New Features in Silverlight 3

Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:41:42 GMT

That's what I usually do but in this case Blend does not like this code either which is a complete pain!

Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

codenenterp — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:25:45 GMT

Yeah I have trouble in vs as well. The best thing i can say is try and use blend.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:49:34 GMT

Hi Tim, everyone

Sorry first change I've had to get back to the issue.

Has anyone anymore suggestions as to what I could do to handle this issue I'm obviously having with the .NET IDE and the fact that my XAML is not handling .resx file in the preview window?? Remember, compiling is not an issue and works a charm, but without being able to preview your view, it makes it very hard to try to work or modify anything.

Any additional feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Thierry.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

Tim Dawson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:51:24 GMT

I assumed they were ResourceDictionaries. I hadn't actually thought of trying to use .resx files with XAML since normally you'd just use ResourceDictionaties. There's a new theory as to why the designer doesn't understand them, anyway.

I saw in your previous code a reference to {StaticResource MenuHeaderTextStyle}, which doesn't appear in your resources. That's why I assumed they were ResourceDictionaries containing further resources.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:13:00 GMT

Hi Tim,

I tried the following:

<navigation:Page.Resources>

<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>

<local:ManageGroupsModel x:Key="GroupsModel" />

<rs:ManageGroupsControlResources x:Key="ControlResources" />

</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>

</ResourceDictionary>

</navigation:Page.Resources>

but I get 2 errors being highlighted on the line in bold telling me that: key attribute can be used only on a tag contained in an IDictionary type property.

I've had a look at what these resources are and one of them is an actual resource file (.resx) containing all the string for the buttons, labels, etc... the other one is referring to the model class where part (or all) of the logic for this is implemented.

The strange thing is that intellisense is picking up everything ok as there is a reference for these as defined above:

xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Views" (for the model class file)

xmlns:rs="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Resources" (for the resource file)

From the error I got, these are not of type IDictionary, so I guess this won't work. Any other ideas?

Thanks.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:28:18 GMT

Hi,

I'm not 100% familiar with SL, so I can't tell if this can be done in an another way or not but I did a search for ResourceDictionary in my entire solution and it did not find it, so to answer your question, I guess it's a no.

I'll go research this now and see if I can figure out what to do and I'll get back to you.

Thanks.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

Tim Dawson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:50:23 GMT

Are both those things you've included in your Resources property ResourceDictionaries? If so, I would try explicitly surrounding them in a ResourceDictionary with MergedDictionaries, like so:

<page.REsources>
<ResourceDictionary>
    <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
      
    </REsourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>

This is untested, off the top of my head.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:33:38 GMT

Hi Tim,

Correct, I tried it as well and it is working now. So, it seems that the IDE does not handle reading from resource files then? Is that it?

This was the original code:

<navigation:Page x:Class="WebAdministration.Views.ManageGroups"
                 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
                 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
                 xmlns:navigation="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Navigation"
                 xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Views"
                 xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Controls"
                 xmlns:rs="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Resources"
                 Title="Manage Groups">

    <navigation:Page.Resources>
        <local:ManageGroupsModel x:Key="GroupsModel" />
        <rs:ManageGroupsControlResources x:Key="ControlResources" />
    </navigation:Page.Resources>

What do you think?

Thanks.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

Tim Dawson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:22:38 GMT

Actually that's not entirely surprising as the last example you gave didn't include a single piece of displayable content. I tried it, and I got nothing too, until I set the text of one of the TextBlocks at which point it showed up like I'd expect.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:48:17 GMT

Hi Tim,

My apologies for only getting back to you now! I communicating via my personal account and completely forgot to check it as I got caught up with other things at work.

I've tried what you suggested and it still isn't working.

Thanks.

Thierry.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

Tim Dawson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:15:43 GMT

Let's work backwards from the last example you posted, which doesn't even have any resources. Does it work when you add back explicit Width and Height attributes on the page?

Re: Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:05:03 GMT

Hi,

Note that installing Web Express 2008 did not resolve my problem as it does not support various features supported by .NET 2008 professional. I get a lot of errors when trying to load the project. I've try to just load the XAML but that made no difference.

When I open the XAML file, all the problems seem to be related to the fact that it is using a resource file. All of information seems to be stored in it. Everything from strings, graphics, etc... are stored in a resource file.

This is the line where it display an error:

<navigation:Page.Resources>

<local:ManageGroupsModel x:Key="GroupsModel" />

<rs:ManageGroupsControlResources x:Key="ControlResources" />

</navigation:Page.Resources>

The error displayed is: AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR

If I temporarily remove this, then the code below this give me an error that it cannot find the specific resource file.

<TextBlock x:Name="pageTitle"

Style="{StaticResource MenuHeaderTextStyle}"

Text="{Binding ManageGroupsPageTitle, Source={StaticResource ControlResources}}" />

<TextBlock x:Name="pageText"

Style="{StaticResource MenuHeaderTextStyle}"

Text="{Binding ManageGroupsPageDetails, Source={StaticResource ControlResources}}" />

</StackPanel>

<controls:ManageGroupsControl Model="{StaticResource GroupsModel}" Grid.Row="1" />

The line highlighted above then displays the error:

Cannot find a resource with the name/key MenuHeaderTextStyle

Even after removing everything to do with resource files, it still will not display correctly. Below is the code without any resource file/binding/etc... left in it:

<navigation:Page x:Class="WebAdministration.Views.ManageGroups"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

xmlns:navigation="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Navigation"

xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Views"

xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Controls"

xmlns:rs="clr-namespace:WebAdministration.Resources"

Title="Manage Groups">

<Grid>

<Grid.RowDefinitions>

</Grid.RowDefinitions>

</StackPanel>

</Grid>

</navigation:Page>

Note that the full project was designed using M.V.VM pattern and compile perfectly, so the problem solely lies in previewing the views in the .NET IDE but what I don't understand is while resource files could potential be badly handled by the .NET IDE, why is it still not working when all this is removed and you are left with basic XAML code.

Thanks.

Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

Tim Dawson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:44:28 GMT

Highly unlikely. Perhaps you could post a sample of the errant XAML here, so people can suggest how you could change it to make it designer-friendly.

Re: Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

tfierens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:26:32 GMT

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your feedback but I already had this problem (and so have my colleagues) with SL2...

I've been seriously impressed with what you can do but it really is making thing akwards when working with UI. Is there other tools out there that will handle this better than the .NET 2008 IDE?

Thanks.

Re: Re: Problem previewing XAML in .NET 2008 IDE??

Tim Dawson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:17:35 GMT

SL3 will be released in the near future. At that point you can open your solution in a non-beta product, and things should work a lot better.