Develop Reference

Cannot align textboxes inside grid properly among themselves

I have the following DataTemplate where inside is a Grid with a 'TextBlock' and TextBox that I want to align to the center:
<DataTemplate x:Key="OneSettingsEntryTemplate" DataType="{x:Type templateHelper:InputText}">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Grid.Column="0"
Style="{StaticResource StandardTextBlocksStyle}"
Text="{Binding Text, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"/>
<TextBox Grid.Column="1"
Style="{StaticResource DefaultTextBoxesStyle}"
Text="{Binding Content, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
In one of my UserControls I have the following code where I use the Template:
<StackPanel DataContext="{Binding ElementName=ControlForProjectSettings, Path=ViewModel}"
HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<TextBlock Style="{StaticResource HeadingTextBlocksStyle}"
Text="Project settings"/>
<ListView Background="#DAE7F5"
ItemsSource="{Binding ProjectSettingEntries}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource OneSettingsEntryTemplate}">
</ListView>
</StackPanel>
When I run my application and display some items, the last item has a longer text and therefore the TextBox flips to the right. Application Image
I tried playing around with the HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment properties inside the Grid or also using a DockPanel instead of a Grid but couldn't find a solution. Any ideas?

Thanks to this source: WPF share column width between separate grids I solved my problem.
I added the IsSharedSizeScope to my Grid and the SharedSizeGroup property to my columns.
<Grid IsSharedSizeScope="True">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="A"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="A"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

Align controls correctly when using ItemsControl in WPF

Can someone tell me how to align and resize controls correctly when using the ItemsControl.
I want to have a description on the left and a TextBox on the right for multiple fields which are defined in an ObservableCollection to end up with something like:
First Name: [FirstNameTextBox]
Last Name: [LastNameTextBox]
Date of Birth: [DobTextBox]
but instead I'm getting this:
First Name: [FirstNameTextBox]
Last Name: [LastNameTextBox]
Date of Birth: [DobTextBox]
I want all the textbox to be aligned based on the largest <TextBlock>. If this was done directly in a <Grid> control, it would be straight forward as all controls are directly in the grid and you would just have the following columns definition defined
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
I thought I could use the SharedSizeGroup property in the <Grid> but it still doesn't resize correctly. Instead it only displays the <TextBlock> stretch across the <Grid>.
Here's my code:
<Grid Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True" Grid.Row="1">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="Labels" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" SharedSizeGroup="InputControls" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ItemsControl Grid.Row="1" ItemsSource="{Binding SelectedTemplate.Fields}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels"/>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="InputControls"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Label}" Grid.Column="0" Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center" Background="Red" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Value}" Grid.Column="1" Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center" Background="Blue" />
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>
Any idea how I can resolve this?
Thanks.
UPDATE1: I cannot get this to work as I need it to. This is what I've got so far:
<Grid Grid.Row="1" Background="Purple">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" SharedSizeGroup="Overall" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels" Width="Auto" />
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="InputControls" Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding SelectedTemplate.Fields}"
Background="Yellow"
Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid Background="Green">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels"/>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="InputControls"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Label}"
Grid.Column="0"
Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Name}"
Grid.Column="1"
Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>
This ends up displaying my layout this way:
As you can see, my TextBox are correctly aligned based on the largest TextBlock but my ItemsControls is not stretched all the way across. I guess that makes sense as it is within the same grid where the ColumnDefinitions are defined.
Now, if I move the ColumnDefinitions' out this grid to the outer grid and remove all instances ofGrid.IsSharedSizeScope`, I guess the following:
Which once again is closer to what I need as my ItemsControl is now stretching all the way as I've set its Grid.ColumnSpan="2" and my TextBox are still aligned to the TextBlock and are stretching all the way across but the problem now is that the TextBlock should be smaller as the Column is set to Auto but they appear to behave as if the column was set to * and I guess I'm losing the purpose of using IsSharedSizeScope since it has been removed.
Now if I add IsSharedSizeScope="True" to the outer grid, I get the following result:
Again, this is close to what I want as my ItemsControl is stretched, my textboxes are also stretch but they are no longer aligned to the largest TextBlock.
Finally, if I add Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True" to ItemsControl as originally suggested by #mm8,
<Grid Grid.Row="1" Background="Purple" Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels" Width="Auto" />
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="InputControls" Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.ColumnSpan="2" >
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding SelectedTemplate.Fields}"
Background="Yellow"
Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid Background="Green">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels"/>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="InputControls"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Label}"
Grid.Column="0"
Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Name}"
Grid.Column="1"
Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>
<!--<TextBlock Text="Invoice Number" Grid.Column="0" Margin="5" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
<TextBox Text="InvoiceNumber" Grid.Column="1" Margin="5" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>-->
</Grid>
I get the following:
Which brings me back to square one, though the definitions are different?
I need to achieve the following:
What am I doing wrong??
Thanks.

