Question

I am new to using the ControlTemplate. I am writing my first control but I am having (what seems to me) a very strange issue.

Any dependency properties that I make TemplateBinding to work, but any properties from the .NET framework objects i.e. the Content property of a ContentControl or the Items property of an ItemsControl does not get populated at runtime.

I am sure I am missing something… Just what it is I dont know…

An example of the code is below:

The class is very simple at the moment:

public class Title : ContentControl
{
}

And the Template is:

<Style TargetType="{x:Type UI:Title}">
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type UI:Title}">
                <TextBlock Text="{TemplateBinding Content}" />
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

The base ContentControl class is the .NET class located in the System.Windows.Controls.Control namespace.

Thanks,

Adam

Answer 1

I believe if you’d like to override where the Content is placed you can do that using a ContentPresenter.

<Style TargetType="{x:Type UI:Title}">
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type UI:Title}">
                <Label>
                    <ContentPresenter />
                </Label>
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

Note I’ve also changed from a TextBlock to a Label as I believe the TextBlock.Text property will not accept everything from ContentControl.Content. Here is an example I put together that works as intended:

<Window x:Class="ContentControlTest.Window1"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ContentControlTest"
        Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Window.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type local:Title}">
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Title}">
                        <Button>
                            <ContentPresenter />
                        </Button>
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
        </Style>
    </Window.Resources>
    <local:Title>
        <TextBlock Text="Happy Days!" />
    </local:Title>
</Window>