RE: Dynamic themes and resources
Chaps, I have some news on this subject. After talking to the client go-between on just when they needed in the way of custom styling the SL3 app, it seems that the level of skinning provided by the toolkit themes is way beyond their needs. They need about 6 different major parts of the various major controls customised (the background, the footer, header, etc). They don't need the appearance of all text, combos, list, etc controls customised. I already had the common properties of important controls styled in the App.xaml, so I moved those setters into a class I called 'ApplicationBinder' which exposed the various Brushes and misc custom settings as dependency properties. That binder class is a global resource in the App.xaml so that it was available to all controls. Once that is done, you can dynamically change the brushes and the binding will update the appearance all over the place where the controls are bound. There is no wizardry in this, but it's a reminder of the power of binding. Rather than put global styles in App.xaml, put them in a global resource class that you can bind to from anywhere. You then have an instant lightweight dynamic skinning. I plan to return to the toolkit themes and use them later once I'm on SL4. But using simple binding to a global resource class is a miracle quick fix for now. Cheers, Greg ___ ozsilverlight mailing list ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
Re: Dynamic themes and resources
+1 for the themes in SL toolkit.
I've not looked at how that works in Silverlight 4.0 though, currently using
SL3. I'm assuming they've not removed the theming stuff with the introduced
implicit styling? (nice to be able to use either and it keeps the
backward compatibility)
cheers,
Stephen
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 1:21 PM, .net noobie wrote:
> Greg have you looked at the Themes from the SL toolkit
>
> you can make your own and you can theme you entire app just by wrapping the
> mainpage rootlayout grid
>
> then you can just dynamically set this and change the style/theme for your
> app in a single location
>
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 2:51 PM, wrote:
>
>> Greg, not 100% sure about SL as I am more WPF worldly, but I would think
>> you'll likely need to programmatically assign the appropriate
>> ResourceDictionary(s) after login.
>>
>>
>> something.Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(somesource.GetResourceDictionaryForUser());
>>
>> where 'something' is your app or a particular window or control etc. and
>> 'somesource' is either assembly internal as in Resource files, or a
>> WebService proxy etc?
>>
>> If its a Xaml string from a Web Service you may need to use SL's
>> equivalent of the XamlReader class to read in the String and cast to a
>> ResourceDictionary as follows (at least for WPF):
>>
>> ResourceDictionary rd = XamlReader.Load(s) as ResourceDictionary;
>> (rd != null)
>> {
>> //etc, etc
>> }
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> Dan.
>>
>> *From:* Greg Keogh
>> *Sent:* Monday, June 21, 2010 2:17 PM
>> *To:* 'ozSilverlight'
>> *Subject:* Dynamic themes and resources
>>
>> Folks, it’s an action-packed day, I just received word that my SL3 app
>> will soon need to have a feature to assign a different appearance and
>> different string resources according to who is authenticated (via the
>> initial login screen).
>>
>>
>>
>> I took precautions to allow the app to have a different appearance and
>> strings in different installations, but I wasn’t really prepared to cater
>> for the more granular approach of changing appearance for different logins.
>>
>>
>>
>> The strings are all in a spreadsheet-style resource file, so that’s only a
>> minor problem for me. However, dynamically changing themes is more
>> frightening as I haven’t needed to do that before. I’ve tried to be neat
>> with my styles and put them in the controls or in the App page, but I feel
>> that to get dynamic themes in Silverlight I will have to be ultra-strict
>> and use clever binding.
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m just not sure of the best way to structure the styles and templates
>> globally within the app to make theming easier. I’m going to search to web
>> article guidance on this, but I’m keen to hear from anyone who’s done this
>> before and has some tips and tricks to share.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Greg
>>
>> --
>>
>> ___
>> ozsilverlight mailing list
>> ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com
>> http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
>>
>>
>> ___
>> ozsilverlight mailing list
>> ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com
>> http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
>>
>>
>
> ___
> ozsilverlight mailing list
> ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com
> http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
>
>
___
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RE: Dynamic themes and resources
Exactly what I was going to say.
Here is the link:
http://www.silverlight.net/content/samples/sl3/toolkitcontrolsamples/run/def
ault.html#/Welcome.xaml
Or for SL4:
http://www.silverlight.net/content/samples/sl4/toolkitcontrolsamples/run/def
ault.html
If you go and click on the theme browser on the left, you will see that they
do change the look and feel on the run.
Here is the link for downloading the source code: (take a look at the zip
file)
http://silverlight.codeplex.com/releases/view/43528
Regards,
TJ Gokcen | Sydney, Australia | Mobile: +61 400 355 811
From: ozsilverlight-boun...@ozsilverlight.com
[mailto:ozsilverlight-boun...@ozsilverlight.com] On Behalf Of .net noobie
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 3:22 PM
To: ozSilverlight
Subject: Re: Dynamic themes and resources
Greg have you looked at the Themes from the SL toolkit
you can make your own and you can theme you entire app just by wrapping the
mainpage rootlayout grid
then you can just dynamically set this and change the style/theme for your
app in a single location
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 2:51 PM, wrote:
Greg, not 100% sure about SL as I am more WPF worldly, but I would think
you'll likely need to programmatically assign the appropriate
ResourceDictionary(s) after login.
something.Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(somesource.GetResourceDictionaryF
orUser());
where 'something' is your app or a particular window or control etc. and
'somesource' is either assembly internal as in Resource files, or a
WebService proxy etc?