Try to set the Grid.IsSharedSizeScope property of the ItemsControl itself:
<ItemsControl Grid.Row="1" ItemsSource="{Binding SelectedBarcodeTemplate.Fields}"
Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
Synchronizing the width of elements in an ItemsControl: https://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/synchronizing-the-width-of-elements-in-an-itemscontrol/

I eventually found the answer in the following article: WPF Tutorial - Grid Panel under the section: "How to share the width of a column over multiple grids".
As per article:
Columns and rows that participate in size-sharing do not respect Star sizing. In the size-sharing scenario, Star sizing is treated as Auto. Since TextWrapping on TextBlocks within an SharedSize column does not work you can exclude your last column from the shared size. This often helps to resolve the problem.
So my final XAML looks like this:
<Grid Grid.Row="1" Background="Purple" >
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels" Width="Auto" />
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="InputControls" Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
</Grid>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding SelectedBarcodeTemplate.Fields}"
Background="Yellow"
Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid Background="Green" ShowGridLines="True">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="Labels"/>
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Label}"
Grid.Column="0"
Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Name}"
Grid.Column="1"
Margin="5"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>
And the outcome now finally looks correct:
Hope this helps others!

Listview is resizing correctly in Universal App Windows 10

I've got a XAML page which is broken down with a grid as follows:
<Grid Background="Green">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
</Grid>
The first and third row contain a TextBlock each and are set to auto-resize to their height and the ListView is contained in the middle row and it is suppose to stretch within the area.
The ListView appears to be resized based on the number of items rather than the available visible area that should be allocated to the middle row.
This has 2 side effects:
I can't scroll to view the other items
It pushes the TextBlock in the third row out of the screen.
If I set a specific height on the ListView, it works as expected but I want my ListView to use the entire area of the screen between the top and bottom rows.
It displays as expected in the IDE, but no data is loaded but I can clearly see my top and bottom row (in green) and I can see the ListView is stretched between these 2 rows.
I've used this numerous times in the past but with a universal app for Windows 10, so I'm wondering if this is a new behaviour I'm not aware of or is this a bug?
This is full code without the DataTemplate for clarity sake. Just to be clear, my DataTemplate is displaying correctly, but I just can't scroll as there is no scrollbar since the listview is stretched based on the items, rather than being restricted to the available area of the middle row.
<Grid Background="Green">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Text="Top Row" />
<ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}"
Grid.Row="1"
Background="Red">
<ListView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
....
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ListView.ItemTemplate>
</ListView>
<TextBlock Text="bottom row" Grid.Row="2"/>
</Grid>

You need to wrap your ListView in a ScrollView. This will fill the empty area and add a scroll bar as the list overflows the empty area.

