WPF - Changing Fill property for group of shapes

Shawn Horton

I have a group of shapes in a WPF UserControl, and I want them to all have the same color selected by the user at runtime. I thought I could create a DynamicResource in place of a hard coded fill value and change the value through the code behind class. This would let me create a property box with a color picker and allow the user to change colors. I cannot get this to work. Below are a couple examples of what I have tried. Usercontrol XAML file: Code behind class for the control. public partial class UserControl1 : UserControl { public UserControl1() { InitializeComponent(); } static UserControl1() { FillColorProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("SolidBrush", typeof(SolidColorBrush), typeof(UserControl1), new UIPropertyMetadata(Brushes.PowderBlue)); } static DependencyProperty FillColorProperty; /// /// PLACEHOLDER /// public SolidColorBrush SolidBrush { get { return (SolidColorBrush)base.GetValue(FillColorProperty); } set { base.SetValue(FillColorProperty, value); } } } I have tried so many ways to do this, that I am grasping at straws now. Any help would be appreciated.

CKnig

So you define a Resouce and a dependend property with the same Name - why don't you just stay with the Dependend Property? (I can't even see where you use the "SolidBrush"-Resource). Maybe you can post some code where you want to use this Brush because I guess your mistake lies there.

Shawn Horton

I guess I am not being to helpful to myself. I just want to create a custom control with two ellipses with a variable fill color that can be changed at runtime. The control would have a property dialog with a color picker, that would change the ellipse fill color to the selected color. That is all I need. I know I could set the fill color of each ellipse independently by modifying the Fill property in the codebehind, but I was looking for a way to just change a single "color" variable and save myself some work. I have been trying every combination of resource, dynamic property, and anything else I can find, and I posted some code somewhere between changes. Thanks for any help you can give. Shawn

In the control's code behind file:

SolidColorBrush _FillColor; ** //I want this variable to control the DynamicResource SolidBrush**

//Property to change fill color
public SolidColorBrush SolidBrush
{
get
{
return (SolidColorBrush) _FillColor;
}
set
{
_FillColor = value;
}
}

I got an answer from the MSDN Forums

CKnig

Shawn Horton wrote:

And change the code behind to: public static readonly DependencyProperty SolidBrushProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("SolidBrush", typeof(SolidColorBrush), typeof(UserControl1), new UIPropertyMetadata(null)); public SolidColorBrush SolidBrush { get { return (SolidColorBrush)GetValue(SolidBrushProperty); } set { SetValue(SolidBrushProperty, value); } }

This one should work but maybe you should change the DependencyProperty code to something like FrameworkPropertyMetadata metaBrush= new FrameworkPropertyMetadata( Brushes.Blue, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.None); SolidBrushProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("SolidBrush", typeof(SolidColorBrush), typeof(UserControl1), metaBrush); (I normaly define this in the static constructor of the class) As you can see the only difference is the use of the initialised (Blue brush) FrameworkPropertyMetadata instead of a empty UIPropertyMetadata. The rest looks fine to me.

Shawn Horton

CKnig wrote:

FrameworkPropertyMetadata metaBrush= new FrameworkPropertyMetadata( Brushes.Blue, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.None); SolidBrushProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("SolidBrush", typeof(SolidColorBrush), typeof(UserControl1), metaBrush); (I normaly define this in the static constructor of the class) As you can see the only difference is the use of the initialised (Blue brush) FrameworkPropertyMetadata instead of a empty UIPropertyMetadata. The rest looks fine to me.

I did that last night, the control works great. Thanks for the help. Shawn