I have a SketchFlow Project, which is a prototype of an application that we are designing, and I am at the stage that I would like to export the project to another format for sharing.
The first thing that I tried was:
File | Export | Export as Images...
However, after this had finished running, I only had 6 screenshots. I have over 30 screens in the prototype. Does anyone have any idea why all screens are not exported?
I then tried:
File | Export | Export to Microsoft Word...
And this results in the following error:
Any thoughts on what is happening here? I have tried looking for a log file, but I couldn't find one.
The final option which I have tried is:
File | Export | Package SketchFlow Project...
Which seems to work perfectly. However, I would like to embed the images into a design document, and don't really want to have to go through taking screenshots manually, which will be the last resort.
Update 1
Ok, seems like it is certain screens that are causing the problem. When I do the "Export to Microsoft Word..." option, and choose only the first screen, the Word document exports correctly. However, when I add in another screen (one of the ones that wasn't included in the "Export as Images" method, I once again get the error that I showed the screenshot of.
Update 2
As requested in comments, the layout of the pages are as follows.
Header Component - which shows overall title of the application, and some common buttons.
Navigation Component - Menu Structure for all top level pages
All screens, with the exception of the Login/Register page, have the Header and Navigation Component added to them
Some screens are using Sample Data to populate elements on the page. Others are just simple controls, laid out on the page.
Update 3
Ok, I have just done a pretty comprehensive test, and when using "Export to Microsoft Word..." if I exclude all the screens that use Sample Data, the export completes successfully. As soon as I include any screen with sample data, it throws the exception. I can only assume that the "Export as images..." is failing silently when it hits the first screen that has Sample Data in it.
This is a bug. It's related to resource resolution. You may be able to work around by making the ItemTemplate property local instead of the default resource.
For example, with a repro built using the databinding showcase instructions - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/details.aspx?uuid=db8a7eb6-3039-4008-a9f2-f5c910bcddf3
Replacing the ItemTemplate
<ListBox HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="330" Margin="73,40,0,0" Style="{DynamicResource ListBox-Sketch}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="535" ItemsSource="{Binding Collection, Source={StaticResource snowboardData}}" DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SampleDataSource}}" ItemTemplate="{DynamicResource ItemTemplate}"/>
With
<ListBox HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="330" Margin="73,40,0,0" Style="{DynamicResource ListBox-Sketch}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="535" ItemsSource="{Binding Collection, Source={StaticResource snowboardData}}" DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SampleDataSource}}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel>
<Image Source="{Binding Images}" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="64" Width="511"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}" Style="{DynamicResource BasicTextBlock-Sketch}"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
Allowed me to export to Word.
This has been reported to Microsoft and should be fixed in a future VS/Blend update.
After some back and forth offline with #shawty, we believe we have come up with the reason why the export is failing. It is not specifically tied to doing an export when Sample Data is being included, but more specifically when using Sample Data with a Sketch Control.
This is what I did to verify this...
Created new Sketch Flow Project
Added ComboBox control to the page
Added DataSource to the Data tab
Added Collection Property
Added Simple Property to Collection
Edited Data to include some sample data
Bound the ComboBox to the sample data
Ran the application to make sure it is working
Ran the Export to Microsoft Word...
Everything worked correctly
I then repeated the "exact" same process using the ComboBox - Sketch control, and the Export to Microsoft Word... failed to function, displaying the error message shown in question above.
The suggested workaround from #shawty is as follows:
"The sketch controls are functionally exactly the same as the OOTB ones under the hood, they just have a different dictionary of styles applied to them, my suggestion would be to take the OOTB controls, add your own set of styles to them to give them a similar look and feel. You'd only have to define the resource dictionary once at application level for each appropriate control (Button, Label, Datagrid and any others you use) , and the entire application will just maintain the same look and feel."
While this is a perfectly viable solution, it doesn't take anyway from the fact that I believe that this is a bug in the Sketch Flow application. I just don't know where to raise the bug, as there doesn't seem to be a section on Microsoft Connect to raise a bug about Blend, and/or Sketch Flow. If anyone knows where I can take this, I would love to hear about it.
Related
I am new to Xamarin development. I created new Xamarin XAML App(Xamarin.Forms Portable). In Portable Project there where MainPage.Xaml by default. To create MVVM Model I created three new Folders- Views, ViewModels, and Models. Now I added new MainPage.Xaml in Views folder and was going to delete the default MainPage.Xaml page. But here I see some difference in both pages. The default MainPage.Xaml have xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Test" but the new MainPage.Xaml does not. Again the new MainPage.Xaml have <Label Text="{Binding MainText}" VerticalOptions="Center" HorizontalOptions="Center" /> but the default one does not. The screenshots are:
What does these MarkUp mean.Why there is a difference. Does something needs to be changed. Can I delete the default MainPage.Xaml or should i copy it in Views.Does I need to copy the Markup from the default Page to the new one. If so why?
