Develop Reference

Multiple list views - auto height for all of them

I'm trying to resolve some layout problems in my Xamarin.Forms application. For example, when height of content is higher than body content height, then lists will collapse.
I have undefined amount of lists with custom item templates. I want to remain all height of each list and have possibility of scrolling them.
I tried use StackLayout but it doesn't support scrolling. When I use ScrollView, the Auto property doesn't work correctly (there is ambigous space between each of lists).
My code looks like this:
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
...
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Row="0"> //Header
...
</Grid>
<StackLayout Grid.Row="1"> //Group of lists
<ListView x:Name="firstList" ItemTemplate="..." ItemsSource="...">
</ListView>
<ListView x:Name="secondList" ItemTemplate="..." ItemsSource="...">
</ListView>
...
</StackLayout>
</Grid>
How can I position these lists on full height?

What you try to achieve is very ambiguous from the mobile app perspective. Think the other way around: While your screen is full of stacked ListViews, how would the system know it has to scroll down the page or scroll down the current ListView?
Also nesting ListView into ScrollView is a very bad practice because:
ListView implements its own scrolling.
ListView will not receive any gestures -> they will be handled by the parent ScrollView.
also ListView can have customized header and footer that scrolls with the elements of the list, potentially offering the functionality that the ScrollView was used for.
If you want to stick to this layout, your option here would be to design your own implementation of your control using custom renderers and manage the gesture.
Hope it helps and happy coding!

WPF MainWindow to display other pages

I am trying to create a Main Window that will have a Header for navigation/buttons, and a footer for displaying information.
(similar to the top and bottom bars on StackOverflow.com)
What is the best way to make the Main Window function as a container that could display any page in between the header/footer?

I would create a 3 row Grid, with the center item being a ContentControl. Bind it to a CurrentPage property on your view model.
Create a Base Page class, and subclass it for each page of data you want to display. This subclass is also the viewmodel for each individual page.
Add a DataTemplate for each subclass of Page for the ContentControl to use, making sure to specify the Type attribute (This is what physically attaches the page type to the UI based on the CurrentPage property). The content of the DataTemplate should be a UserControl that contains the UI for each page type.
Now when you want to change pages, just set CurrentPage to an instance of the page you want, and it will automatically change.
This pattern will keep each page's UI separate from all the other, and gives them a strong view model (the Page subclass). It allows for super easy changing of pages. and follows the MVVM pattern nicely. You can even load all your pages in to a list that you present to the user. With a little more binding the user selecting a page can flow right in to the page change behavior with very little work.

create a page with 3 rows. The top row being a height of 'auto' the middle row being of height '*' and the bottom row being height 'auto' as well. The top and bottom row will take up as much room needed for the header and footer and the middle row will take up the rest of the room.

You can use a Grid
<Grid >
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<local:TopPage Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" />
<local:MidPage Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1" />
<local:BottomPage Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="2" />
</Grid>

WPF window border acting weird with Ribbon Control

I am using the Ribbon control in WPF and I noticed there are 2 different versions.
using Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Ribbon;
If I use this one in my xaml and class, my whole window will be in a very old windows style.
using System.Windows.Controls.Ribbon;
If I use this one in my xaml and class, my Ribbontabs suddenly won't fill correctly anymore.
When I use both of them. With this:
<ribbon:RibbonWindow x:Class="WPSDashboard.Views.ShellWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:ribbon="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.Ribbon;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Ribbon"
xmlns:r="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Ribbon;assembly=RibbonControlsLibrary"
xmlns:prism="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Regions;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism"
Title="WPSDashboard"
x:Name="RibbonWindow"
Width="640" Height="480">
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!-- Ribbon Region -->
<r:Ribbon x:Name="Ribbon" prism:RegionManager.RegionName="RibbonRegion">
<r:Ribbon.ApplicationMenu>
<r:RibbonApplicationMenu SmallImageSource="Images\SmallIcon.png">
<r:RibbonApplicationMenuItem Header="Exit"
x:Name="MenuItemExit"
ImageSource="Images\Exit.png"
Command="{Binding ExitCommand}"/>
</r:RibbonApplicationMenu>
</r:Ribbon.ApplicationMenu>
</r:Ribbon>
<Grid x:Name="ClientArea" Grid.Row="1">
<!-- Workspace Region-->
<GridSplitter HorizontalAlignment="Left" Width="2" Grid.Column="1"/>
<ContentControl x:Name="WorkspaceRegion" Grid.Column="1" prism:RegionManager.RegionName="WorkspaceRegion" />
</Grid>
</Grid>
</ribbon:RibbonWindow>
My Ribbontabs will load but the window now looks like this:
I can't click on close and minimize and maximize. <---
How can I get the border to be normal instead of small?
I can't close my windows this way.

I found the best way to make it look and work good!
Instead of the tags <ribbon:RibbonWindow on the beginning of the xaml,
Make it <Window .
Also add this part:
xmlns:r="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.Ribbon;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Ribbon"
Then in your class delete your : RibbonWindow (If it's there)
If that doesn't work and you don't need the quick access toolbar, this may help:
Go back to your XAML, and change the Ribbon margin to -22 :
<r:Ribbon x:Name="Ribbon" prism:RegionManager.RegionName="RibbonRegion" Margin="0,-22,0,0" >
Now my application looks like this(with the -22 margin) :
Now it looks like a normal application without an ugly windows 98 or 2000 style and the close button, minizime button and maximize button are back!

