Silverlight Toolkit ContextMenu: Which control was right-clicked? - silverlight-4.0

The Silverlight Toolkit has a lovely ContextMenu, which can be shared among multiple instances of controls such as Textbox. Sharing can result from the ContextMenu being declared in a container which also hosts other controls.
<StackPanel>
<TextBox x:Name="box1" Text="{Binding str1}" />
<TextBox x:Name="box2" Text="{Binding str2}" />
<toolkit:ContextMenuService.ContextMenu>
<toolkit:ContextMenu Name="cm">
<toolkit:MenuItem Name="cmiCut" Header="Cut" />
<toolkit:MenuItem Name="cmiCopy" Header="Copy" />
<toolkit:Separator/>
<toolkit:MenuItem Name="cmiPaste" Header="Paste" />
</toolkit:ContextMenu>
</toolkit:ContextMenuService.ContextMenu>
</StackPanel>
Sharing can also be achieved with a call to ContextMenuService.SetContextMenu.
When the ContextMenu is shared, it's very helpful for the eventhandler to know which control was right-clicked to open the ContextMenu (e.g. context). Could anyone offer an efficient way to do this?
For comparison, this need is addressed in other platforms as follows:
WPF's ContextMenu has ContextMenu.PlacementTarget
WinForms' ContextMenuStrip has ToolStripItem.Owner.SourceControl
Thanks,
Bill

I'd like to thank Erik Noren for blogging on this topic. I defined my ContextMenu in a Rectangle with Visibility=Collapsed on my MainPage.xaml so that it doesn't handle the mouse right click event. When the right mouse button is clicked anywhere on the page, I use
VisualTreeHelper.FindElementsInHostCoordinates
to identify a Textbox at the click position and then open the ContextMenu. Erik's technique for finding a control with SelectedText dependency property is brilliant.

Related

How to change the tab index in avalonia ui

In Avalonia Ui,
I have multiple layouts in my ui and I want a very specific tab order,
something like
<TextBox Tabindex="2">
<StackPanel>
<TextBox Tabindex="1">
</StackPanel>
<TextBox Tabindex="0">
that would result in using the tab-key cycling from bottom to top.
Is this possible? I found nothing.
I don't think so. KeyboardNavigation.TabIndex is not implmented yet: https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/issues/3025.
You have some limited Control using the functions provided in KeyboardNavigation and by using another control, for example a DockPanel or a Relative Panel.
Here is a very basic example for how you can use a DockPanel to do what you wish to:
<DockPanel LastChildFill="False"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
Name="TabOrderConatiner">
<TextBox Name="First" Tag="2" DockPanel.Dock="Top"></TextBox>
<TextBox Name="Third" Tag="0" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom"></TextBox>
<TextBox Name="Second" Tag="1" DockPanel.Dock="Top"></TextBox>
</DockPanel>
However it is like I said above limited compared to what TabIndex can provide.
Apart from that you should also be able to set the first TabItem when the container becomes active like that from your code-behind:
var tabOrderContainer = this.FindControl<DockPanel>("TabOrderConatiner");
var initialElement = this.FindControl<TextBox>("Third");
KeyboardNavigation.SetTabOnceActiveElement(tabOrderContainer, initialElement);
but I did not manage to get this to work...

