Add a key to ListPickerItem - xaml

XAML:
<toolkit:ListPicker x:Name="profession" SelectionChanged="ListPicker_SelectionChanged">
<toolkit:ListPickerItem Content="Value1" />
</toolkit:ListPicker>
How can I add a key to the ListPickerItem to be used in the C# code?
What I want is similar to HTML's value attribute for the option control.
Example of what I want: (C# code, OFC not working..)
int a = profession.SelectedItem.Key;

You can use the Tag property.
<toolkit:ListPickerItem Content="Value1" Tag="1"/>
var a = ((ListPickerItem)profession.SelectedItem).Tag;

If you are trying to do this when your app first loads, then in your MainPage.xaml.cs file, include this in your constructor:
public MainPage(){
InitializeComponent();
profession.Items.Add("Value2"); // Add this line here
}
Otherwise, put this line wherever you need it.

Related

LoadFromXaml parse exception inflating MenuBarItem

When I try to use the method to inflate my XAML:
MenuBarItem item = new().LoadFromXaml("<MenuBarItem Text=\"Session\"><MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"New\"/><MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"Save\"/><MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"Load\"/></MenuBarItem>");
the MenuBarItem is created and Text properly assigned but all the MenuFlyoutItems are ommited and not added to the menu.
After reading Load XAML at runtime documentation and particularly the "The LoadFromXaml method can be used to inflate any XAML" and the examples given, I assumed that I can throw any valid XAML into it - from a single button, to a DataTemplate of a ListView, a MenuBarItem for a menu, to a whole ContentPage and it should work. But it's not working in this case - I get Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Xaml.XamlParseException and System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException.
Is this behavior a bug or is documentation missing some details about loading XAMLs?
When I enclose the MenuBarItem in a ContentPage's MenuBarItems like this:
new ContentPage().LoadFromXaml("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>\r\n<ContentPage\r\n\txmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui\"\r\n\txmlns:x=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml\"\r\n\tx:Class=\"LoadRuntimeXAML.CatalogItemsPage\"\r\n\tTitle=\"Catalog Items\">\r\n\t<ContentPage.MenuBarItems>\r\n\t\t<MenuBarItem Text=\"Session\">\r\n\t\t\t<MenuFlyoutItem\r\n\t\t\t\tText=\"New\"/>\r\n\t\t\t<MenuFlyoutItem\r\n\t\t\t\tText=\"Save\"/>\r\n\t\t\t<MenuFlyoutItem\r\n\t\t\t\tText=\"Load\"/>\r\n\t\t</MenuBarItem>\r\n\t</ContentPage.MenuBarItems>\r\n</ContentPage>");
it inflates without error and then when I assign elements from the inflated ContentPage to the MainPage's MenuBarItems they display well. But this is an ugly workaround because I don't need a whole ContentPage, just the MenuBarItem.
Your XAML is not complete, thus cannot be parsed.
What the ContentPage has, that your XAML lacks, is the various xmlns lines, that specify the XML elements used in the XAML.
I have not tested, but try replacing <MenuBarItem with
<MenuBarItem\r\n\txmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui\"\r\n\txmlns:x=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml\"\r\n
Adapt as needed. Any whitespace can be used anywhere \r\n is shown.
If it doesn't work, also prefix with:
<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>\r\n
But I believe that is optional.
As an aside, anything that can be done in XAML, can instead be done in C#. C# markup.
C#, being a complete computational language, can often create dynamic UI more easily than XAML, if you are building a UI that depends on different conditions.
A convenient approach in C#, is to define "helper" methods, that take whatever parameters you want, and creates a specific element. That you add to a given parent element, either via C# markup, or methods of a parent layout class.
Its easy to write helper methods that call other helper methods, to build up a whole layout to your specs, controlled at each step by the parameters that matter to you.
At the top level, you might end up with code like this:
// use custom helper methods and methods of "Grid" class.
Grid grid = MyCreateGrid();
grid.Children.Add(MyCreateRowLabel(text), 1, 0);
grid.Children.Add(
// OR use C# markup
new StackLayout
{
Children =
{
new Label().Text("Code:"),
...
}
},
1, 1
);
...
From the official document, it's only using LoadFromXaml for single view or a complete contentPage. I also tried LoadFromXaml for <MenuBarItem Text=\"Session\"><MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"New\"/><MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"Save\"/><MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"Load\"/></MenuBarItem>, and just you said that:
the MenuBarItem is created and Text properly assigned but all the MenuFlyoutItems are ommited and not added to the menu.
But you can achieve it by doing this:
MainPage.xaml:
<ContentPage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MauiApp_loadXaml.MainPage"
x:Name="contentPage">
<Button Text="click" Clicked="Button_Clicked" HeightRequest="50"/>
</ContentPage>
MainPage.xaml.cs:
private void Button_Clicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var xaml = "<MenuBarItem Text=\"Session\"></MenuBarItem>";
var xaml1 = "<MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"New\"/>";
var xaml2 = "<MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"Save\"/>";
var xaml3 = "<MenuFlyoutItem Text=\"Load\"/>";
MenuFlyoutItem menuFlyoutItem_1 = new MenuFlyoutItem().LoadFromXaml(xaml1);
MenuFlyoutItem menuFlyoutItem_2 = new MenuFlyoutItem().LoadFromXaml(xaml2);
MenuFlyoutItem menuFlyoutItem_3 = new MenuFlyoutItem().LoadFromXaml(xaml3);
MenuBarItem item = new MenuBarItem();
item.LoadFromXaml(xaml);
item.Add(menuFlyoutItem_1);
item.Add(menuFlyoutItem_2);
item.Add(menuFlyoutItem_3);
contentPage.MenuBarItems.Add(item);
}
It works well.

