Porting from WPF to Silverlight: The Missing Pieces, Part 2
I bring you the sequel for the post found here.
These are just more Silverlight 3 missing features I’ve needed while porting a WPF 3.5 application to Silverlight.
So, without further ado:
Style Setter Doesn’t Support Bindings
Description: in Silverlight 3, a style setter can’t set a value to a binding.
Solution by: David Anson
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/delay/archive/2009/05/07/one-more-platform-difference-more-or-less-tamed-settervaluebindinghelper-makes-silverlight-setters-better.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/delay/archive/2009/11/02/as-the-platform-evolves-so-do-the-workarounds-better-settervaluebindinghelper-makes-silverlight-setters-better-er.aspx
In a nutshell:
Instead of writing:
<Setter Property="IsSelected" Value="{Binding IsSelected}"/>
Use the code in the post and write:
<Setter Property="common:SetterValueBindingHelper.PropertyBinding">
<Setter.Value>
<common:SetterValueBindingHelper>
<common:SetterValueBindingHelper
Property="IsSelected"
Binding="{Binding IsSelected}"
/>
</common:SetterValueBindingHelper>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
The code seems completely different but it is just cosmetics, it works as advertised.
Binding Only Works On FrameworkElement Derived Classes
Description: In Silverlight 3, binding only works on classes that derive from FrameworkElement, where in WPF it works on every DependencyObject.
Solution by: Morten Nielsen
http://www.sharpgis.net/post/2009/05/04/Using-surrogate-binders-in-Silverlight.aspx
In a nutshell:
Instead of writing:
<Image>
<Image.RenderTransform >
<RotateTransform Angle="{Binding Path=Heading}" />
</Image.RenderTransform>
</Image>
Use the code in the post and write:
<Image local:SurrogateBinder.Angle="{Binding Path=Heading}">
<Image.RenderTransform >
<RotateTransform />
</Image.RenderTransform>
</Image>
Template.FindName Doesn’t Exist
Description: Silverlight 3 doesn’t support the FindName function.
Solution by: Bea Stollnitz
http://bea.stollnitz.com/blog/?p=366
In a nutshell:
Instead of writing:
_panel = Template.FindName("PART_PANEL", this) as StackPanel;
Use the code in the post and write:
_panel = TreeHelper.FindDescendent(this, "PART_PANEL") as StackPanel;
Note: Bea has some more excellent tips for porting WPF to SL in this post.
No UniformGrid
Description: Silverlight 3 doesn’t have the UniformGrid control.
Solution by: Jeff Wilcox
http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2009/01/uniform-grid/
In a nutshell:
Instead of writing:
<UniformGrid Columns="2">
Use the code in the post and write:
<local:UniformGrid Columns="2">
That’s it for now,
Arik Poznanski.