Question

What does InitializeComponent() do, and how does it work in WPF?

In general first, but I would especially be interested to know the gory details of order of construction, and what happens when there are Attached Properties.

Answer 1

The call to InitializeComponent() (which is usually called in the default constructor of at least Window and UserControl) is actually a method call to the partial class of the control (rather than a call up the object hierarchy as I first expected).

This method locates a URI to the XAML for the Window/UserControl that is loading, and passes it to the System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent() static method. LoadComponent() loads the XAML file that is located at the passed in URI, and converts it to an instance of the object that is specified by the root element of the XAML file.

In more detail, LoadComponent creates an instance of the XamlParser, and builds a tree of the XAML. Each node is parsed by the XamlParser.ProcessXamlNode(). This gets passed to the BamlRecordWriter class. Some time after this I get a bit lost in how the BAML is converted to objects, but this may be enough to help you on the path to enlightenment.

Note: Interestingly, the InitializeComponent is a method on the System.Windows.Markup.IComponentConnector interface, of which Window/UserControl implement in the partial generated class.