" Content="Button" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="83" Width="480" Grid.Column="1" Background="#33FF0000"/>
<Button x:Name="button_Copy1" Content="Button" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="83" Width="480" Grid.Column="2" Background="#3300FF0C"/>
<Button x:Name="button_Copy2" Content="Button" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="83" Width="480" Grid.Column="3" Background="#330080FF"/>
</Grid>
</Page>

For responsive design, we'd better avoid using fixed width and height. We can remove Width and Height setting in Button and set it's HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment to Stretch like following to make the button responsive.
<Button x:Name="button" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="#33DCFF00" Content="Button" />
In this scenario, each button will occupy a cell in the grid and their width and height will change automatically according to the size of the gird. Following is a complete sample and for more info about the layout design, please see Layout for UWP apps.
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="83*" />
<RowDefinition Height="998*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button x:Name="button" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="#33DCFF00" Content="Button" />
<Button x:Name="button_Copy" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="#33FF0000" Content="Button" />
<Button x:Name="button_Copy1" Grid.Column="2" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="#3300FF0C" Content="Button" />
<Button x:Name="button_Copy2" Grid.Column="3" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="#330080FF" Content="Button" />
</Grid>

In this case it's better for you to use a RelativePanel which you can handle with Visual States that will change according to the available screen size. This might help
Windows 10 RelativePanel Sample

Related

How to put those 3 buttons on the center of bottom?

In UWP xaml design as below, I split the whole screen to 3 columns and 3 rows. And For row 2 column 1, I need to put a canvas which contains a RelativePanel inside of it. And there will some buttons inside of the panel. My purpose is to make an animation on the panel.
I hope to put those 3 buttons on the bottom/center of the screen, but failed. My layout picture is attached, but it is not what I want.
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="10*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="2*" />
<RowDefinition Height="15*" />
<RowDefinition Height="3*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Canvas x:Name="toolbarCanvas" Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<RelativePanel x:Name="toolbarPanel">
<Button x:Name="bt1" Margin="50,0,50,0" Height="100" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center" RelativePanel.LeftOf="bt2"/>
<Button x:Name="bt2" Margin="50,0,50,0" Height="100" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center" RelativePanel.AlignHorizontalCenterWithPanel="True"/>
<Button x:Name="bt3" Margin="50,0,50,0" Height="100" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center" RelativePanel.RightOf="bt2" />
</RelativePanel>
</Canvas>
</Grid>
How to put those 3 buttons on the center of bottom?
Canvas is a layout panel that supports absolute positioning of child elements relative to the top left corner of the canvas.
<Canvas Width="640" Height="480" >
<Rectangle Canvas.Left="30" Canvas.Top="30"
Fill="Red" Width="200" Height="200" />
</Canvas>
For your requirement. Please use Grid panel to replace Canvas and set toolbarPanel VerticalAlignment HorizontalAlignment property like the follow.
<Grid x:Name="toolbarGrid" Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<RelativePanel x:Name="toolbarPanel" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<Button x:Name="bt1" Margin="50,0,50,0" Height="100" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center" RelativePanel.LeftOf="bt2"/>
<Button x:Name="bt2" Margin="50,0,50,0" Height="100" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center" RelativePanel.AlignHorizontalCenterWithPanel="True"/>
<Button x:Name="bt3" Margin="50,0,50,0" Height="100" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center" RelativePanel.RightOf="bt2" />
</RelativePanel>
</Grid>

Wrap panel hiding on vertical screen resize

Hey so I have a question that's been driving me mad. Basically I have a xaml element that has a wrap panel and a listbox inside it. The listbox has no problems in resizing but the wrap panel will not resize even when I set the horizontal alignment to stretch.
Has anyone any suggestions on how to fix this as it is really driving me nuts? Thanks very much in advance.
<UserControl x:Class="citeright_word.SearchItemsPanel"
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:controls="http://metro.mahapps.com/winfx/xaml/controls"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:citeright_word"
xmlns:iconPacks1="http://metro.mahapps.com/winfx/xaml/iconpacks"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="562.5" d:DesignWidth="300">
<UserControl.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="../Resources/Styles.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</UserControl.Resources>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label x:Name="label" Content="Search:" Margin="5,0,0,0"
VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="16" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<WrapPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Width="auto"
Margin="5,30,5,506.4">
<Button Click="refreshItems" Background="#FFF7F7F7"
VerticalAlignment="Top">
<iconPacks1:PackIconMaterial Kind="Refresh" MaxHeight="12"
MaxWidth="12"/>
</Button>
<TextBox x:Name="textBox" controls:TextBoxHelper.Watermark="Search
Items" controls:TextBoxHelper.ClearTextButton="True"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
KeyDown="textBox_KeyDown" />
</WrapPanel>
<ListBox x:Name="listBox" Margin="5,63,5,5"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
</ListBox>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
Is this what you're looking for?
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Label
x:Name="label"
Grid.Row="0"
Content="Search:"
Margin="5,0,0,0"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
FontSize="16"
FontWeight="Bold"
/>
<Grid
Margin="5"
Grid.Row="1"
>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button
Grid.Column="0"
Click="refreshItems"
Background="#FFF7F7F7"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
>
<iconPacks1:PackIconMaterial
Kind="Refresh"
MaxHeight="12"
MaxWidth="12" />
</Button>
<TextBox
Grid.Column="1"
Margin="2,0,0,0"
x:Name="textBox"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
KeyDown="textBox_KeyDown"
controls:TextBoxHelper.Watermark="Search Items"
controls:TextBoxHelper.ClearTextButton="True"
/>
</Grid>
<ListBox
x:Name="listBox"
Grid.Row="2"
Margin="5"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
<ListBoxItem>DSG Global Inc (re)</ListBoxItem>
<ListBoxItem>Law Society of New Brunswick v. Aucoin</ListBoxItem>
</ListBox>
</Grid>
I made some substitutions for testing because I don't have your icons or your textbox behaviors or the stuff that goes in the listbox.
I find it deeply incongenial to do XAML layout with margins. I know the designer positions elements that way, but I only use the designer for a visual check on the XAML I write by hand. I find it vastly easier and more powerful to use Grid rows and columns, stackpanels, wrappanels, and the odd UniformGrid. I don't think it's just me: On stack overflow, I've noticed that margin-driven layout correlates very well with folks who are inexperienced with XAML.

