Develop Reference

How can I make controls in WPF stretch to fill available width when HorizontalAlignment and HorizontalContentAlignment don't work?

I'm trying to make a simple WPF app that has sections that fill the available width. Despite trying various ways of stretching the width of elements, containers, and children, nothing is working and I can't figure out why.
Another question said to use uniformgrid which worked well EXCEPT that it set the height of all the elements uniformly which was definitely not what I wanted. I want all of the sections to look like the one in the picture - filled width, height auto based on the content. Here's the basic setup:
<Window x:Class="A_Customizer.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:A_Customizer"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="MainWindow"
Background="#FF2B2B2B"
Width="800"
>
<Window.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Cursor" Value="Hand"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type CheckBox}">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Cursor" Value="Hand"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid Name="mainApp" >
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="30"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<WrapPanel Grid.Row="0" >
<Button ToolTip="Click to apply the below settings to this Jumpbox" Click="ApplyCustomizations">Customize</Button>
</WrapPanel>
<ScrollViewer Grid.Row="1">
<WrapPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" >
<GroupBox
Background="#FFE2E2E2"
BorderBrush="#FF7F7F7F"
Margin="10,10,10,10"
Name="pathsBox"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
>
<GroupBox.Header>
<Border Background="#FFAFAFAF" CornerRadius="3">
<Label FontWeight="Bold">Key Paths</Label>
</Border>
</GroupBox.Header>
<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
<Grid Margin="0,10,0,0">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBox Name="homeFolder" Grid.Column="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"></TextBox>
<Button Grid.Column="1" Click="NewQuickPath" ToolTip="Change home folder">
<Image Source="images\add_folder.png" Height="25" Cursor="Hand"></Image>
</Button>
</Grid>
<TextBox Name="progFolder" Grid.Column="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"></TextBox>
</StackPanel>
</GroupBox>
<GroupBox
Background="#FFE2E2E2"
BorderBrush="#FF7F7F7F"
Margin="10,10,10,10"
Name="quickBox"
Height="auto"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
>
<GroupBox.Header>
<Border Background="#FFAFAFAF" CornerRadius="3">
<Label FontWeight="Bold">Quick Access Folders</Label>
</Border>
</GroupBox.Header>
<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
<TextBlock TextWrapping="Wrap" Margin="15">
There are going to be folders you'll need to access frequently and keeping them pinned on top of the left menu in Explorer is helpful.
Select here to add them to the list of folders restored with the "Customize" button. Click any folder to remove it.
</TextBlock>
<Border CornerRadius="3" Background="#FFF3C7C7" Margin="6" Visibility="Collapsed" Name="quickErr" Tag="err_box">
<TextBlock Tag="errMsg" Foreground="#FFFD3434" TextWrapping="Wrap" Margin="6" ></TextBlock>
</Border>
<UniformGrid Name="quickPathsArea" Columns="1">
</UniformGrid>
<Grid Margin="0,10,0,0">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBox Grid.Column="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"></TextBox>
<Button Grid.Column="1" Click="NewQuickPath" ToolTip="Add a new folder">
<Image Source="images\add_folder.png" Height="25" Cursor="Hand"></Image>
</Button>
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
</GroupBox>
</wrappanel>
</scrollviewer>
</grid>

StackPanel with Orientation="Vertical" (default value) instead of WrapPanel should work: it will allow each child element use full width and as much height as necessary

C# WPF - Dockpanel's children collapsed not resizing the other visible childs

I'm sorry if I didn't find any relative post/questions regarding my small annoying issue.
I have a WPF window with a DockPanel (LastChildFill = True) that hosts three controls :
One Button (OK)
One label (Title)
One Border with a listbox in it
What I do is when the test in process is "pass" it has no data to push in the listbox so I make it collapsed and then I would like the Title label to be centered in the available space that is not used by the listbox and its border.
When I have a "fail" or an "error", I have data to put in the listbox and then it is visible and everything is just as expected.
I tried many things before coming here and I lost enough time on this as I need to get other stuff done by the time I'm writing here.
Can anyone point me out how to solve my issue (centering label when listbox+border is collapsed) ?
Here is my xaml code for this window :
<Window x:Class="NI.TestStand.WPFControls.Views.DisplayBannerView"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:NI.TestStand.WPFControls"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="DisplayBanner" x:Name="DisplayBannerMessage" Height="500" Width="800" MinHeight="300" MinWidth="500">
<Window.Resources>
<Style x:Name="BaseWindowFont" TargetType="Window">
<Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="Arial"></Setter>
<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="16"></Setter>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="2">
<DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
<Button
x:Name="butOK"
DockPanel.Dock="Bottom"
Margin="10" Content="OK"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
Padding="10" Width="150"
Click="butOK_Click"/>
<Label
x:Name="main_message"
Padding="15"
FontSize="50"
Content="MAIN_MSG"
DockPanel.Dock="Top"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalContentAlignment="Center" />
<Border BorderBrush="Chocolate" BorderThickness="2" Margin="10" Name="messages_border">
<ListBox
Background="{Binding ElementName=DisplayBannerMessage, Path=Background}"
Foreground="Black"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
ScrollViewer.CanContentScroll="True"
VerticalContentAlignment="Top"
VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
x:Name="detail_message">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding}" ToolTip="{Binding}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
</Border>
</DockPanel>
</Border>
</Grid>
</Window>
Here are the images that shows a PASS and an ERROR to show the difference.
The PASSED title message in the green lime window should go in the middle of the window as the listbox is collapsed..
Thanks for all your help and time