If its a Xaml string from a Web Service you may need to use SL's equivalent
of the XamlReader class to read in the String and cast to a
ResourceDictionary as follows (at least for WPF):
ResourceDictionary rd = XamlReader.Load(s) as ResourceDictionary;
(rd != null)
{
//etc, etc
}
Hope this helps,
Dan.
From: Greg Keogh <mailto:g...@mira.net>
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 2:17 PM
To: 'ozSilverlight' <mailto:ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com>
Subject: Dynamic themes and resources
Folks, it's an action-packed day, I just received word that my SL3 app will
soon need to have a feature to assign a different appearance and different
string resources according to who is authenticated (via the initial login
screen).
I took precautions to allow the app to have a different appearance and
strings in different installations, but I wasn't really prepared to cater
for the more granular approach of changing appearance for different logins.
The strings are all in a spreadsheet-style resource file, so that's only a
minor problem for me. However, dynamically changing themes is more
frightening as I haven't needed to do that before. I've tried to be neat
with my styles and put them in the controls or in the App page, but I feel
that to get dynamic themes in Silverlight I will have to be ultra-strict
and use clever binding.
I'm just not sure of the best way to structure the styles and templates
globally within the app to make theming easier. I'm going to search to web
article guidance on this, but I'm keen to hear from anyone who's done this
before and has some tips and tricks to share.
Cheers,
Greg
_
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Re: Dynamic themes and resources
Greg have you looked at the Themes from the SL toolkit
you can make your own and you can theme you entire app just by wrapping the
mainpage rootlayout grid
then you can just dynamically set this and change the style/theme for your
app in a single location
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 2:51 PM, wrote:
> Greg, not 100% sure about SL as I am more WPF worldly, but I would think
> you'll likely need to programmatically assign the appropriate
> ResourceDictionary(s) after login.
>
>
> something.Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(somesource.GetResourceDictionaryForUser());
>
> where 'something' is your app or a particular window or control etc. and
> 'somesource' is either assembly internal as in Resource files, or a
> WebService proxy etc?
>
> If its a Xaml string from a Web Service you may need to use SL's equivalent
> of the XamlReader class to read in the String and cast to a
> ResourceDictionary as follows (at least for WPF):
>
> ResourceDictionary rd = XamlReader.Load(s) as ResourceDictionary;
> (rd != null)
> {
> //etc, etc
> }
>
> Hope this helps,
> Dan.
>
> *From:* Greg Keogh
> *Sent:* Monday, June 21, 2010 2:17 PM
> *To:* 'ozSilverlight'
> *Subject:* Dynamic themes and resources
>
> Folks, it’s an action-packed day, I just received word that my SL3 app
> will soon need to have a feature to assign a different appearance and
> different string resources according to who is authenticated (via the
> initial login screen).
>
>
>
> I took precautions to allow the app to have a different appearance and
> strings in different installations, but I wasn’t really prepared to cater
> for the more granular approach of changing appearance for different logins.
>
>
>
> The strings are all in a spreadsheet-style resource file, so that’s only a
> minor problem for me. However, dynamically changing themes is more
> frightening as I haven’t needed to do that before. I’ve tried to be neat
> with my styles and put them in the controls or in the App page, but I feel
> that to get dynamic themes in Silverlight I will have to be ultra-strict
> and use clever binding.
>
>
>
> I’m just not sure of the best way to structure the styles and templates
> globally within the app to make theming easier. I’m going to search to web
> article guidance on this, but I’m keen to hear from anyone who’s done this
> before and has some tips and tricks to share.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Greg
>
> --
>
> ___
> ozsilverlight mailing list
> ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com
> http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
>
>
> ___
> ozsilverlight mailing list
> ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com
> http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
>
>
___
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ozsilverlight@ozsilverlight.com
http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight
Re: Dynamic themes and resources
Greg, not 100% sure about SL as I am more WPF worldly, but I would think you'll
likely need to programmatically assign the appropriate ResourceDictionary(s)
after login.
something.Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(somesource.GetResourceDictionaryForUser());
where 'something' is your app or a particular window or control etc. and
'somesource' is either assembly internal as in Resource files, or a WebService
proxy etc?
If its a Xaml string from a Web Service you may need to use SL's equivalent of
the XamlReader class to read in the String and cast to a ResourceDictionary as
follows (at least for WPF):
ResourceDictionary rd = XamlReader.Load(s) as ResourceDictionary;
(rd != null)
{
//etc, etc
}
Hope this helps,
Dan.
From: Greg Keogh
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 2:17 PM
To: 'ozSilverlight'
Subject: Dynamic themes and resources
Folks, it's an action-packed day, I just received word that my SL3 app will
soon need to have a feature to assign a different appearance and different
string resources according to who is authenticated (via the initial login
screen).
I took precautions to allow the app to have a different appearance and strings
in different installations, but I wasn't really prepared to cater for the more
granular approach of changing appearance for different logins.
The strings are all in a spreadsheet-style resource file, so that's only a
minor problem for me. However, dynamically changing themes is more frightening
as I haven't needed to do that before. I've tried to be neat with my styles and
put them in the controls or in the App page, but I feel that to get dynamic
themes in Silverlight I will have to be ultra-strict and use clever binding.
I'm just not sure of the best way to structure the styles and templates
globally within the app to make theming easier. I'm going to search to web
article guidance on this, but I'm keen to hear from anyone who's done this
before and has some tips and tricks to share.
Cheers,
Greg
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