Windows phone 8 - Pivot Active, Inactive Header template - xaml

I'd like to use different templates for the header of my pivot, if it's selected/active id like to use template A, if it's inactive/not selected, I'd like to use template B.
What I would like to do is pretty much the same as the facebook app for windows phone, where a small triangle/arrow is displayed on the active pivot. I'm not 100% sure how this is designed, if the icon and arrow is the header template, or if it's just the arrow, or if it's pivot at all...
I would appreciate if someone would shed some light on how this kind of UI can be achieved.

Ended up with a work-around for this
I removed the pivot header entirely and created a stand alone control to navigate the pivot
The nav-viewmodel, shared between the pivot and the Nav control, have a SelectedPage property, which changes when you navigate in the Nav control:
<AppControls:Nav Grid.Row="0"/>
That gives me full control of the layout of the selected menu item.
The SelectedPage property is bound to the pivots selectedindex:
full markup:
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" DataContext="{Binding Nav, Source={StaticResource Locator}}" Background="#E8E8E8">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!--ContentPanel - place additional content here-->
<AppControls:Nav Grid.Row="0"/>
<phone:Pivot SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedPage, Mode=TwoWay}" Grid.Row="1" x:Name="MainGui">
<phone:PivotItem x:Name="FrontPage">
<AppControls:Topnav Grid.Row="1" />
</phone:PivotItem>
<phone:PivotItem x:Name="PlacesPage">
<AppControls:PlacesControl Grid.Row="1"/>
</phone:PivotItem>
<phone:PivotItem x:Name="MapPage">
<AppControls:MapControl Grid.Row="1"/>
</phone:PivotItem>
<phone:PivotItem x:Name="SettingsPage">
<AppControls:Settings Grid.Row="1" />
</phone:PivotItem>
</phone:Pivot>
</Grid>

Related

uwp xbox app XYNavigation in Pivot Control

I am an experienced uwp developer but a beginner for uwp xbox platform. I am trying to set the XY Navigation for my app and trying to test it with keyboard (as I don't own a xbox myself).
I am using a Pivot view and I can easily navigate between the pivot items with right and left arrow keys, which makes sense. but when my settings page is selected with pivot option (settings pivot header is focused and settings pivot item is in view) then I try to shift my focus vertically downwards to the first control in the settings page (radio buttons) but I am not able to do it the focus remains on settings header and doesn't shift downward on the page.
So how can I shift the focus downwards from a pivot header to the 1st control within the page on pressing down, and vice versa i.e : when 1st control is focused I should move up to go back to the header of the pivot of that page, because I think that is the traditional navigation with pivot control on uwp xbox right?
Secondly the docs and the xbox app dev videos I watched recommended to set the focus on an element which makes sense, when the app loads, should that be done with this.Focus() method or is there a more efficient way to do it with xaml?
Code:
Pivot.xaml
<Grid x:Name="MainGrid">
<Pivot x:Uid="PivotPage" x:Name="MainPivot" >
<PivotItem x:Uid="PivotItem_OnNow">
<Frame>
<views:OnNowPage/>
</Frame>
</PivotItem>
<PivotItem x:Uid="PivotItem_Guide">
<Frame>
<views:GuidePage/>
</Frame>
</PivotItem>
<PivotItem x:Uid="PivotItem_Settings">
<Frame>
<views:SettingsPage/>
</Frame>
</PivotItem>
</Pivot>
</Grid>
Settings.xaml
<Grid>
<Grid Margin="{StaticResource MediumLeftRightMargin}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="48"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock
Grid.Row="0"
x:Uid="Settings_Title"
x:Name="TitlePage"
Style="{StaticResource PageTitleStyle}" />
<StackPanel Grid.Row="1">
<TextBlock
x:Uid="Settings_Personalization"
Style="{StaticResource SubtitleTextBlockStyle}" />
<StackPanel Margin="{StaticResource SettingsSubheaderMargin}">
<TextBlock
x:Uid="Settings_Theme"
Style="{StaticResource BodyTextStyle}" />
<StackPanel Margin="{StaticResource EightTopMargin}">
<RadioButton
x:Uid="Settings_Theme_Light"
GroupName="AppTheme"
IsChecked="{x:Bind ViewModel.ElementTheme, Converter={StaticResource EnumToBooleanConverter}, ConverterParameter=Light, Mode=OneWay}"
Command="{x:Bind ViewModel.SwitchThemeCommand}">
<RadioButton.CommandParameter>
<xaml:ElementTheme>Light</xaml:ElementTheme>
</RadioButton.CommandParameter>
</RadioButton>
<RadioButton
x:Uid="Settings_Theme_Dark"
GroupName="AppTheme"
IsChecked="{x:Bind ViewModel.ElementTheme, Converter={StaticResource EnumToBooleanConverter}, ConverterParameter=Dark, Mode=OneWay}"
Command="{x:Bind ViewModel.SwitchThemeCommand}">
<RadioButton.CommandParameter>
<xaml:ElementTheme>Dark</xaml:ElementTheme>
</RadioButton.CommandParameter>
</RadioButton>
<RadioButton
x:Uid="Settings_Theme_Default"
GroupName="AppTheme"
IsChecked="{x:Bind ViewModel.ElementTheme, Converter={StaticResource EnumToBooleanConverter}, ConverterParameter=Default, Mode=OneWay}"
Command="{x:Bind ViewModel.SwitchThemeCommand}">
<RadioButton.CommandParameter>
<xaml:ElementTheme>Default</xaml:ElementTheme>
</RadioButton.CommandParameter>
</RadioButton>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
<TextBlock
x:Uid="Settings_About"
Style="{StaticResource SubtitleTextBlockStyle}"/>
<StackPanel Margin="{StaticResource EightTopMargin}">
<TextBlock
Text="{x:Bind ViewModel.VersionDescription, Mode=OneWay}" />
<TextBlock
x:Uid="Settings_AboutDescription"
Margin="{StaticResource EightTopMargin}" />
<HyperlinkButton
x:Uid="Settings_PrivacyTermsLink"
Margin="{StaticResource EightTopMargin}" />
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Grid>
The MSDN has listed several scenarios that XY navigation might not work the way you expect:
The IsTabStop or Visibility property is set wrong.
The control getting focus is actually bigger than you think—XY navigation looks at the total size of the control (ActualWidth and ActualHeight), not just the portion of the control that renders something interesting.
One focusable control is on top of another—XY navigation doesn't support controls that are overlapped.
If XY navigation is still not working the way you expect after fixing these issues, you can manually point to the element that you want to get focus using the method described in Overriding the default navigation.
Please first check these scenarios, after that, if you still could not solve this issue. Please provide a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example. I will help you diagnose it on my side.