I would design the whole thing like this:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="2"
Grid.RowSpan="{Binding PassErrorBooleanProperty, Converter={StaticResource BoolToRowSpanConverter}}">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Label
x:Name="main_message"
Padding="15"
FontSize="50"
Content="MAIN_MSG"
DockPanel.Dock="Top"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalContentAlignment="Center" />
<Border Grid.Row="1" BorderBrush="Chocolate" BorderThickness="2" Margin="10" Name="messages_border"
Visibility="{Binding PassErrorBooleanProperty, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}">
<ListBox
Background="{Binding ElementName=DisplayBannerMessage, Path=Background}"
Foreground="Black"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
ScrollViewer.CanContentScroll="True"
VerticalContentAlignment="Top"
VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
x:Name="detail_message">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding}" ToolTip="{Binding}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
</Border>
<Button Grid.Row="2"
x:Name="butOK"
DockPanel.Dock="Bottom"
Margin="10" Content="OK"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
Padding="10" Width="150"
Click="butOK_Click" />
</Grid>
</Border>
</Grid>
There are two bindings to PassErrorBooleanProperty (which I've made up as something you'd use to indicate the result, you might have something else in place for this already), and you'd need two different converters, one for converting to a Visibility, and one for converting to an int (Grid.RowSpan).
When the value is true (Pass), you'd return Visibility.Collapsed and 2 from the converters. When the value is false, you'd return Visibility.Visible and 1.
Let me know if you need more info on the converters, though there is lots of information out there on using IValueConverter to create Boolean to Visibility converters, etc.

Styled Expander Control Template and not able to view Expanded Content on Click

I am just styling the Expander Control in WPF. I have defined only the styles in Expander Control Template, but I am not able to view the content of expander when I click on it.
I guess I have to define the expander trigers also ? but I don't know which triger and how to define it.
Also why I have to define triggers when I am just styling the expander.
<Window x:Class="ExpanderControl.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
<Style TargetType="Expander">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition Height="0" Name="contentRow"></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!--Expander Header-->
<Border Background="AliceBlue"
Grid.Row="0"
>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"></ColumnDefinition>
<ColumnDefinition Width="20"></ColumnDefinition>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ContentPresenter Grid.Column="0" ContentSource="Header"
RecognizesAccessKey="True"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
HorizontalAlignment="Left"
Margin="5"
></ContentPresenter>
<ToggleButton Grid.Column="1">
<TextBlock>x</TextBlock>
</ToggleButton>
</Grid>
</Border>
<!--Expander Content-->
<Border Background="Aqua" Grid.Row="1">
<ContentPresenter Grid.Row="1"></ContentPresenter>
</Border>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<Expander Header="Expander" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="205,95,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="200">
<Grid Background="#FFE5E5E5">
<Menu>
<MenuItem Header="hi"></MenuItem>
</Menu>
</Grid>
</Expander>
</Grid>
</Window>

At the moment there is no action linked to ToggleButton. You need to utilize Expander.IsExpanded property by binding it
To ToggleButton.IsChecked
To Border.Visibility via BooleanToVisibilityConverter (custom or built in)
Set content row height to Auto
This way changing ToggleButton.IsChecked will change Expander.IsExpanded which in turn will affect visibility of content Border. It will also work when you change IsExpanded property from outside.
This is working XAML
<Window.Resources>
<BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BooleanToVisibilityConverter"/>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="30"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" Name="contentRow"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!--Expander Header-->
<Border Background="AliceBlue" Grid.Row="0">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="20"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ContentPresenter Grid.Column="0" ContentSource="Header" RecognizesAccessKey="True" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="5" />
<ToggleButton Grid.Column="1" Content="x" IsChecked="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, Path=IsExpanded}"/>
</Grid>
</Border>
<!--Expander Content-->
<Border Background="Aqua" Grid.Row="1" Visibility="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, Path=IsExpanded, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}">
<ContentPresenter/>
</Border>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
EDIT
If you want whole header to be able to expand/collapse your Expander you need to bring ContentPresenter for Header into Content of ToggleButton. In your case basically bring header Grid into ToggleButton.Content
<!--Expander Header-->
<ToggleButton IsChecked="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, Path=IsExpanded}" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" Grid.Row="0">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="20"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ContentPresenter Grid.Column="0" ContentSource="Header" RecognizesAccessKey="True" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="5" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Text="x" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
</Grid>
</ToggleButton>

