Is there a way to visually author WPF Custom Controls?

Question

Is there a way to use a visual XAML designer to author WPF Custom Controls, just like you would with User Controls?

As far as I can see there is nothing like this in Visual Studio 2010 and 2012. I've also looked at Expression Blend 4 and none of them seem to support this.

I find this hard to believe as it seems to me like this would be an obvious and necessary feature.

Just to be clear, I'm looking for a XAML editor where I would visually see the result of the XAML as a rendered control as I work with it, exactly like you would when authoring a User Control in Visual Studio 2010.

Does not creating a UserControl but then editing the code behind to derive from Control rather then UserControl do that? msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/… — paparazzo

AlexPi AlexPi · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-13T17:14:46

Here's one thing that I've come up with:

In Visual Studio 2010 create a new WPF Custom Control project.
Add a new resource dictionary called CustomControl1Dictionary.xaml.
Add a new User Control called CustomControl1View.xaml.

Change the code in the project like this:

CustomControl1Dictionary.xaml

<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
                    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
                    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfCustomControlLibrary1">
    <Style TargetType="{x:Type local:CustomControl1}">
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:CustomControl1}">
                    <Border Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
                            BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
                            BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}">
                        <TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" FontSize="30" FontWeight="Bold">This freaking sucks!</TextBlock>
                    </Border>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>    
</ResourceDictionary>

Themes\Generic.xaml

<ResourceDictionary
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
    <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary Source="/WpfCustomControlLibrary1;component/CustomControl1Dictionary.xaml" />
    </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>

CustomControl1View.xaml

<UserControl x:Class="WpfCustomControlLibrary1.CustomControl1View"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
             xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfCustomControlLibrary1"
             mc:Ignorable="d" 
             d:DesignHeight="292" d:DesignWidth="786">
    <local:CustomControl1 />
</UserControl>

This lets me open the user control as a pop-up window and I can see the changes to the XAML that I make in the custom control resource dictionary after I build the project and click on the user control designer.

Is there a way to visually author WPF Custom Controls?

1 Answers