Using x:Bind inside the GridView's ItemTemplate layout User Control in UWP

In the Universal Windows Platform API, how do I use x:Bind inside of a User Control (intended to be the layout for a GridView's ItemTemplate) to bind to instance properties of a GridView's ItemSource?
Background
I'm trying to re-create the layout found in Windows 10 stock apps like Sports, News, Money, etc.
I'm using a two GridViews for the main area of the app; one for "featured articles" (2 large photos w/ headlines) and one for all the other articles (smaller photos w/ headlines).
I'm able to bind to a data source that I supply in the code behind (a List where NewsItem is a POCO with a Image and Headline property) Here's the pertinent parts of the MainPage.xaml:
<Page ...
xmlns:data="using:NewsApp.Models" />
....
<GridView Name="FeaturedItems" Grid.Row="0">
<GridView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate x:DataType="data:NewsItem">
<Grid Name="mainPanel" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Width="500" >
<Image Source="{x:Bind Image}" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" />
<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind Headline}" />
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</GridView.ItemTemplate>
</GridView>
....
The Image and Headline bind just fine (even though they've not been styled correctly). However, instead I think I need to bind to a User Control to get the styling options I want, control over resizing esp. when using Visual State Triggers and to simplify the XAML in general (at least, this was the technique suggested to me.)
So, I added a new User Control to the project (FeaturedItemControl.xaml), and copied in the DataTemplate's child Grid:
<UserControl ... >
<Grid Name="mainPanel" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Width="500" >
<Image Source="{x:Bind Image}" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" />
<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind Headline}" />
</Grid>
</UserControl>
And then back in the MainPage.xaml, I change the DataTemplate to reference the new FeaturedItemControl:
<GridView Name="FeaturedItems" Grid.Row="0">
<GridView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate x:DataType="data:NewsItem">
<local:FeaturedItemControl HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
</DataTemplate>
</GridView.ItemTemplate>
</GridView>
However, I get the error message for both Image and Headline properties: Invalid binding path 'Headline': Property 'Headline' can't be found on type 'FeaturedItemControl'.
I've tried a few things but am flailing just throwing code at the problem without understanding what I'm doing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Using Depechie's answer, I formulated this little cheat cheat for posterity:
Do note that you MUST use this technique to utilize the VisualStateManager with items inside your data bound controls' (GridView, ListView) data templates.
1) Create a User Control.
2) Cut the content of the DataTemplate in your page and paste it into the User Control replacing the template's Grid.
3) Reference the User Control from inside the Data Template:
4) Modify the contents of the User Control changing x:Bind statements to utilize object.property notation:
<UserControl>
<StackPanel>
<Image Source="{x:Bind NewsItem.LeadPhoto}" />
<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind NewsItem.Headline}" />
<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind NewsItem.Subhead}" />
</StackPanel>
</UserControl>
5) Add this in the User Control's Code Behind:
public Models.NewsItem NewsItem { get { return this.DataContext as Models.NewsItem; } }
public ContactTemplate()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
this.DataContextChanged += (s, e) => Bindings.Update();
}
Well it's possible to use x:Bind in user controls, but you'll need to add some extra code behind.
I encountered the same problem in my project, you can see the result here : https://github.com/AppCreativity/Kliva/tree/master/src/Kliva/Controls
So what you need to do is, create a property in the code behind of your user control that points to the correct DataContext.
If you do that, you can use properties of that DataContext in the xaml of your control: for example:
Do note that in the constructor of your control you do need to add: DataContextChanged += (sender, args) => this.Bindings.Update(); because the datacontext will change depending on the page where your control is used!
Then on the page where you are placing this control, you'll also need to do the same to enable the x:bind to work.
You'll see this in my example on the MainPage.DeviceFamily-Mobile.xaml and MainPage.xaml.cs files.
Hope this helps.
x:Bind isn't really hierarchical like Binding/DataContext is. Additionally when you're not directly inside a DataTemplate (such as inside your user control) the object that x:Bind tries to use is 'this' rather than 'this.DataContext'. My current line of thinking on how to solve this sort of issue is to try not to use UserControls anywhere. Instead preferring DataTemplates contained within a ResourceDictionary. There are some pretty strong caveats to this approach though, you will for example crash the xaml compiler if you use x:Bind inside a data template that was created from the ResourceDictionary item template (add new item). you can find a pretty complete example here https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-universal-samples/tree/master/Samples/XamlBind its important to note in the sample where they show the ResourceDictionary being used that its not actually just a ResourceDictionary.xaml its also a ResourceDictionary.xaml.cs (this is where the generated code from x:Bind ends up)
Another option is to add Headline and Image as properties on your user control and x:Bind them from the template, then inside the user control x:Bind as you are currently doing, but now the x:Bind generated path 'this.Headline' will exist. Unfortunately the order things are actually bound means that the x:Bind's you have inside your user control will have to be OneWay rather than the default OneTime. this is because x:Bind OneTime does the bind inside the InitializeComponent call, and any set of properties/DataContext stuff doesn't get done until after that has already run.
So to sum this up, you have two options, use data templates everywhere, or bind to properties that are directly on the user control.

UAP xaml triggers/data-triggers

I am trying to design a simple tabbed app using universal windows platform (UWP) using Pivot control.
I have customized header that includes other controls than just a textblock. I am targeting to change color of those controls/graphics on selection of particular PivotItem using triggers in xaml. Default color updates on selection & hover only apply on textblock but not on other controls.
I can try binding color of other controls with forecolor of textblock because I cannot find template binding not control template in UWP xaml. binding with textblock will still give less space for customization as I am targeting AccentColor for header controls/graphics which are defined by MSFT in UAP sdk and we can access them as static resource from generic.xaml. e.g. SystemControlBackgroundAccentBrush. I looked in to xaml triggers as MSFT new xaml architecture allows us to define VisualStateGroups and work using AdaptiveTriggers & StateTrigger. I can't find any other type of triggers like datatriggers, eventtriggers nothing...
<PivotItem>
<PivotItem.Header>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Path Stretch="Uniform"
Fill="{StaticResource PivotForegroundThemeBrush}"
Width="32pt"
Height="32pt"
Data="M0,33.893959L4.4794149,33.893959 4.4794149,44.677959 48.903614,44.677959 48.903614,33.893959 53.333035,33.893959 53.333035,49.104958 0,49.104958z M24.842734,0L28.513577,0 28.513577,24.615005 35.345016,17.78297 40.346104,17.78297 40.436089,17.883007 26.673088,31.644001 24.072548,29.047991 12.910089,17.883007 13.010208,17.78297 18.001283,17.78297 24.842734,24.615005z"/>
<TextBlock Text="Downloads"
VerticalAlignment="Center" Margin="5"
FontSize="{StaticResource PivotHeaderItemFontSize}"/>
</StackPanel>
</PivotItem.Header>
<Grid></Grid>
</PivotItem>

