WP Beginners How to: Programmatically set common Control properties

published on: 8/16/2011 | Views: N/A | Tags: GetStarted

by WindowsPhoneGeek

While browsing through the WP Dev forums I noticed that lots of developers are asking similar questions about how to set different control properties via code. So in this post I am going to answer these questions with examples:

Question1: How to programmatically wrap the TextBlock Text?

Answer:

this.textBlockWrapped.TextWrapping = TextWrapping.Wrap;

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<TextBlock x:Name="textBlockWrapped" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="This is a very long text in a TextBlock that should be wrapped."/>

Question2: How to programmatically change SvrollViewer Visibility?

Answer:

this.scrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Visible;
this.scrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Auto;

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<ScrollViewer x:Name="scrollViewer" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible">
    <!--some code here...-->
</ScrollViewer>

Question3: How to change a control's Font programmatically?

Answer:

this.textBlock.FontSize = 30;
this.textBlock.FontFamily = new FontFamily("Arial");
this.textBlock.FontWeight = FontWeights.Bold; 

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<TextBlock Text="TextBlock" FontWeight="Bold" FontSize="30" FontFamily="Arial" x:Name="textBlock"/>

Question4: How to programmatically change theme colors?

Answer:

(App.Current.Resources["PhoneAccentBrush"] as SolidColorBrush).Color = Color.FromArgb(12,12,54,145);
(App.Current.Resources["PhoneForegroundBrush"] as SolidColorBrush).Color = Colors.Green;
(App.Current.Resources["PhoneBackgroundBrush"] as SolidColorBrush).Color = Colors.Purple;

Question5: How to programmatically add controls to a Grid/Canvas?

Answer:

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

Button btn = new Button();
//ContentPanel is the main Grid in MainPage.xaml
this.ContentPanel.Children.Add(btn);

 

Question6: How to programmatically change background Color?

Answer:

this.button.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Green);
this.button.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Color.FromArgb(10,15,100,124));

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<Button x:Name="button" Content="Change Color" Background="Green"/>

Question7: How to programmatically change background Image?

Answer:

ImageBrush imageBrush = new ImageBrush();
Uri uri = new Uri("logo.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
imageBrush.ImageSource = new BitmapImage(uri);
this.button.Background = imageBrush;

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<Button x:Name="button" Content="Image" Width="100" Height="100">
    <Button.Background>
        <ImageBrush ImageSource="logo.png"/>
    </Button.Background>
</Button>

Question8: How to programmatically change the margin of a Control?

Answer:

this.btn.Margin = new Thickness(20, 2, 2, 2);

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<Button Content="Button" Margin="20,2,2,2" x:Name="btn"/>

Question9: How to programmatically change BorderThickness?

Answer:

this.border.BorderThickness = new Thickness(5, 4, 3, 2);
this.border.BorderThickness = new Thickness(5);

NOTE:  The thickness components are in the following order: Left, Top, Right, Bottom.

Here is how the same code would look like in XAML:

<Border BorderBrush="Red" x:Name="border" Height="200" Width="200" BorderThickness="5,4,3,2">
    <!--Some code here...-->
</Border>

Here is the full source code with all examples:

I hope that the post was helpful.

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