Why is there empty space at the top & bottom of my page when the UWP app runs? XAML nor Design view shows empty space

Why does my UWP (Universal Windows Platform) App force extra space at the top and bottom of my app even though there is nothing there?
Here's what it looks like:
Even though in Visual Studio 2013 (design mode) you can see that the blue bounding box displays the bottom of the page as follows:
The outer grey is the device it would be running on.
The XAML looks like the following:
<Page
x:Class="CYaPass.MainPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:CYaPass"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Height="515" Width="570" Background="LightGray" Loaded="Page_Loaded">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="320"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0">
<TextBlock FontSize="16" HorizontalAlignment="Center">1. Select a Site/Key</TextBlock>
<ListView BorderThickness="2" BorderBrush="Aquamarine"
x:Name="SiteListBox" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="251"
Margin="10,10,0,0" Width="Auto" SelectionChanged="SiteListBox_SelectionChanged">
<ListView.ItemContainerStyle>
<Style TargetType="ListViewItem">
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="5,0,0,0" />
</Style>
</ListView.ItemContainerStyle>
<ListViewItem Content="Item 2"/>
</ListView>
<StackPanel Margin="10,0,0,0" Orientation="Horizontal" Grid.Column="0">
<Button x:Name="DeleteSiteButton" Content="Delete Site"
HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="DeleteSiteButton_Click"/>
<Button x:Name="AddSiteButton" Content="Add Site" HorizontalAlignment="Right"
Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="AddSiteButton_Click"/>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
<TextBox x:Name="passwordTextBox" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="7,150,0,0" Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="2"
TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="560"/>
<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="128" Margin="10,0,0,0" Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="285">
<Grid Margin="0,0,-11,0">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="40" ></RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition Height="40" ></RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition Height="40" ></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="180"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<CheckBox x:Name="addUppercaseCheckbox" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Content="Add Uppercase" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="254" Click="addUppercaseCheckbox_Click" Margin="7,0,3,0"/>
<CheckBox x:Name="addSpecialCharscheckBox" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" Content="Add Special Chars" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Center" Margin="7,0,3,0"/>
<TextBox x:Name="specialCharsTextBox" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" Margin="7,0,3,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Grid.RowSpan="1" TextWrapping="NoWrap" Text="#"/>
<CheckBox x:Name="setMaxLengthCheckBox" Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0" Content="Set Max Length" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Center" Margin="7,0,3,0"/>
<local:NumericUpDown Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="7,0,3,0" Grid.Row="2" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="64"/>
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0">
<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0" FontSize="16" HorizontalAlignment="Center">2. Draw a pattern</TextBlock>
<Canvas HorizontalAlignment="Center" x:Name="MainCanvas"
Height="252" Width="252" Margin="7,10,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Background="AliceBlue" Tapped="MainCanvas_Tapped" PointerMoved="MainCanvas_PointerMoved"/>
<Button x:Name="ClearGridButton" Content="Clear"
Margin="50,0,10,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Click="ClearGridButton_Click" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Page>
You can see the page's width is wider than the height, but when the app runs on a desktop or a simulator device (like 7" pad) the extra space is pushed into the top and the bottom.
UWP Forced Minimum?
Is this due to some minimum size or something that UWP forces on apps?
Cannot Resize Smaller When Running
Even if I grab the form's bottom or top bounding frame when the app is running, I cannot make it any smaller.
The Default Content-Alignment is set to Center because you set the Height and Width of your Page, so your page is placed in the Center and isn't filling the whole Screen.
One Possible Solution is to add to the Page xaml Attributes this Piece of Code:
VerticalAlignment="Top".
To set the HorizontalAlignment to the left add this:
HorizontalAlignment="Left".
One more advise: When you don't Need to Display more than one xaml Page at the Screen leave the Page Height and Width to Default.