I personally would, either play on margins, or better than that, investigate the style of that ribbon and change it the way it helps my needs

Winrt Xaml Grid ROw not filling Space with *

I have the problem, that my Grid is not filling the space as I want it.
Here some code:
<HubSection>
<Grid Width="850">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="35"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="310"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Input:RadDatePicker Grid.Row="0" Value="{Binding CurrentDate, Mode=TwoWay}" />
<ListView
Grid.Row="1">...
</ListView>
<Grid Height="310"
Grid.Row="2">...
</Grid>
...
I want that the middle row is filling the space up of the hubsection. Instead it now just fills up when the listview contains enough items.
Any idea?
Now the filled ListView:

I would try setting the VerticalContentAlignment of the HubSection to Stretch as well as setting the VCA of the outer grid to that option. I'm suspecting the default might be Center or Top and so the minimizing vertical alignment control from the parent control and the expanding star-sized row setting of the inner grid come in a little bit of a conflict that some layout prioritizing rules probably resolve in getting the VCA rule to win.
For similar layout issues it is usually best to analyze with a visual tree debugger such as the XAML Spy or WinRT XAML Toolkit. You can also try tracing these various properties by walking the visual tree with the VisualTreeHelper class yourself.

How to Prevent auto-resizing in a custom activity designer?

I hope you can help me with my problem. It's about a custom designer for a WF 4.0 activity, but the problem is essentially in the WPF of the designer.
Some background
I've created a custom WorkFlow activity to send e-mails. For the custom designer for the activity, I've previously been using regular Textboxes for the "Subject" and "Body" of the e-mail, but I'd like to use the ExpressionTextBox to easily bind it to the InArguments of the activity. The ExpressionTextBoxes are in a grid, and this grid is on a StackPanel.
I've set the the MinWidth, MaxWidth and Margin of the ExpressionTextBoxes to fit with the other controls, and in the Visual Studio Designer (viewing the custom activity designer, not the actual WorkFlow) everything looks as it should.
<sapv:ExpressionTextBox Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="2" Height="Auto" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="4, 4, 4, 4"
Expression="{Binding Path=ModelItem.Subject, Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ArgumentToExpressionConverter}, ConverterParameter=In}"
ExpressionType="{x:Type TypeName=sys:String}" OwnerActivity="{Binding Path=ModelItem}" VerticalAlignment="Center" MaxWidth="176" MinWidth="175" />
The problem
When used, initially it also looks as it should, but when the ExpressionTextBoxes are edited, they shrink into being really small. When text is entered, the control expands to fit the text, until it reaches its MaxWidth. When the editing ends, it goes back to it's MaxWidth. I'd prefer if it stayed the same size, regardless of being in edit-mode or not.
If you can't see it, open the image here
What I've tried
I've mostly been doing WinForms, and I'm pretty inexperienced with WPF, so I don't know if there are some funky properties or other settings that I've missed. I've tried setting width-properties of the parent controls (StackPanel and Grid), I've tried setting just the width (no min/max), but it seems to shrink regardless of what I set.
If you would like more information or code, please don't hesitate to ask.
Update
As you can see in the comments to Maurices answer, I figured out how to avoid the problem by removing the horizontalAlignment property, and then using margins to align it to the right. But I'm not going to mark an answer, until there's an explanation of why this behaviour happened in the first place. My XAML was almost identical to what Maurice posted, so there must be something wrong elsewhere.

The XAML for the ExpressionTextBox looks fine to me and when I try the following designer it works just fine.
<sap:ActivityDesigner x:Class="WorkflowConsoleApplication2.MyActivityDesigner"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
xmlns:sap="clr-namespace:System.Activities.Presentation;assembly=System.Activities.Presentation"
xmlns:sapv="clr-namespace:System.Activities.Presentation.View;assembly=System.Activities.Presentation"
xmlns:sapc="clr-namespace:System.Activities.Presentation.Converters;assembly=System.Activities.Presentation">
<sap:ActivityDesigner.Resources>
<sapc:ArgumentToExpressionConverter x:Key="ArgumentToExpressionConverter" />
</sap:ActivityDesigner.Resources>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="30"/>
<RowDefinition Height="30"/>
<RowDefinition Height="30"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Label Content="Subject"
Grid.Row="2"
Grid.Column="0"/>
<sapv:ExpressionTextBox Grid.Column="1"
Grid.Row="2"
Height="Auto"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
Margin="4, 4, 4, 4"
Expression="{Binding Path=ModelItem.Subject, Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ArgumentToExpressionConverter}, ConverterParameter=In}"
ExpressionType="{x:Type TypeName=sys:String}"
OwnerActivity="{Binding Path=ModelItem}"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
MaxWidth="176"
MinWidth="175" />
</Grid>
</sap:ActivityDesigner>
So I suspect the problem is possibly in your grid definition.