WP8 PhoneAccentBrush doesn't affect TextBox focus border - windows-phone

I'm trying to make my WP7 app work well on WP8 (by compiling it as a WP8 app).
In my app, I'm changing the PhoneAccentBrush's Color which seems to work fine still, however TextBox's in WP8 now seem to show a border around it when the textbox is in focus (this wasn't happening for me on WP7). This border seems to always use the System's accent color instead of using the changed color like every other control.
Any idea what's going on here and how to change it? The red accent (if that's what the user has chosen) really clashes with my app's colors!

I would call overriding the accent color a hack. I would avoid setting the accent color and create a template for your textBlock.
Blend makes this very easy by allowing you to copy the default template and make changes to it.
Right Click the textBox in the Objects and Timeline pane, then select Edit Template -> Edit Current. Then select the States tab and select the Focused FocusState, then edit the border brush. Save and reuse the template as needed.
I did notice the textBox control template has changed in 8 and now defines the focus state border brush, although it does default to the PhoneAccentBrush.

Related

How to set the width of the scrollbar inside a ScrollViewer in UWP?

I have a ComboBox with thousands of items bound to it.
The problem I'm facing is when I run the app on a tablet the scrollviewer's scrollbar is very thin hence I cannot hold and drag it and can only swipe to move inside the ComboBox.
Hence I was wondering is there a way to change the style template of the ScrollViewer inside the ComboBox inorder to make the ScrollBar width larger.
You'll have to dig in to the style template and change some hard set properties for Width / Height that sit on the parts like the Thumb that you will find on the default style template. You can extract a copy via selecting a Scrollbar -> Right Click -> Edit Style -> Edit a copy. Save the copy wherever you need it, like a resource dictionary if you plan to use it multiple places or to the instance where you need it.
(Note: Generally folks start at the ScrollViewer level, then find a Scrollbar in it, and apply the style changes there so they can apply the style directly to ScrollViewers)
Once you have your changes made to the control template you then need to pass them to your ComboBox. If you only need it for the one ComboBox, You can just put the style template in it's Resources and remove the x:Key name you gave it so it hits the instance of the TargetType via inheritance for just that ComboBox.
However if you want it to hit EVERY ComboBox, then you'll need to edit the ComboBox style template and add a reference to the Style template you just made to it's embedded ScrollViewer.
You'll find long tutorials out there for stuff like WPF/Silverlight that pretty much the same concept but little nuance differences in the templates and syntax of properties.
Hope this helps, give it a shot and if you get stuck come on back and we'll get you sorted.

Giving a custom color to a Toggle Switch when it is on mode in xaml?

I want to give a different color to my Toggle Switch when it is On mode.I was going through the Standard Style but couldn't find anything which i am looking for.
First, I'd check the default template again. You can bingoogle it to get this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/jj709931.aspx
You might then want to change the "On" visual state Storyboard to update the Background of the "InnerBorder" element or add another background element and use a DoubleAnimation in the Storyboard to control its Opacity.
The easiest way to modify the template might be to use Blend. Similar to what I have done in my answer to this question:
Listview selection display with no padding and no checkmark

Custom button in Windows 8.1 app

I have a requirement to create a button in a Windows 8.1 app which has an icon and a text label. The icon will be a symbol from Segoe UI Symbols and the text label will be Segoe UI Semibold at a smaller text size.
I want to be able to reuse the button in different places within the app, using different icons and text labels.
How show I go about this? I could create a button and then edit the ContentPresenter to have a horizontally oriented stack panel with two TextBlocks, but then how could I reuse this? And how could I change the text in the two different text blocks?
Should I create a separate custom control with separate dependency properties for each of the textblock strings? I'm interested in hearing what you would do.
thanks
Create a simple Style. To make it easy, I would base it off the standardized AppBarButton style. You can format it to whatever size you want (I have done something similar to make a larger button or one with text on the side).
Have the main icon simply be a ContentPresenter which binds to the Content using a TemplateBinding. Make sure to set the FontFamily to Segoe UI Symbol. Have the text label pull from AutomationProperties.Name, similar to how the AppBarButton style does.
Then, whenever you want to use this just do:
<Button Style="{StaticResource MyCustomButtonStyle}"
Content="" // Where "000" is replaced by the number of the icon you wish to use.
AutomationProperties.Name="Text Label"/>
This should be extensible and easily reproducible to whatever location you need. When copying over the AppBarButton style, I suggest removing the artificial size limits (specifically the width of the main content Grid). I do suggest either giving the Text Label a fixed size or having it pull its size from the specified parent Width, so that it will Wrap correctly.
Hope this helps and happy coding!
Are you desiring to create something like for an AppBar? Take a look at AppBarButton and the style/types it supports. In Windows 8.1 we added some things around SymbolIcon specifically. Since you basically want two pieces of 'content' for your style you'll have to re-purpose one property (unless you create a custom control which doesn't sound needed for this scenario). Using AutiomationProperties.Name for the visible label is a good idea because it will also help with accessibility by default for those users.
Investigate the style for AppBarButton to get you started.

XAML Theme Brushes - Switching Dynamically, cursor doesn't change

First Off, I found this extremely useful page on theme brushes:
http://metro.excastle.com/xaml-system-brushes
So Roughly, on startup for WinRT/XAML I am setting my theme brush for a textbox in a stylesheet:
Foreground = TextBoxDisabledForegroundThemeBrush
Background = TextBoxDisabledBackgroundThemeBrush
Which at run time makes the textbox appear as: white border, transparent background and grey text. Which I was hoping it would make it transparent, white border and white text.
On my Tapped event, I change the textbox to:
Foreground = TextBoxButtonPressedForegroundThemeBrush
Background = TextBoxButtonPressedForegroundThemeBrush
Which is supposed to be black background, white text and white border. Which seems right, but the cursor is back and you cannot see it.
First question is, am I doing this right to change my text color? I want to change the textbox so once it is selected it stays a changed color. I think this is correct. But I am not sure if I should be setting Foreground or maybe a Font Style instead?
Unfortunately you can't change caret color so if you want your TextBox editable - you should keep the background white or otherwise light. Otherwise, controlling the look of your control in its various states is best done using VisualStateManager and that is easiest to manipulate using Blend.

Background color of a Gtk.TextView - can't see selection

I successfully changed the background color of a Gtk.TextView (GTK3) with method override_background_color:
color.parse(self.settings.get_string("bgcolor"))
self.ui.NoteView.override_background_color(Gtk.StateType.NORMAL,color)
I also override the foreground color.
Unfortunatelly in that case making a selection in the text is invisible.
How can I modify the background and foreground color of a TextView without loosing the visible text selecting?
It's best to format the text in a GtkTextView by using GtkTextTags. You can apply any sort of text formatting(background & foreground colors, font, size, weight, etc..) to any portion of the text.
Click here for an example.
Hope that helps!
By the way, what you're doing is changing the style of your TextView. In Gtk it's best to stay away from doing this, especially if you aren't in a controlled environment or plan on releasing your software for others to use, because gtk's philosophy is to leave the styling and theming up to the end user for their own personal touches/needs.
This is why you are getting some unwanted results by overriding style colors.
In terms of a GtkTextView it does however offer simple formatting of the text(even support for adding images/widgets) via use of GtkTextTags as the link shows above.