Re: XAML is the land of confusion ??

11-03-2009 4:55 PM |

Hi

You don't need a grid insight the TogglButton 

<StackPanel>
        <ToggleButton HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" >
            <ToggleButton.Content>

                <TextBlock>
                    First Line  <LineBreak/>  Second Line 
                </TextBlock>
            </ToggleButton.Content>

        </ToggleButton>
            <ToggleButton HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" >
                <ContentControl>
                    <TextBlock>
                        First Line  <LineBreak/>  Second Line
                    </TextBlock>

                </ContentControl>
            </ToggleButton>

    </StackPanel>

 The stack panel is only to display two diferent possibilities

Re: Re: XAML is the land of confusion ??

11-03-2009 5:29 PM |

Hi

Simple:

• a ContentControl is something like a panel http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.contentcontrol(VS.95).aspx it can display a simple tex but don't understand LineBreke and Run. But It can containe other FrameworkElements
• LineBreak and Run can only interpreted from a textblock and some other FrameworkElements  see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189010(VS.95).aspx 

Thats the trick: put this FrameworkElement as content whichcan do what you want. The Blend and Vs 2008 code compleation can be helpful what is possible 

For more info abaut ContentControl see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.contentcontrol.content(VS.95).aspx

Re: Re: XAML is the land of confusion ??

11-04-2009 8:14 AM |

I think the biggest way it can "come together" for you is when you start to look at it not as XML, but a declarative way of managing classes. Keep in mind every element of your XAML is going to instantiate a class or load a property.

With your example, you were instantiating a class that has an attached "Content" property. Content is not a collection, so it can only contain a single subclass. This is where it can get confusing.

When you simply insert text, XAML is smart enough to realize this belongs in a TextBlock class, so the class is instantiated for you an injected into the content. However, once you start mixing other tags, then you need to be more specific. If you think about the fact that you have to instantiate a class, then you can decide that TextBlock makes sense. Then you can understand that TextBlock has a "Text" property that understands collections of sub-properties such as runs and line breaks, and you can place them into that Text piece.

Again, there are lots of nuances and some learning curve, but I think the biggest ah-hah moment I had in helping unravel it all was realizing that every tag instantiates a class and every property must be able to somehow parse the provided attribute, whether it's text or another class, etc.

Event your binding tags do this ... for example, {Binding Name} really says "instance the Binding class and pass Name into the constructor" whereas {Binding Path=Name,Mode=TwoWay} says, "instance or new a Binding class, then set Path to Name and Mode to TwoWay"

Hope that helps!