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Control Styling Tips: ListBox

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Hello!
In this article, I’d like to provide you with some information and tips that you’ll find useful when styling a Silverlight 3 ListBox.

Visual states. ValidationStates (Valid, InvalidUnfocused and InvalidFocused). ListBox has the following template parts:

ContentPresenter (ContentPresenter)

ContentPresenterBorder (FrameworkElement)

DropDownToggle (ToggleButton)

Popup (Popup)

ScrollViewer (ScrollViewer)

The following tips will help you out a bit:

  • A list box consists of a scrollviewer that displays its items.
     
  • The ScrollViewer part is mandatory and its purpose is to display the list box items and allow them to be scrolled horizontally and/or vertically.

Here’s some artwork you might want to try turning into a ListBox:

listBox

The XAML that resembles the artwork is: 

<Grid x:Name="root" Height="146" Width="146">
  <Rectangle Fill="#FF333333" RadiusX="3" RadiusY="3" />
  <TextBlock Margin="5,5,0,0" Foreground="White" Text="Lorem"/>
  <TextBlock Margin="5,26,0,0" Foreground="White" Text="Ipsum"/>
  <Grid x:Name="verticalscrollbar" Width="17" Height="146" HorizontalAlignment="Right" >
    <Rectangle x:Name="track" Fill="#FF3D3D3D" StrokeThickness="0" />
    <Path x:Name="smalldecrease" Fill="Gray" Stretch="Fill" Width="7" Height="7" Data="M196.89876,311.82065 L204.06047,311.82065 L200.42426,304.87872 z" Margin="0,5,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
    <Rectangle x:Name="thumb" Fill="Gray" RadiusX="3" RadiusY="3" Height="61" Width="7" Margin="0,24,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
    <Path x:Name="smallincrease" Fill="Gray" Stretch="Fill" Width="7" Height="7" Data="M196.89876,304.83246 L200.52762,312.02783 L204.07646,304.83078 z" Margin="0,0,0,5" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
  </Grid>
</Grid>

To create a real ListBox out of your artwork, perform the following steps:

  • Select root and click Tools > Make Into Control > ListBox > OK.
     
  • Delete ScrollViewer.
     
  • Select the two TextBlocks and Cut. Scope up and Paste four times. Select all the TextBlocks and Reset Width and Height. Return to the ListBox template.
     
  • Select root and click Tools > Make Into Part of ListBox > ScrollViewer > OK.
     
  • Delete [ContentPresenter] .
     
  • Select root. In the Parts panel, double-click ScrollContentPresenter.
     
  • Select verticalscrollbar and click Tools > Make Into Part of ScrollViewer > VerticalScrollBar > OK. To style VerticalScrollBar you’ll need to see the ScrollBar control styling tips topic.
     
  • Scope up to set the scope to ScrollViewerStyle1 (ScrollViewer template) .
     
  • Divide root into two columns so that it looks like this:

listBoxTip

  • Click the second column’s icon twice to make the column auto-sized and reset its MinWidth.
     

  • Select ScrollContentPresenter and reset ColumnSpan.
     

  • Select VerticalScrollBar and reset Margin and set Width to 17. Using custom expressions, set Visibility to {TemplateBinding ComputedVerticalScrollBarVisibility}, Maximum property {TemplateBinding ScrollableHeight}, Value to {TemplateBinding VerticalOffset} and ViewportSize to {TemplateBinding ViewportHeight}. Or paste the following into the XAML:

    Visibility="{TemplateBinding ComputedVerticalScrollBarVisibility}" Maximum="{TemplateBinding ScrollableHeight}" Value="{TemplateBinding VerticalOffset}" ViewportSize="{TemplateBinding ViewportHeight}"
     

  • Scope up.
     

  • Select ScrollViewer and add an ItemsPresenter inside it. Reset Width and Height.

After you have done this, you should now have a working ListBox!

- Steve

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  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2009
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