Show DevExpress DXTabControl tabs at the bottom in XAML

Does anyone know how to use the DevExpress DXTabControl in XAML and set it up so that the tabs appear at the bottom? Here is what I have so far but the tabs show up at the top. The DevExpress documentation does not have an example of this. Intellisense does not give me anything intuitive.
<dx:DXTabControl>
<dx:DXTabItem Header="Main">
<dxdo:DockLayoutManager>
<dxdo:LayoutGroup>
<dxdo:LayoutPanel Caption="TaskList">
<views:DxTaskList x:Name="Tasklst" />
</dxdo:LayoutPanel>
<dxdo:LayoutPanel Caption="TaskDetails">
<ScrollViewer VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" Focusable="False">
<StackPanel>
<views:TaskDetails x:Name="TaskDtls"/>
</StackPanel>
</ScrollViewer>
</dxdo:LayoutPanel>
</dxdo:LayoutGroup>
</dxdo:DockLayoutManager>
</dx:DXTabItem>
</dx:DXTabControl>
For anyone who might be stumped at something not-so-obvious, here is the XAML solution I was looking for. Yes, the property was obviously called HeaderLocation but DevExpress' documentation does not give any XAML examples on this. So here is what I came up with that solved my case:
<dx:DXTabControl>
<dx:DXTabControl.View>
<dx:TabControlMultiLineView HeaderLocation="Bottom"/>
</dx:DXTabControl.View>
<dx:DXTabItem Header="Main">
<dxdo:DockLayoutManager>
<dxdo:LayoutGroup>
<dxdo:LayoutPanel Caption="TaskList">
<views:DxTaskList x:Name="Tasklst" />
</dxdo:LayoutPanel>
<dxdo:LayoutPanel Caption="TaskDetails">
<ScrollViewer VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" Focusable="False">
<StackPanel>
<views:TaskDetails x:Name="TaskDtls"/>
</StackPanel>
</ScrollViewer>
</dxdo:LayoutPanel>
</dxdo:LayoutGroup>
</dxdo:DockLayoutManager>
</dx:DXTabItem>
</dx:DXTabControl>
As you can see you're supposed to add the View property and then assign it a value, which I used a TabControlMultiLineView, and that object had a HeaderLocation property to which I set it to one of the valid enums. When I did this, the tabs appeared at the bottom.

Binding events to buttons in an ItemsControl

I have a windows phone 7 app with some xaml that looks like:
<Grid x:Name="ContentGrid" Grid.Row="1">
<ItemsControl x:Name="MyView" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MyInner}"/>
</Grid>
The item template here looks like:
<DataTemplate x:Key="MyInner">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MyInner_Item}">
<ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"/>
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
</ItemsControl>
</DataTemplate>
And finally, the MyInner_Item template looks like:
<DataTemplate x:Key="MyInner_Item">
<Button x:Name="MyButton">
<Button.Template>
<ControlTemplate>
<Border HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" x:Name="myborder">
<Image Source="{Binding Path=ImageUri}" Width="{Binding Path=Width}" Height="{Binding Path=Height}" Stretch="Fill" />
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Button.Template>
</Button>
</DataTemplate>
So, it's an ItemsControl, which contains an ItemsControl, which contains buttons. This essentially creates a 2D array of buttons.
What I want to do is add an event handler to the Click event of the buttons.
Here's the catch: the code that sits behind this is written in F#. I can't, to the best of my knowledge, specify my event handler in the XAML, as F# doesn't talk to WPF in any nice way. So I need to add my event handler(s) manually in code.
Is there an easy way of doing this?
Currently, I have some F# which looks like:
let myView : ItemsControl = this?MyView
do myView.ItemsSource <- viewModel.BoardData
Here, the BoardData is a list of lists.
I was wondering if it's possible to loop through the controls in the ItemsControl, to add my event handlers? I'm having a bit of trouble doing this though. For example, in the following:
let container = myView.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(myView.Items.[0])
...sets container to null. In fact, all the methods I've tried from myView.ItemContainerGenerator returns null.
So, how should I go about attaching my event handler, so that I can respond to the buttons being clicked?
I have not done any Windows 7 Phone development, but I have done plenty of XAML + Silverlight development with C# and now I'm getting into doing some F# development. The approach I would take is by not using event handler's at all. Since you are using a button, make a class that derives from ICommand and add that type as a public property on your ViewModel so you could bind it to the Command property of the button. The benefits of using the ICommand interface over event handlers is that you could also have a condition on when the button is enabled to do the action.
Also, take notice that when you are doing binding expressions within (i.e. ItemTemplate) items in an ItemsControl control, the scope of what properties you can bind to are reduced to the properties of the current item. So all of the properties of the ViewModel are out of scope, unless you specify it fully i.e. <Button Command={Binding Source=ViewModel, Path=Property1.Property2.etc} />. Let me know if this helped.