Disable opacity on Textblock when grid's opacity is set for WP8

I've posted a similar question in the past but never quite resolved it and so here I am again.
In my layout grid, I have an image which takes the full area but I also display another grid which is vertically aligned to the bottom, has its background color set and its opacity set to .5.
This part works fine.
Now, I want to display another grid within that grid which will contain another image (a logo) and a TextBlock which contains a description.
My problem is that both the image and textblock are being dimmed. While I have no problem with the logo being dimmed, I do want to keep my description fully opaque but can't seem to be able to do this.
Is there a way to achieve this? Note I'm trying to build a custom tile for WP8.
Here is the code:
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="{StaticResource PhoneChromeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Image Stretch="UniformToFill" Source="/Assets/0.jpeg" ></Image>
<Grid Background="#0F558E" Opacity="0.5" Visibility="Visible" Height="100" VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Source="/Assets/Tiles/FlipCycleTileSmall.png" Width="100" Height="100" Grid.Column="0" Opacity="1" ></Image>
<TextBlock Foreground="White" FontSize="30" Text="This is a simple description of the article" TextWrapping="Wrap" Margin="10,0,30,0" Grid.Column="1" Opacity="1" />
</Grid>
</Grid>
Thanks.
As you found out, everything that is a child of that grid is going to have a 0.5 opacity, and any opacity settings on the children are going to be relative to that.
Could you just overlay a third grid on top of the second that has the same sizing and contains your image and text? I don't have anything in front of me to test this at the moment, but something like:
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="{StaticResource PhoneChromeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Image Stretch="UniformToFill" Source="/Assets/0.jpeg" ></Image>
<Grid Background="#0F558E" Opacity="0.5" Visibility="Visible" Height="100" VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
</Grid>
<Grid Visibility="Visible" Height="100" VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Source="/Assets/Tiles/FlipCycleTileSmall.png" Width="100" Height="100" Grid.Column="0" Opacity="1" ></Image>
<TextBlock Foreground="White" FontSize="30" Text="This is a simple description of the article" TextWrapping="Wrap" Margin="10,0,30,0" Grid.Column="1" Opacity="1" />
</Grid>
</Grid>

Windows Phone appBar adding extra margin above keyboard

I am trying to create a messaging screen. This is my XAML:
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:edc="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Expression.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Expression.Drawing" xmlns:em="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Expression.Media;assembly=Microsoft.Expression.Drawing"
mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="480" d:DesignHeight="696"
x:Class="chatScreen.MainPage"
Orientation="Portrait"
shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True">
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage.Resources></phone:PhoneApplicationPage.Resources>
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>
<shell:ApplicationBar>
<shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/icons/appbar.message.send.png" IsEnabled="True" Text="send"/>
</phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>
<!--LayoutRoot is the root grid where all page content is placed-->
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid x:Name="userInfo" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,0,0,0">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="15" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="84" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="48"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image x:Name="PresenceIcon" Grid.Column="0" Height="64" Width="12" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Source="available.jpg" />
<Image x:Name="DisplayImage" Grid.Column="1" Height="64" Width="64" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Source="tony.jpg" Margin="0" />
<Grid x:Name="metaContact_info" Grid.Column="2">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock x:Name="DisplayName" Grid.Row="0" Text="Tony Stark" TextWrapping="NoWrap" FontSize="40" />
<TextBlock x:Name="DisplayStatus" Grid.Row="1" Text="enjoying windows phone" FontSize="18" TextTrimming="WordEllipsis" />
</Grid>
<Image x:Name="ServiceIcon" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Grid.Column="3" Source="service_gtalk.jpg" Width="24" Height="24" VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,20,0,0"/>
</Grid><!-- userInfo ends -->
<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,18,12,12">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<ScrollViewer x:Name="messages" Grid.Row="0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch" Margin="0"/>
</Grid>
<ScrollViewer x:Name="inputBox_scroller" Grid.Row="2" Margin="0" MaxHeight="108" VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
<TextBox x:Name="inputBox" TextWrapping="Wrap" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" Text="" FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}" InputScope="Chat" AcceptsReturn="True" />
</ScrollViewer><!-- Content Panel ends -->
I am also using Jeff Wilcox's PhoneThemeManager 1.2 to make my app always load in light theme.
When I have appBar in this screen and the keyboard opens, there is extra margin of about 48 px below the textBox. When the phone theme is black, this shows an ugly black bar above the keyboard and below the textBox. When the phone theme is white, this black color bar is in white color. Here are screenshots to better demonstrate:
However, when I disable the appbar and then open the keyboard, this extra margin below the textBox is not there.
I want to disable this extra margin when keyboard is open just like how it happens in messaging hub where appBar is there, along with auto correct bar of keyboard and still this extra margin isn't there.
The only way (known by now) is to disabling the AppBar when you're typing.
Hi i had this problem too. Setting the Textbox.InputScope to nothing removes the extra bar above the keyboard, other than that I wasn't able to make it disappear, short of removing the AppBar.