XAML Master / Template pages with MVVM

Is there a way to create master / template pages in XAML (for UWP applications)?
The problem I'm trying to solve:
I have an application with a lot of similar sites, where only the content changes slightly but not the Buttons and the Layout. Example:
<Page
DataContext="{Binding WebpageViewModel, Source={StaticResource Locator}}">
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Text="Edit Webpage" Style="{StaticResource BigTexBlock}" />
<ScrollViewer Style="{StaticResource ContentScrollViewer}" Grid.Row="1" VerticalScrollMode="Enabled">
<StackPanel Margin="10,0">
<webpage:EditWebpage DataContext="{Binding }" />
</StackPanel>
</ScrollViewer>
</Grid>
</Grid>
<Page.BottomAppBar>
<CommandBar>
<CommandBar.PrimaryCommands>
<!-- more buttons -->
<AppBarButton IsCompact="True" Command="{Binding SaveEntryCommand}" Icon="Save" Label="Save" />
</CommandBar.PrimaryCommands>
</CommandBar>
</Page.BottomAppBar>
</Page>
Only three parts of this template will change; the ViewModel in the DataContext, the Text of the TextBlock, and the UserControl which contains the editable fields.
As this is an application with a lot of CRUD happening with simple Entities the amount of code to be repeated over and over again is a lot if I keep "solving" the problem like this. In the separated business logic I could avoid this problem with inheritance, but I'm struggling to find a elegant solution in XAML. 
Is there a way to refactor this so I may have a "Template Page"?
I like how for example twig has solved this problem: http://twig.sensiolabs.org/. You define a master/template page and override parts of it in the children templates.
Important to me is that
I don't break the MVVM pattern.
I don't want to hide/show UserControls in one "Main" XAML as the amount of different entities may become quite large
I want navigation happening between the pages that the user sees the expected animations, and it does not break the separated view code I already have
There isn't a master page or template mechanism that other technologies, like MVC, have. But you can use frames and navigation to do what you're looking for.
You could keep the page defined the way you currently have it. All of the fixed elements on the page are in the layout. Now instead of using a UserControl for your specific edit UI, replace that with a frame.
<StackPanel Margin="10,0">
<Frame Name="EditFrame" DataContext="{Binding }" />
</StackPanel>
Now when you navigate to the Main Edit page, also pass the type for the view you want in the frame. Then on your OnNavigatedTo override for the main page, you can navigate the frame to the view type as the parameter.
You can also use the EditFrame to page through multiple editing pages, like if you had a wizard UI with Next and Previous buttons, without leaving the main page.
You can either do this in your OnNavigatedTo method or modify your NavigationService to be able to handle this behavior.
I have solved this problem with the approach suggested by https://stackoverflow.com/a/43170663
my NavigationService
//get the current frame
var frame = (Frame)Window.Current.Content;
//navigate to the generic AddEntry page
frame.Navigate(typeof(AddEntryPage), new NavigationParameter() { /* set props needed */ });
my xaml (my "master page") looks now like this (using a Frame now):
<Page
x:Class="Famoser.Bookmarked.Presentation.Universal.Pages.Entry.Webpage.AddEntryPage"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DataContext="{Binding WebpageViewModel, Source={StaticResource Locator}}">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock x:Name="Title" Grid.Row="0" Text="Add "/>
<ScrollViewer Grid.Row="1">
<StackPanel Margin="10,0">
<Frame x:Name="EntryFrame" />
</StackPanel>
</ScrollViewer>
</Grid>
<Page.BottomAppBar>
<CommandBar>
<CommandBar.PrimaryCommands>
<!-- more app buttons -->
<AppBarButton IsCompact="True" Command="{Binding SaveEntryCommand}" Icon="Save" Label="Save" />
</CommandBar.PrimaryCommands>
</CommandBar>
</Page.BottomAppBar>
</Page>
and in the code behind in the navigation event I set the properties passed by my NavigationService
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
base.OnNavigatedTo(e);
if (e.Parameter is NavigationParameter pm)
{
DataContext = SimpleIoc.Default.GetInstance(pm.ViewModelType);
Title.Text = "Add " + pm.Name;
EntryFrame.Navigate(pm.EditFrameType);
}
}
the full project in on github: https://github.com/famoser/Bookmarked

