Question

I can inherit and enhance the ToolBar class by creating a plain C# class, then doing this:

public class NiceToolBar : ToolBar
{
    private ToolBarTray mainToolBarTray;

    public NiceToolBar()
    {
        mainToolBarTray = new ToolBarTray();

        mainToolBarTray.IsLocked = true;
        this.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.LightGray);
        ...

But this forces me to manipulate all my controls in code like this:

ToolBar toolBar = new ToolBar();
toolBar.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Transparent);
toolBar.Cursor = Cursors.Hand;

StackPanel sp = new StackPanel();
sp.Orientation = Orientation.Horizontal;

TextBlock tb = new TextBlock();
tb.Text = label;
tb.Margin = new Thickness { Top = 3, Left = 3, Bottom = 3, Right = 10 };

Image image = new Image();
image.Source = new BitmapImage(new Uri("Images/computer.png", UriKind.Relative));

sp.Children.Add(image);
sp.Children.Add(tb);
toolBar.Items.Add(sp);

What I really need is XAML to do this tedious parameter assigning and layout.

So I create a new User Control and change the code behind to inherit ToolBar like this:

public partial class SmartToolBar : ToolBar
{
    public SmartToolBar(string label)
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        TheLabel.Text = label;
    }
}

And in my XAML I put this:

<UserControl x:Class="TestUserControl.Helpers.SmartToolBar"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
        <Image Source="Images/computer.png"/>
        <TextBlock x:Name="TheLabel"/>
    </StackPanel>
</UserControl>

But when I run it, I get the error:

Partial declaration of
“TestCallConstructor.Helpers.SmartToolBar”
may not define different basis classes

How can I have my user control with XAML?

Answer 1

You are looking for Custom Controls (not UserControl). When you write a custom control you can specify its default view (i.e. XAML).

You can google how to create custom controls in WPF, but here is one link I googled out for you How to Create a WPF Custom Control.

Hope this helps :).