Window Style and using controls (C# and WPF)

I'm using Visual Studio 2013 to create my applications. I started to learn programming 4 years ago, and now a days I wanna to improve my programmer experience.
In the last days I had to create a simply application, but I didn't want to use a default style of a window. So I read that I could create a style for my window. I did it, it works fine, but there's a little problem: I can't put anything inside my window now... All the controls I put into a grid, into the window tag, aren't visible, but the compiler doesn't show any problems.
Here is the Style Code, then my Window XAML
<Style TargetType="Window" x:Key="DefaultWindow">
<Setter Property="AllowsTransparency" Value="True"/>
<Setter Property="WindowStyle" Value="None"/>
<Setter Property="ResizeMode" Value="CanResizeWithGrip"/>
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Border BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="Black">
<Border BorderThickness="3" BorderBrush="#FF244E97">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="50"></RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Row="0" Background="#FF244E97">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"></ColumnDefinition>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Viewbox Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="10">
<TextBlock FontFamily="Corbel" Background="#FF244E97" Foreground="White">Costo Unitario</TextBlock>
</Viewbox>
<Grid Grid.Column="1">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
<ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
<ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Viewbox Grid.Column="0" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="2, 10, 2, 10">
<TextBlock FontFamily="Corbel" Background="#FF244E97" Foreground="White">_</TextBlock>
</Viewbox>
<Viewbox Grid.Column="1" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="2, 10, 2, 10">
<TextBlock FontFamily="Corbel" Background="#FF244E97" Foreground="White">◘</TextBlock>
</Viewbox>
<Viewbox Grid.Column="2" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="2, 10, 20, 10">
<TextBlock FontFamily="Corbel" Background="#FF244E97" Foreground="White">X</TextBlock>
</Viewbox>
</Grid>
</Grid>
<Grid x:Name="ContenentGrid" Grid.Row="1" Background="White">
<ResizeGrip Width="10" Height="10" Grid.Column="1" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"/>
</Grid>
</Grid>
</Border>
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
And my Windows Xaml:
<Window x:Class="Pabich.Marcin._5HI.CostoUnitario.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:chrt="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Charting;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Toolkit"
Title="MainWindow" Height="600" Width="800" WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"
Style="{StaticResource DefaultWindow}">
<Grid>
<TextBlock>Hello!</TextBlock>
</Grid>
This should be a no-border window, within I can put controls, in the central grid. This is a screen of the window for now:
Screen of the Window
As you can see, I leaved all the white space for my controls, but they aren't there. So how can I make it?
PS: Keep in mind that I'm only a beginner, and I wanna to use simply code

I think that's happens because you don't use ContentPresenter to display window content. Without ContentPresenter WPF content model doesn't know where content should be placed and doesn't show it.
Try to add the ContentPresenter to your ContentGrid (WPF window also requires it in the AdornerDecorator).
<Grid x:Name="ContenentGrid" Grid.Row="1" Background="White">
<AdornerDecorator>
<ContentPresenter Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" />
</AdornerDecorator>
... ResizeGrip here ...
</Grid>

Extracting data templates in user controls

There are known problems for setting up caliburn binding in DataTemplates.
In this answer EisenbergEffect suggests extracting Data Templates into a user control.
How can this be achieved?
In my user control I have lots of DataTemplates and ran into those problems. Conventions are not applied and I have to use "classical" Binding.
I could only imagine to extract the whole control with the DataTemplate, this would give me lots of smaller controls, but I see no way to only extract the DataTemplate.
Here is an example XAML
<Grid>
<Grid.Resources />
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="10*" />
<RowDefinition Height="2*" />
<RowDefinition Height="1*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="1*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Border HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
BorderBrush="Transparent"
BorderThickness="0">
<ScrollViewer HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
Background="Yellow"
BorderBrush="Transparent"
BorderThickness="0"
CanContentScroll="True"
HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto">
<!-- Conventions work here -->
<ListView x:Name="Computers"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
Background="Red"
BorderThickness="0">
<ListView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border Background="Transparent"
BorderBrush="Transparent"
BorderThickness="0">
<ListView HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
Background="Black"
ItemsSource="{Binding HardwareComponents}"> <!-- Conventions to not work here -->
<ListView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border Background="Aquamarine"
BorderBrush="DarkGray"
BorderThickness="1">
<Grid Background="Transparent" cal:Message.Attach="[Event MouseDown] = [Action Expand($dataContext)]" >
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="20" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Border BorderBrush="Red" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch">
<!-- Even more DataTemplates come here -->
</Border>
</Grid>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</ListView.ItemTemplate>
</ListView>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</ListView.ItemTemplate>
</ListView>
</ScrollViewer>
</Border>
</Grid>