Setting Callisto Rating Control to Readonly - Window Store App - xaml

In my Windows Store app I am using Callisto rating controls. Some of the rating controls I just want to show the user the rating for something, I don't want them to be able to change the rating. But for the life of me I can't find a parameter in the XAML that will let me do it.
Has anyone else managed to do this?
My current XAML code for the rating control is below.
<callisto:Rating Background="Transparent" x:Name="rating" Margin="-3,0,0,0" Foreground="White" ItemCount="5" Value="{Binding Rating}" />

Related

What's the DataContext of the Header elements inside a Hub control?

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.

Order of bindings in Windows Phone 8

I am facing this issue regarding data binding and binding in a converter while developing a Windows Phone 8 app.
I am trying to send the button to a converter so I can access all of its properties using the following code
<Button Content="{Binding OwnBoard, Mode=OneWay}" Grid.Row="0" Background="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=Self}, Converter={StaticResource BoardToBackConv}}" />
When I hit the break point in the converter I have the button as the binding object, but the Content property of the control is Null. I need to access the object stored in the Content property.
As far as I know, because of the order of the bindings, the Content property should already contain a value.
Any idea how to make this work?
I have managed to understand why what I want to do is not going to work.
Keeping it short, the converter is executed during the InitializeComponent() call, and at that time the other binding was not done, because there is not DataContext for the view yet.

Windows 8 XAML Multilingual Translations

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.

Windows 8 bottom app bar

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>

Silverlight - displaying graphical resources within a button

Has anyone solved this: displaying graphical resources within a button
create a resource, for instance a rectangle
<UserControl.Resources>
<Rectangle x:Key="myRectangle" Fill="Red" Height="100" Width="100"/>
</UserControl.Resources>
then set the content of the button to the resource
<Button Content="{StaticResource myRectangle}"/>
when you build inside blend 4 RC you get the error "Value does not fall within the expected range."
Visual studio does not show this error.
When you run the site the button doesn't show any content.
This technique works in WPF without problems.
Anyone got any ideas?
This can be done by directly setting the shape as the button's content. For eg:
<Button Height="120" Width="120">
<Rectangle Fill="Red" Height="100" Width="100"/>
</Button>
FrameworkElement.Resources are generally used for storing nonvisual elements, brushes, etc. For your case (I think) you'll need to store your xaml as a data template, again not sure if this works with Buttons, it is used for things like ListBoxes. See here:
resources description on msdn. The link further contains pointers to information for Data Templates etc.