Localize strings in XAML UI in UWP

I have a resource entry named info_278 in the Resources.resw file on my UWP app. I have 3 scenarios where I need to use this resource but looks like I need to duplicate this to cater to different scenarios. Scenarios are as follows.
Error message content from code
var displayErrorOnPopup = ResourceHandler.Get("info_278");
TextBlock Text property from XAML (Looks like a new entry needed as info_278.Text)
<TextBlock x:Uid="info_278" Margin="10,0,0,0" />
Button Content property from XAML (Looks like a new entry needed as info_278.Content)
<Button x:Uid="info_278" Margin="10,0,0,0" />
How do I proceed without duplicating this resource in the .resw file?
The only way to avoid duplication is to set the string value in code-behind using ResourceLoader. Because you could direct access to the specific property of the target control. Like this:
var resourceLoader = Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources.ResourceLoader.GetForCurrentView();
this.TextBlock.Text = resourceLoader.GetString("info_278");
If you are not going to do it in the code behind, then I have to say there is no way to avoid the duplication of the resource string. You should add info_278.Text and info_278.Content for different XAML scenarios.
You could create a markup extension. I've used this in WinUI 3, but should work in UWP too.
using Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Markup;
using Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources;
namespace MyApp;
[MarkupExtensionReturnType(ReturnType = typeof(string))]
public class StringResourceExtension : MarkupExtension
{
private static readonly ResourceLoader _resourceLoader = new();
public StringResourceExtension() { }
public string Key { get; set; } = "";
protected override object ProvideValue()
{
return _resourceLoader.GetString(Key);
}
}
Then in the XAML:
...
local="using:MyApp"
...
<TextBlock Text="{local:StringResource Key=info_278}" />
<Button Content="{local:StringResource Key=info_278}" />
The Content of Button can be a TextBlock:
<Button>
<TextBlock x:Uid="MyTextId" Style="{StaticResource MyTextBlockStyle}" />
</Button>

Numbering a ListView

I have a ListView whose Data Context is an ObservableCollection. I then used XAML to format the items and bind to their properties in the ListView in ListView.ItemTemplate.DataTemplate . Now, I want to add a TextBlock here to display the position of the item in the ListView through Binding in XAML. How to do that?
If I got your question right, you just need to add a TextBlock in each item DataTemplate with the index number inside the ListView, right?
If so, you can easily do that by doing something like this:
<DataTemplate x:Key="ItemTemplate">
<Grid>
<!--All your various UI elements here...-->
<!--Add a TextBlock with the formatting you want-->
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Position}"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
And in C#, add something like this after you've created your Source ObservableCollection, before assigning it to the Property inside your ViewModel:
for (int i = 0; i < myCollection.Count; i++)
{
myCollection[i].Position = Convert.ToString(i);
}
//And then, the usual
Source = myCollection
NB: I'm assuming you have a Property called Source in your ViewModel with INotifyPropertyChanged implemented. You will also have to modify the class you use inside your ObservableCollection and add the Position property of course :)

How do I access the title of my WP7 app for labelling a pivot control?

At the start of the pivot control on my main page, there is a space to enter the title of my application:
<controls:Pivot Title="MY APPLICATION">
What can I put in here so that it uses the value from the WMAppManifest file? (as shown below)
<App xmlns="" ProductID="{xxx-xx-xx-xx-xxxx}" Title="The Title" RuntimeType="Silverlight" ... >
You can use the PhoneHelper class from the coding4fun toolkit. This article describes how to use it.
In XAML:
<controls:Pivot Title="{Binding AppTitle}">
In your page class:
public string AppTitle
{
get { return PhoneHelper.GetAppAttribute("Title"); }
}
Note: I haven't actually tested the code above but it should work as is, or with minor modifications.
You can always parse the WMAppManifest.xml file to get the Title. Description of this method is available here.

How to have an enum value in CommandParam in XAML

I have the following enum that represent a state of UI (I use it to enable and disable UI elements):
enum Mode
{
EDIT, RUN, REVIEW
}
I would like to pass Mode.EDIT to command in CommandParam:
<Button Grid.Column="6" VerticalAlignment="Top Command="{Binding Path=ChangeMode}"
CommandParameter="{StaticResource local:Mode.RUN}" />
But I have no idea how to declare it. As you see in the button declaration, I try to use StaticResource but it fails. I am quite new to SL4 and C# so I suppose that I missed something.
I have found a solution. I have created in my MyViewModel (my DataContext) 3 public attributes (of type Mode) and initialize them in the constructor (with values EDIT, RUN, REVIEW). Next, I have bound them in XAML as a normal property of a DataContext:
CommandParameter="{Binding Path=EDIT}
class MyViewModel
{
public Mode EDIT {set; get;}
public Mode RUN {set; get;}
public Mode REVIEW {set; get;}
MyViewModel()
{
EDIT = Mode.EDIT;
...
}
}
In WPF we can do something like this (might not work in SL) -
<Button Grid.Column="6" Command="{Binding Path=ChangeMode}"
CommandParameter="{x:Static local:Mode.RUN}" />
check this question for more details -
Passing an enum value as command parameter from XAML
in silverlight x:Static doesn't work so we can do sth like this:
<Button Command="{Binding Path=ChangeMode}">
<Button.CommandParameter>
<Mode>RUN</Mode>
</Button.CommandParameter>
</Button>