Question

I apologize in advance if the question doesn’t necessarily make sense, but I’m new to programming. o_0

I’ve created a user-defined XAML control in Blend that acts as a button:

<Style x:Key="GeekMDCalc_Button_Std." TargetType="Button">
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate TargetType="Button">
                        <Canvas x:Name="canvas" Width="200" Height="200" Background="#FFA09F9F">
                            <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                                <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                    <VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                                        <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="0:0:0.15"/>
                                    </VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Pressed">
                                        <Storyboard>
                                            <ColorAnimation Duration="0" To="#FF0CFF00" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Shape.Fill).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="rectangle" d:IsOptimized="True"/>
                                            <ColorAnimation Duration="0" To="White" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="canvas" d:IsOptimized="True"/>
                                        </Storyboard>
                                    </VisualState>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Disabled"/>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="PointerOver">
                                        <Storyboard>
                                            <ColorAnimation Duration="0" To="#FF0CFF00" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Shape.Fill).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="rectangle" d:IsOptimized="True"/>
                                        </Storyboard>
                                    </VisualState>
                                </VisualStateGroup>
                                <VisualStateGroup x:Name="FocusStates">
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Focused"/>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="PointerFocused"/>
                                </VisualStateGroup>
                            </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                            <Rectangle x:Name="rectangle" Fill="#FFF4F4F5" Height="57" Width="200" Canvas.Top="143"/>
                            <ContentPresenter Height="57" Canvas.Top="143" Width="190" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Foreground="Black" Canvas.Left="10"/>
                            <Image x:Name="image" Height="128" Canvas.Left="10" Canvas.Top="10" Width="180"/>
                        </Canvas>
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
        </Style>

I then am adding buttons individually inside of a GridView:

<GridView Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Grid.Row="2" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontFamily="Global User Interface">
        <Button Content="Emergency" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Intensive Care" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Internal Med." Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Surg/Trauma" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Renal" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Electrolytes" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Cardiology" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Pediatrics" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="Neurology" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="GI" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
        <Button Content="General" Style="{StaticResource GeekMDCalc_Button_Std.}" FontFamily="DilleniaUPC" FontSize="45.33" FontWeight="Light"/>
    </GridView>

I’m trying to apply backgrounds by binding an image to the image container in the control template I’ve created, but I’ve not had any luck. I want each of these buttons to have individual backgrounds, which I was hoping to define in my code-behind. I’ve tried searching for hours, and I can’t seem to find a way to easily change the image source of the button control I created.

Thanks for your help, and patience with a newbie ^_^

Answer 1

You don’t need an image in the style, i would also call it bad practice. A Button is a ContentPresenter, so its main purpose is to “present content”, the Content itself can be anything; another control, an image a string or a custom class. So you can just directly assign the image to the button, without adding an Image object in the template. If your Content is not a WPF control, WPF needs a bit of guidance how to display the Content. So you need to tell him how you want the content to look, and this is done with a Template to be precise, a DataTemplate. If you just need an Icon, this should be suffice

<Button>
   <Image Source="SomeIcon"/>
</Button>

If you need more to display as the content, you need to define a DataTemplate, and i would advise you to use some DataBinding to use it to its full potential. This is a short example:

class MyButtonInfo
{
    public ImageSource Icon{get;set;}
    public string Caption{get;set;}
    public Command Command{get;set;}
}

<DataTemplate x:Key="MyTemplate">
    <StackPanel>
        <Image Source="{Binding Icon}"/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Caption}"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

<Button Content="{Binding ButtonInfo}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MyTemplate}" Command="{Binding Command}">
</Button>