Question

I am writing a WPF chart and use Visuals for performance. The code looks like:

public class DrawingCanvas2 : Canvas
{
    private List<Visual> _visuals = new List<Visual>();

    protected override Visual GetVisualChild( int index ) { return _visuals[index]; }
    protected override int VisualChildrenCount { get { return _visuals.Count; } }

    public void AddVisual( Visual visual )
    {
        _visuals.Add( visual );

        base.AddVisualChild( visual );
        base.AddLogicalChild( visual );
    }
}

Beside DrawingVisual elements (line, text) I need a ComboBox in the chart. So I tried this:

    public DrawingCanvas2()
    {
        ComboBox box = new ComboBox();
        AddVisual( box );

        box.Width = 100;
        box.Height = 30;

        Canvas.SetLeft( box, 10 );
        Canvas.SetTop( box, 10 );
    }

but it does not work, there is no ComboBox displayed. What I am missing?

Answer 1

The right answer is by Linda Liu, Microsoft WPF forum, although XIU came close to it.

the code is:

    public DrawingCanvas2() : base()
    {
        ComboBox box = new ComboBox();
        AddVisual( box );

        Size outputSize = new Size( 100, 20 );

        box.Measure( outputSize );
        box.Arrange( new Rect( outputSize ) );
        box.UpdateLayout();

        box.Items.Add( "hello1" );
        box.Items.Add( "hello2" );
        box.Items.Add( "hello3" );

        box.SelectedIndex = 1;
    }

It is important to note that box.SelectedIndex must be explicitly set to not -1, else the items in the box are not-choosable.