UWP - GridView : how to add an "Add" button after the last item?

I use a GridView to display photos and I search an elegant way to allow user to add a new item to a form.
The form contains a lot of fields: it is displayed in a Pivot, where each PivotItem represents a category of the form.
Some categories contain one or more child items: they are displayed through a Master-Detail page.
It's in this page that I need to display a list of photos: as a photo represents a "sub sub item" of the form, I wouldn't manage the add of a new photo through the CommandBar. But I would like to use an "Add" button after the last item of the GridView containing the photos.
At this time I only found a solution that partially work:
Here is the XAML:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="Photos" Grid.Row="0"/>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Grid.Row="1">
<GridView ItemsSource="{Binding images}">
<GridView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border BorderBrush="Gray" BorderThickness="1"
Padding="10"
Height="150" Width="190">
<Image Stretch="UniformToFill"
Source="{Binding bitmap_image}" />
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</GridView.ItemTemplate>
</GridView>
<Border BorderBrush="Gray" BorderThickness="1"
Padding="10"
Height="150" Width="190">
<Button Command="{Binding Path=DataContext.AddPhotoCommand, ElementName=DetailsPage}"
Height="100" Width="100">
<Viewbox>
<SymbolIcon Symbol="Add"/>
</Viewbox>
</Button>
</Border>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
As I use a StackPanel, the Add button is no longer visible if I display 3 photos...
=> Is there a better way to do this? Or do you see a an alternative? I'm looking for doing this through a DataTemplateSelector, but that would require me to create a "false" object for displaying the add button...
As I use a StackPanel, the Add button is no longer visible if I display 3 photos...
If you don't mind the button is in the next line of your last photo, you can use WinRTXamlToolkit's WrapPanel instead of StackPanel to avoid the pictures goes out of the window and put the button inside the GridView's FooterTemplate:
Xaml:
<Page
x:Class="AddButtonSample.MainPage"
xmlns:controls="using:WinRTXamlToolkit.Controls"
...
mc:Ignorable="d">
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="Photos" Grid.Row="0"/>
<controls:WrapPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Grid.Row="1">
<GridView ItemsSource="{Binding images}">
<GridView.FooterTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Button Command="{Binding Path=AddPhotoCommand}" Height="100" Width="100">
<Viewbox>
<SymbolIcon Symbol="Add"/>
</Viewbox>
</Button>
</DataTemplate>
</GridView.FooterTemplate>
<GridView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border BorderBrush="Gray" BorderThickness="1"
Padding="10"
Height="150" Width="190">
<Image Stretch="UniformToFill"
Source="{Binding bitmap_image}" />
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</GridView.ItemTemplate>
</GridView>
</controls:WrapPanel>
</Grid>
Result:
If you really want to put the Button side by side after the last item of GridView. The only Option is DataTemplateSelector.
The best solution might be to use a CommandBar and put the "Add" button in the very bottom of the panel, as that would be most consistent with UWP design guidelines. GridView also has a FooterTemplate, which allows you to add some XAML in the footer of the whole GridView (but not directly after the items).
If you still want to have the add item as part of the GridView contents, you will really need to use the fake item and a DataTemplateSelector. This solution is not very clean, but probably is the only simple way.
I tried to do something similar for my own app too, but there really isn't an obvious way to achieve it. A little background on what my app does: it's a flashcard app that displays decks of card in a gridview on the homepage, with an add button being at the front of the gridview. This is what I did:
for my deck class, I gave it a bool attribute isButton
in the observablecollection of decks, set the first item's isButton to true
make two datatemplates for the gridview (deck and button) and make a data template picker for the gridview, and check the isButton attribute
if isButton is true, the template picker will use the button template
otherwise use deck template