I figured out the problem. It isn't a change in behaviour or a bug!
As someone mentioned that they tried to reproduce the problem and couldn't, I decided to do the same.
When I put my grid and ListView directly on the MainPage, I couldn't reproduce it.
When I put my grid and ListView on a sub-page (i.e. GridPage) and loaded it into the frame contained on the MainPage, I couldn't reproduce it
and that's when the penny dropped!!
In my code, I used (for the first time) a SplitView and this SplitView was contained in a grid with 2 rows and stupidly, both rows were set to "Auto" when I should have set the first one to Auto for my hamburger menu, logo and title and the second one should have been set to '*'.
The second I changed my second row to '*', the problem got sorted. It had nothing to do with the Grid Page which contained the grid I originally posted problem with.
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource FocusVisualWhiteStrokeThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
Here is the full code:
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource FocusVisualWhiteStrokeThemeBrush}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Border Background="White"
Grid.Row="0"
Grid.Column="0"
Margin="0,10,0,10">
<ToggleButton Style="{StaticResource SymbolButton}"
Foreground="{ThemeResource ApplicationForegroundThemeBrush}"
FontSize="{ThemeResource ControlContentThemeFontSize}"
Command="{Binding HamburgerCommand}" >
<FontIcon x:Name="Hamburger"
FontFamily="Segoe MDL2 Assets"
Glyph=""
Foreground="#ff6600" />
</ToggleButton>
</Border>
<Border Background="White" Grid.Row="0"
Grid.Column="1" Margin="10,0,0,0">
<Image Stretch="Fill" Source="{Binding SelectedSection,
Converter={StaticResource SectionImageConverter}}"
Height="20" Width="20" />
</Border>
<Border Background="White"
Grid.Row="0"
Grid.Column="2"
Margin="10,0,0,0">
<TextBlock x:Name="Header" Text="{Binding SelectedSection,
Converter={StaticResource
SectionTitleConverter}}"
Style="{StaticResource TagLineTextStyle}"
Foreground="#ff6600"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
Margin="10,0,0,0"/>
</Border>
</Grid>
<SplitView x:Name="Splitter"
IsPaneOpen="{Binding IsPageOpen}"
DisplayMode="Inline"
Grid.Row="1">
<SplitView.Pane>
<ListBox x:Name="SectionControl" SelectionMode="Single"
ItemsSource="{Binding Sections}"
HorizontalAlignment="Left"
Background="White"
BorderThickness="0"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
SelectedItem="{Binding
SelectedSection, Mode=TwoWay}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="{Binding Converter={StaticResource
SectionImageConverter}}"
Height="17" Width="17"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding
Converter={StaticResource
SectionTitleConverter}}"
Margin="20,0,0,0"
Foreground="#ff6600" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<Interactivity:Interaction.Behaviors>
<Core:EventTriggerBehavior EventName="SelectionChanged">
<Core:InvokeCommandAction Command="{Binding
ItemClickCommand}"
CommandParameter="{Binding SelectedSection}" />
</Core:EventTriggerBehavior>
</Interactivity:Interaction.Behaviors>
</ListBox>
</SplitView.Pane>
<SplitView.Content>
<Frame x:Name="SectionFrame"/>
</SplitView.Content>
</SplitView>
</Grid>
Thanks again for the feedback/help. Much appreciated!

