Comments on: Template parts and custom controls (quick tip)

By: Jeff Wilcox

Jeff Wilcox — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:44:12 +0000

Some controls such as transitioning content control may on purpose keep references longer than that.

By: Bruno Martinez

Bruno Martinez — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:42:01 +0000

Why is detaching events necessary? If nobody keeps a reference to the template part, the garbage collector will get it, along with the delegate back to the control.

By: Anthonywjones

Anthonywjones — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:44:48 +0000

@Vish,

Perhaps you should post a question on Stackoverflow with the details and I’ll try to help you out, I see no reason why the approach won’t work with CustomControls, ultimately anything that is being displayed has to be in the Visual Tree somewhere.

By: Vish

Vish — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:55:29 +0000

Hi Jeff, Anthony,

The VisualTreeHelper seems to work only for UserControls and not on CustomControls…

Thank You,
Vish

By: Anthonywjones

Anthonywjones — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:08:31 +0000

@Vish,
See an answer of mine on Stackoverflow:-

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2020842/get-radiobuttons-of-group-in-silverlight-3/2022240#2022240

It contains a useful extension method on DependencyObject that allows a Visual Tree to be queried using LINQ.

By: Jeff Wilcox

Jeff Wilcox — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:44:47 +0000

@Anthonywjones,
No, actually you are correct: DefaultStyleKey probably is the exception… I’m not completely sure though, will think about this.

By: Jeff Wilcox

Jeff Wilcox — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:44:10 +0000

@Vish,
You would need to use VisualTreeHelper and some code to do that.

By: Anthonywjones

Anthonywjones — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:22:51 +0000

Its good to see some explanation for the choices made in the toolkit source code.

Can you clarify the final statement: “You should define template part attributes on every subclasses where expected. They do not inherit.”

Does that apply even in cases where the DefaultStyleKey remains the type of the base class?

By: Dew Drop – April 2, 2010 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew

Dew Drop – April 2, 2010 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:44:08 +0000

[...] Template parts and custom controls (quick tip) (Jeff Wilcox) [...]

By: Vish

Vish — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:52:04 +0000

Hi Jeff,

Is it possible to get a reference to the button part inside the custom control being used in the app if I know the name of the part? The GetTemplateChild is protected method, but can an app using the custom control get a reference to the button part?

Thank You,
Vish