Thanks in advance
Both pages are identical, and will display in the same way.
On the second, there's an additional Xml namespace declaration:
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Test"
It's only a declaration. You could remove it, or add it to the other page without effect. It's purpose is to be able to reference custom views declared in the current assembly and in the namespace (c# namespace, this time) Test, like this:
<ContentPage
...
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Test"
x:Class="Test.MainPage">
<local:MyAwesomeView />
</ContentPage>
Awesome that you have decided to start with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms!
While I understand you might be having these questions, this is some very basic XAML knowledge. The short answer is: you don't need to worry about it.
The long answer:
The reason that there is a difference in these pages is simply because it's just a template and whoever at Xamarin created the template for the project can be a different person than who created the template for a new XAML page. So they solved it different ways. Or maybe he had a good/bad day, who knows.
The Label in the first page is simply there to show you how to get started and so you won't start with an empty screen.
The extra namespace xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Test" is actually redundant in this new page but is already there so you can use the classes in your project.
It is actually the equivalent of the using list at the top of your classes. So whenever you need something from a different namespace you have to declare it there. So if you create a folder 'Controls' you can add a attribute xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Test.Controls".
Note how I changed local to controls, this is the prefix you will use to define your instance. Also I have added the right namespace Test.Controls. Now if you want te show something on screen, in your XAML from the controls namespace, go like this:
<ContentPage xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Test.Controls" x:Class="Test.MainPage">
<!-- some stuff here -->
<controls:ReusableControlHere />
</ContentPage>
Where ReusableControl can be your own version of a Label, Button or virtually anything.
I have started to develop for WP 8.1 using Windows Runtime recently, and I have faced a... "problem" that I don't seem to understand.
The application I am currently developing uses a Hub control, and I would like to tweak its header's appearance slightly. To do so, I changed the HeaderTemplateattribute of the Hub control. However, as I tried to localize the textual content of the header (note that this is WinRT, the localization process is slightly different from the process in WP8 and can be found here), I "accidentally" fixed the problem by making the template like this:
<Hub.HeaderTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding}"
Foreground="Red"/>
</DataTemplate>
</Hub.HeaderTemplate>
I don't understand why it worked, though. When you do data binding like this (just using the expression {Binding}), doesn't the element get the same DataContext as its father? What's happening under the hood? Who's the parent element of the TextBlock, after all?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT
As igrali asked, here is a more complete view of the XAML:
<Page ...
DataContext="{Binding Data, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}">
<Grid Background="#FFF6DB">
<Hub Name="MainPageHub"
x:Uid="MainPageHub"
Margin="0,27,0,0">
<Hub.HeaderTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding}"
Foreground="White"/>
</DataTemplate>
</Hub.HeaderTemplate>
...
Then, in the /Strings/en-US/Resources.resx, I have a "MainPageHub.Header" property set to "foobar" (just an example), and what I get as a header is actually "foobar" (which is what I wanted, but even so it seems confusing!).
As Tim Heuer explains it here
Notice the x:Uid value here. This now maps back to the key in your
RESW file. Anything with that starting key will have properties
merged into it. So we can have a key in our RESW for “Text” using the
key name MyTextBlock.Text with a value of “Hello World” and the
runtime will do the replacement for you. This applies to properties
other than text (i.e. width) as well as attached properties.
All I can add is - notice the x:Uid. It's MainPageHub. In the localized resource file, you have a MainPageHub.Header. This means that the value of the resource string will be set to the Header of the control which has the x:Uid set to MainPageHub.
So, now that it's clear how the Header is set - there's still the binding part. Well, considering you have a different template for the Header, it needs to do the {Binding } part to actually get the value of the header which is set through the resources.
I've used the Multilingual Toolkit to translate my app and have been testing it using pseudo-language. It works fine for strings I have translated in code (C#) but I can't work out how to make it so that the tag in XAML is automatically translated.
I've been using http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh965329.aspx as a tutorial but I can't figure it out. I've also searched on Google but still no luck.
For example, I created a "Watermark" text box (which inherits from TextBox which shows some text in by default it the user has not entered any text and the item does not have focus. The XAML looks like this (I replaced generic positioning stuff with '...'):
<local:WatermarkTextbox x:Name="TitleTextBox" Watermark="MainPage_EnterATitle" ... Style="{StaticResource TextBoxStyle1}" />
As you can see it is setting a property called Watermark with a 'tag' of the resource name that is being translated using the Multilingual tool. I'm not sure how to get this to automatically translate.
