How do I duplicate a resource reference in code behind in WPF?

Question

In my application, I have a color resources. I have one element that uses that color as a dynamic resource in xaml.

  <Window x:Class="ResourcePlay.MainWindow"
          xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
          xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
          Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="425">
     <Window.Resources>
        <Color x:Key="MyColor">Red</Color>
     </Window.Resources>
     <Grid>
        <Rectangle VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="80" Height="80" Margin="10">
           <Rectangle.Fill>
              <SolidColorBrush x:Name="TopBrush" Color="{DynamicResource MyColor}"/>
           </Rectangle.Fill>
        </Rectangle>
        <Rectangle VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Width="80" Height="80" Margin="10">
           <Rectangle.Fill>
              <SolidColorBrush x:Name="BottomBrush"/>
           </Rectangle.Fill>
        </Rectangle>
     </Grid>
  </Window>

In the code, I want to duplicate this resource reference.

  using System.Windows;
  using System.Windows.Media;

  namespace ResourcePlay {
     public partial class MainWindow : Window {
        public MainWindow() {
           InitializeComponent();

           // I want to copy the resource reference, not the color.
           BottomBrush.Color = TopBrush.Color;

           // I'd really rather do something like this.
           var reference = TopBrush.GetResourceReference(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty);
           BottomBrush.SetResourceReference(reference);

           // I want this to change the colors of both elements
           Resources["MyColor"] = Colors.Green;
        }
     }
  }

However, SetResourceReference only works for FrameworkElements or FrameworkContentElements. SolidColorBrush is just a Freezable. Also, I have no idea how to get a resource reference in code behind.

Is there a way to do this in WPF so that both of the colors change at the same time? In my real application, the problem isn't quite so simple, so I can't just add a second DynamicResource in xaml.

Answer 1

Il Vic suggested using reflection. Expanding on that, I was able to build some extension methods for DependencyObject that do what I want. I don't really like using reflection in code, and if someone else knows a better way to implement this, I'd love to see it. At least this will be helpful whenever I'm trying to debug DynamicResources from code behind.

  public static class DependencyObjectExtensions
  {
     public static object GetDynamicResourceKey(this DependencyObject obj, DependencyProperty prop)
     {
        // get the value entry from the depencency object for the specified dependency property
        var dependencyObject = typeof(DependencyObject);
        var dependencyObject_LookupEntry = dependencyObject.GetMethod("LookupEntry", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        var entryIndex = dependencyObject_LookupEntry.Invoke(obj, new object[] { prop.GlobalIndex });
        var effectiveValueEntry_GetValueEntry = dependencyObject.GetMethod("GetValueEntry", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        var valueEntry = effectiveValueEntry_GetValueEntry.Invoke(obj, new object[] { entryIndex, prop, null, 0x10 });

        // look inside the value entry to find the ModifiedValue object
        var effectiveValueEntry = valueEntry.GetType();
        var effectiveValueEntry_Value = effectiveValueEntry.GetProperty("Value", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        var effectiveValueEntry_Value_Getter = effectiveValueEntry_Value.GetGetMethod(nonPublic: true);
        var rawEntry = effectiveValueEntry_Value_Getter.Invoke(valueEntry, new object[0]);

        // look inside the ModifiedValue object to find the ResourceReference
        var modifiedValue = rawEntry.GetType();
        var modifiedValue_BaseValue = modifiedValue.GetProperty("BaseValue", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        var modifiedValue_BaseValue_Getter = modifiedValue_BaseValue.GetGetMethod(nonPublic: true);
        var resourceReferenceValue = modifiedValue_BaseValue_Getter.Invoke(rawEntry, new object[0]);

        // check the ResourceReference for the original ResourceKey
        var resourceReference = resourceReferenceValue.GetType();
        var resourceReference_resourceKey = resourceReference.GetField("_resourceKey", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        var resourceKey = resourceReference_resourceKey.GetValue(resourceReferenceValue);

        return resourceKey;
     }

     public static void SetDynamicResourceKey(this DependencyObject obj, DependencyProperty prop, object resourceKey)
     {
        var dynamicResource = new DynamicResourceExtension(resourceKey);
        var resourceReferenceExpression = dynamicResource.ProvideValue(null);
        obj.SetValue(prop, resourceReferenceExpression);
     }
  }

The second method uses DynamicResourceExtension to avoid some nastiness with Activator, but the first method feels incredibly brittle.

I can use these methods in my original example as follows:

  public MainWindow() {
     InitializeComponent();

     var key = TopBrush.GetDynamicResourceKey(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty);
     BottomBrush.SetDynamicResourceKey(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty, key);

     Resources["MyColor"] = Colors.Green;
  }

This will work for any DependencyProperty, provided it is set to a DynamicResource when we try to get the resource key. A little more finesse would be needed for production code.

Answer 2

Indeed you need an internal object called ResourceReferenceExpression. It is used in DynamicResourceExtention.

This is the code you can use:

public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    BottomBrush.SetValue(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty,
        Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetType("System.Windows.ResourceReferenceExpression, PresentationFramework, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"), "MyColor"));

    Resources["MyColor"] = Colors.Green;
}

Use it carefully! Since ResourceReferenceExpression is internal, maybe there will be a reason (maybe a wrong use of that object can lead to memory leaks).