tewari | Professional Software Development by Ash Tewari

ChildWindow Positioning

By tewari | Published: June 7, 2011

Silverlight ChildWindow is centered over the parent control. I have extended ChildWindow to open it at a specific position.

Positioned ChildWindow

Here is a live demo : childwindow-positioning-demo

And here is the code :

public partial class ChildWindowEx : ChildWindow
{
	
    Point _pt = new Point(0,0);
	
    public ChildWindowEx()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
	
    public ChildWindowEx(Point pt) : this()
    {
        _pt = pt;
    }
	
    protected override Size ArrangeOverride(Size finalSize)
    {
        Grid grid = Utils.FindChild(this, \"ContentRoot\");
	
        if (grid != null)
        {
            grid.Arrange(new Rect(_pt.X, _pt.Y, grid.DesiredSize.Width, grid.DesiredSize.Height));
            return finalSize;
        }
	
        return base.ArrangeOverride(finalSize);
    }
}

Visual Studio 2010 Solution : download

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Remove ListBoxItem Highlighting

By tewari | Published: April 29, 2011

A Silverlight/Wpf ListBoxItem is highlighted when selected or when the mouse hovers over it.

I need to display a list of items that are not highlighted when selected. This is a common scenario when displaying an inactive list for simply listing out some information.

ListBoxItem’s default template can be easily inspected and modified using Expression Blend – Select a ListBoxItem in Objects and Timeline pane, Right click and select Edit template > Edit a Copy. Name you template and save it at the scope of your choice.

This will create a copy of the template and allow you to modify it. Switch to the xaml view. Locate the VisualStates of MouseOver, Selected and Focused, and blank them out -

de-highlighted-xaml

The style is applied to the ListBoxItems using ItemContainerStyle -

applying-style-to-listboxitems

Here is the xaml style for the ListBoxItem -
<Style x:Key="ListBoxtemStyleNoHighlighting" TargetType="ListBoxItem"> <Setter Property="Padding" Value="3"/> <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Left"/> <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Top"/> <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent"/> <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1"/> <Setter Property="TabNavigation" Value="Local"/> <Setter Property="Template"> <Setter.Value> <ControlTemplate TargetType="ListBoxItem"> <Grid Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"> <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates"> <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/> <VisualState x:Name="MouseOver"/> </VisualStateGroup> <VisualStateGroup x:Name="SelectionStates"> <VisualState x:Name="Unselected"/> <VisualState x:Name="Selected"/> </VisualStateGroup> <VisualStateGroup x:Name="FocusStates"> <VisualState x:Name="Focused"/> <VisualState x:Name="Unfocused"/> </VisualStateGroup> </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> <Rectangle x:Name="fillColor" Fill="#FFBADDE9" IsHitTestVisible="False" Opacity="0" RadiusY="1" RadiusX="1"/> <Rectangle x:Name="fillColor2" Fill="#FFBADDE9" IsHitTestVisible="False" Opacity="0" RadiusY="1" RadiusX="1"/> <ContentPresenter x:Name="contentPresenter" ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}" Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}"/> <Rectangle x:Name="FocusVisualElement" RadiusY="1" RadiusX="1" Stroke="#FF6DBDD1" StrokeThickness="1" Visibility="Collapsed"/> </Grid> </ControlTemplate> </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style>

After the style is applied, the ListBoxItems are not highlighted when selected or focused. Here is a live demo of a ListBox that does not highlight when items are selected : remove-listboxitem-hlighting-demo

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Posted in Silverlight, WPF, xaml | Tagged ControlTemplate, ListBox, ListboxItem, Silverlight, WPF, xaml | Leave a comment

Sideload Windows Phone

By tewari | Published: November 25, 2010

1. Create your AppHub account here - http://create.msdn.com. Registration walk through is here.

2. Unlock your phone – using PhoneReg.exe (usually) located here – “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Tools\Phone Registration\PhoneReg.exe”

wp-Start-WPDevTools

wp-dev-phone-registration

3. Sideload xap into your phone. Use XapDeploy.exe (usually) located here – “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Tools\XAP Deployment\XapDeploy.exe”

wp-app-deployment

You can also deploy straight from Visual Studio to Windows Phone Device. Connect your phone to your computer.
Make sure Visual Studio deployment target is “Windows Phone 7 Device” :

wp-device-target