Another example is using the bottom app bar buttons:
<Button x:Name="bottomAppBar_unpinFromStartButton" AutomationProperties.Name="MainPage_UnpinFromStart" Style="{StaticResource UnPinAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="bottomAppBar_unpinFromStartButton_Click"/>
And I can see in the link above that it says:
MediumButton.[using:Windows.UI.Xaml.Automation]AutomationProperties.Name
But I'm not really sure where this is meant to go.
Even with a button, which seems like it would be the simplest to translate I can't get it to work. The XAML is:
<Button x:Name="RemovePhotoButton" x:Uid="MainPage_RemovePhoto" Content="" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="222,0,974,78" Grid.Row="1" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Width="170" Height="45"/>
But when ran in the app or viewed in the designed the button stays blank, with no text on it.
The Resources are set up like this:
And it is filling the translated documents fine:
I am able to translate it in C# using the code from the link above, just not using XAML.
Just wondering if anybody could help me out or point me in the right direction to solve this.
Thanks
First what i think is missing in the name of your resources is the property that you want to set. While never used it myself, i would understand it like this:
Your xaml needs to be changed to
<local:WatermarkTextbox x:Name="TitleTextBox" x:Uid="MainPage_EnterATitle" Watermark="" ... Style="{StaticResource TextBoxStyle1}" />
And your resource needs an entry with the key
MainPage_EnterATitle.Watermark
And about the part with the
MediumButton.[using:Windows.UI.Xaml.Automation]AutomationProperties.Name
This is only used if the referenced property is an attached property. Like if your Watermark property would be attached not part of the control. But in your case its not important.
I've been trying to get an App bar implemented in a WinRT metro app (C# / XAML), but don't know where to begin. I've tried using the <ApplicationBar/> tag and I get a Type not found error.
There's no help online, could someone update this post with the answer so that it'll serve as a reference to other programmers as well?
There's only a JavaScript sample which isn't of much help.
This should work:
<AppBar
VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
<Button
AutomationProperties.Name="Play"
Style="{StaticResource PlayAppBarButtonStyle}"
Command="{Binding PlayCommand}" />
</AppBar>
– you would put that in the layout root grid of your page.
*EDIT
Note: According to documentation - you should put it in Page.BottomAppBar property, although at least in Windows 8 Consumer Preview - it works fine when used in any Grid, which is convenient if your UI isn't tightly coupled to a Page control.
*EDIT 2, response from MSFT:
The recommended approach is to use the Page.BottomAppBar/TopAppBar properties.
There are known hit-testing issues in the Consumer Preview if AppBars are added without using these properties
The AppBars do not use the proper animations if they are added without using these properties
If AppBars are added as children of arbitrary elements then it's easier for multiple controls to attempt to create/modify AppBars, resulting in an inconsistent user experience
*EDIT 3
The CustomAppBar in WinRT XAML Toolkit can be used anywhere, animates based on Vertical/Horizontal-Alignment, can have other content overlaid on top of it and also has a CanOpen property that allows to block it from opening.
<Page.TopAppBar>
<AppBar>
<TextBlock x:Name="TextBlock1" Text="Sample Text" Margin="0,0,0,0" Height="Auto" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>
</AppBar>
</Page.TopAppBar>
I'm trying to design a UI that contains nested tabs, but I can't seem to find information on how to remove the nested tabs in an MVVM fashion.
Here's my XAML (snipped for brevity):
<TabControl Name="ProjectTabControl" DockPanel.Dock="Top" ItemsSource="{Binding ProjectTabs}" IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True">
<TabControl.ContentTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TabControl DockPanel.Dock="Top" ItemsSource="{Binding FileTabs}" Padding="1">
<Button Command="{Binding CloseTabCommand}" CommandParameter="TabItem" />
</TabControl>
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ContentTemplate>
</TabControl>
My question is: what argument(s?) should I be passing in CommandParameter, and how would I affect it in the ViewModel to properly remove the tab?
It doesn't look like you have a solid understanding of how to implement an M-V-VM pattern in WPF. It looks like you know understand DataBinding but the pattern your sample demonstrates seems to be missing an understand of ViewModels and Commands, which are really required for MVVM.
Review the article linked below and the sample application it uses. You should find what you're looking to do is demonstrated here and is pretty easy to implement.
The Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Design Pattern for WPF
I hope that this doesn't seem like a cop-out but it would require a significant amount of re-posting of the linked article to get you where you want to go. Go read the article, work through the sample and if you still have problems, post on this question and I'll make sure to watch for it.