How do I enable Scrollbars on a UWP GridView

I have a UWP where I am loading from an XML file and showing it in a GridView and I am trying to enable Scrollbars in a way that allows me to stack and wrap items in all the available space like in the image below. The problem that I am having is that I cannot figure out how to enable the scrollbars so that I can scroll the boxes until I get to the end of the list.
So far I have got it to do what you see in the picture, which is wrapped the way I want but it fills all the available space and doesn't allow you to scroll vertically or horizontally (I only want to scroll one way but I have tried to see if I could go either way). Through a lot of trial and error I was able to get it to scroll one row or one column at a time to the end of the list but that is not the desired result either. Here is where I am with the XAML right now (trimmed down version of the screen shot).
<GridView x:Name="DataGrid1">
<GridView.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<ItemsWrapGrid Orientation="Horizontal"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled" />
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</GridView.ItemsPanel>
<GridView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border Width="270"
Height="200"
Margin="5"
BorderBrush="Black"
BorderThickness="2">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="70" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="100*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Row="0"
Grid.Column="0"
Grid.ColumnSpan="2"
Background="#87CEFA">
<TextBlock Margin="2"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
FontSize="16"
FontWeight="Bold"
Text="{Binding Company}" />
</StackPanel>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="1"
Grid.Column="0"
Margin="2"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
FontWeight="Bold"
Text="Code: " />
<TextBlock Grid.Row="1"
Grid.Column="1"
Margin="2"
Text="{Binding Code}" />
</Grid>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</GridView.ItemTemplate>
</GridView>
So what do I need to do to enable the scrollbars the way that I want?
Make sure your GridView is in a Grid and not a StackPanel. It does not expand in a StackPanel.
To make it scroll in a StackPanel you have to specify the height of the GridView. This was the issue with mine :)
To my knowledge gridviews that are not showing scrollbars automatically are due to stackpanel's presence. So my solution here is to try remove stackpanel what so ever, and if I find the stackpanel that's responsible replace it with other kind of panel and work my way back up. It's totally a brute force kind of approach but it works most of the time.
And another piece of advice. In that process of replacing the stackpanel try to replace it with grid and try to divide it's rows and columns with widths and heights set to auto or star sizing instead of specifying it with actual numbers to see if it works this way. If it works then work your way up speicifying it with actual numbers.
Here's your problem, in the definition of the ItemsWrapGrid you have:
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled"
this is going to mean that even if the scrollbar is shown it wont work.
Remove this line and you should get a working scrollbar.

Panorama-like XAML layout with state and transitions

In my app I'd like to have a page layout as shown on this picture:
It has two content blocks (depicted as plain and shaded rectangles) and two states. In normal (1st) state plain block takes all the screen and is fully visible while shaded is hidden behind screen. In 2nd state shaded block is fully visible and also a small part of plain block is on screen, the rest of it is hidden.
I'd also like to have a nice transition from one state to another. I understand I'd probably need to use ViewStates for this. What I don't understand it what XAML control should I use to represent content blocks. So this is the question: what XAML controls would allow me to express this layout as elegantly and concisely as possible?
How about a grid with 2 rows. A pivot control with your 2 states in each pivot item in first row and your fixed content in second row.
<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0" Background="Red">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<phone:Pivot Margin="0,-24,0,0">
<phone:PivotItem Background="Blue">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="Transition content 1" />
</StackPanel>
</phone:PivotItem>
<phone:PivotItem Background="Brown">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="Transition content 2" />
</StackPanel>
</phone:PivotItem>
</phone:Pivot>
<StackPanel Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
<TextBlock Text="Fixed content" />
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
Swiping on the top box will animate as the standard pivot animation.
If you don't want the user to be able to flick and rather control the two states programmatically then you can simply add IsHitTestVisible="False" on the root pivot control then set the SelectedIndex on the pivot to switch between states.