Question

I have a tab control with two different potential item templates:

<TabControl ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource tabTemplateSelector}"/>

Now, I also have styles for it:

<Style TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}">
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}">
                ...

The thing is, I want the tab item style template to be different depending on the value of ItemTemplateSelector. How can I do this? Basically, I don’t want that entire style rule to be applied to every tab item, just the ones with a specific tab item template.

Update: to make it clearer, the style has TargetType set to TabItem. I want to apply that style only to those tab items that have a specific item template.

Answer 1

The ContentPresenter in the ControlTemplate will display what’s in the ItemTemplate. So you won’t be able to switch the Template from inside the ControlTemplate.

Instead, you could use a DataTrigger to set the Template. The DataTrigger will check if the ItemTemplate that will be generated should have the other Template or not.

You will probably need a converter for this but here is an easy example. Say that your ItemTemplateSelector returns the other DataTemplate if Name is equal to “Tab 2”. Then your Style with the DataTrigger would look like this

<Style TargetType="TabItem">
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="TabItem">
                <!-- Your first Template -->
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
    <Style.Triggers>
        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Name}" Value="Tab 2">
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate TargetType="TabItem">
                        <!-- Your other Template -->
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
        </DataTrigger>
    </Style.Triggers>
</Style>