WP8.1 Popup - Slow to render

I made a popup control that can accept any view of type FrameworkElement. In addition, you can provide a view model, which will be bound to the DataContext of the child view being provided. Everything works, but it takes a couple of seconds to render the data. The view model has an ObservableCollection that contains about 300 items. So in all honesty, 300 items shouldn't cause any issues.
There is no lag what so ever, If I extract the xaml from the popup to a regular page.
So, is there something inside a Popup control that happens when it's Child content property is being set, that would cause such a delay? Because this is blowing my mind at the moment.
Thanks in advance!
[Update]
As requested, the XAML that forms the child content of the tool window:
<UserControl
x:Class="App.Controls.ContactSelector"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:App.Controls"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:interactivity="using:Microsoft.Xaml.Interactivity"
xmlns:core="using:Microsoft.Xaml.Interactions.Core"
mc:Ignorable="d" x:Name="contactSelector"
DataContext="{Binding ContactSelectorViewModel,Source={StaticResource Locator}}">
<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Style="{StaticResource BaseGridStyle}">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="1*" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<ListView Grid.Row="0" ItemsSource="{Binding ContactCollection}">
<ListView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid Margin="12">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="1*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<!--<Image Margin="0,0,10,0" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0"
Source="{Binding Thumbnail}" MaxHeight="35"
Visibility="{Binding Thumbnail, Converter={StaticResource ObjectNullToVisibilityConverter}}" />-->
<!--<Image Margin="0,5,5,5" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" MaxHeight="35"
Source="ms-appx:///Assets/Images/Contact.png"
Visibility="{Binding Thumbnail, Converter={StaticResource InverseObjectNullToVisibilityConverter}}" />-->
<TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding FullName}"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
Style="{StaticResource TextBlockMedium}" />
<!--<Grid Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<ItemsControl Grid.Row="0" ItemsSource="{Binding MobileNumbers}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid Margin="10,5">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="1*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Margin="0"
Text="{Binding Number}"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
Style="{StaticResource TextBlockMedium}">
<interactivity:Interaction.Behaviors>
<core:EventTriggerBehavior EventName="Tapped">
<core:InvokeCommandAction
Command="{Binding DataContext.SelectContact, ElementName=contactSelector}"
CommandParameter="{Binding}" />
</core:EventTriggerBehavior>
</interactivity:Interaction.Behaviors>
</TextBlock>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>-->
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ListView.ItemTemplate>
<!--<ListView.GroupStyle>
<GroupStyle>
<GroupStyle.HeaderTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Key}"
VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
Style="{StaticResource TextBlockMedium}"
Padding="5" Margin="5" FontWeight="SemiBold" />
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</GroupStyle.HeaderTemplate>
</GroupStyle>
</ListView.GroupStyle>-->
</ListView>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
So I have commented out the entire section of the ItemsControl, but this did not solve the problem. When the Popup opens, it still takes quite a while to show the containing items.
It isn't slow when it's scrolling, it's slow in rendering the initial items.

The problem is in the ItemsControl which displays the MobileNumbers collection. You should not have an ItemsControl as an ItemTemplate for another ItemsControl (in your case, the ListView). You can do that only when you display small amount of items.
Because of this your MobileNumbers items are not virtualized and this is where the performance problem comes from, as all the items need to be displayed to render the item template.
You can try creating a flat list of objects, and then use ItemTemplateSelector to display different item templates for different types. For example you could have the following ObservableCollection as the ItemsSource:
Header
Contact info
Mobile number1
Mobile number2
Header
Contact info
Mobile number
etc.

vertical scroll on parts of pivot page

I have a problem scrolling vertically within a data bound pivot page (WP 7.1).
I have tried the different solutions posted here and on MSDN, but none of them seem to work for me..
I have a list
of News objects in an ObservableCollection that I am displaying in a pivot page. So far so good...
I want to be able to scroll the main text of the news item, but have the menu and headline stationary on the page.
I have tried making a grid and surrounding the scrollable content by a Listbox and now a ScrollViewer, but I am not able to scroll on the page.. When I try scrolling, I can scroll a couple of lines of text, and then the text reverts to the original position. Very frustrating!!!
The code I have tried is this:
<!--Pivot Control-->
<controls:Pivot x:Name="PivotNews"
Grid.Row="2"
ItemsSource="{Binding NewsCollection}" >
<controls:Pivot.HeaderTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<!--<TextBlock Text="Seneste nyheder" />-->
</DataTemplate>
</controls:Pivot.HeaderTemplate>
<controls:Pivot.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel>
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
<!--<RowDefinition Height="*" />-->
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid x:Name="HeaderLine"
Grid.Row ="0">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="150" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Source="{Binding ImageUri}"
Grid.Column="0"
Height="150"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}"
FontWeight="ExtraBold"
FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
TextWrapping="Wrap"
Grid.Column="1"
Margin="10,0,0,10"/>
</Grid>
<ScrollViewer x:Name="ScrollViewerNews" Grid.Row="1">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding SubHeader}"
FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
FontWeight="Bold"
TextWrapping="Wrap" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding MainText}"
TextWrapping="Wrap" />
</StackPanel>
</ScrollViewer>
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</controls:Pivot.ItemTemplate>
</controls:Pivot>

Just remove first StackPanel in your ItemTemplate.
When you use StackPanel, it has it's own height, that does not depend on Page height, and row height value "*" tries to fit in the available space, that is in this case bigger, than the pages height.