Forums | NoesisGUI

Posted: **31 Jul 2015, 18:53**

I am trying to create a UserControl and then have instances of it within the cells of a grid.

My most successful attempt so far is using a ResourceDictionary. This works within Blend but does not work when it gets into Unity.

In Unity I get the following error in the xaml file at the point I try to use the "WobbleTile" resource.

Parsing StaticResource (@27,4)
Can't add a 'StaticResourceExpression' to a 'UIElementCollection'

My xaml files are below...

<ResourceDictionary
	xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
	xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

	<UserControl x:Key="WobbleTileKey" x:Name="WobbleTile">
		<Grid>
			<TextBlock Name="textBlock" FontStyle="Italic" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="This is a WobbleTile" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Background="DarkGoldenrod" Foreground="AntiqueWhite"/>
		</Grid>
	</UserControl>
</ResourceDictionary>

and

<UserControl
	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"
	mc:Ignorable="d"
	d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480">

    <UserControl.Resources>
    	<ResourceDictionary Source="WobbleTile.xaml"/>
	</UserControl.Resources>

	<Viewbox VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center">
			<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,0,0,0" Height="200" Width="200">
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition Width="1*" />
                <ColumnDefinition Width="1*" />
                <ColumnDefinition Width="1*" />
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <Grid.RowDefinitions>
                <RowDefinition Height="1*" />
                <RowDefinition Height="1*" />
                <RowDefinition Height="1*" />
            </Grid.RowDefinitions>
			<TextBlock Name="textBlock" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" FontStyle="Italic" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="Here is some text" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Background="DodgerBlue" Foreground="AntiqueWhite"/>
			<Grid Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1">
				<StaticResource ResourceKey="WobbleTileKey"/>
			</Grid>
		</Grid>
	</Viewbox>
</UserControl>

What is the best way to achieve what I am trying to do?

Posted: **01 Aug 2015, 16:50**

You don't need the ResourceDictionary. Once you create an UserControl, it can be used as a normal (like Button, Image) control.

Before digging into more details, did you read our tutorials about it?

Native
Unity

Posted: **03 Aug 2015, 11:53**

OK, thanks.

I've had a look through the tutorial and changed my XAML to get rid of the ResourceDictionary.

To actually use the resource now I have the following snippets within my Grid UserControl...

<UserControl.Resources>
    <local:WobbleTile x:Key="WobbleTile"/>
</UserControl.Resources>

<Grid Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1">
    <StaticResource ResourceKey="WobbleTile"/>
</Grid>

Is that correct?

One area that I am still confused is what should be done in Blend, and what should be done in Unity.

I added my code-behind script WobbleTile.cs using Unity but this means that I get errors in Blend because it doesn't know about my code-behind class. Should the c# file be added in Blend as well?

Posted: **03 Aug 2015, 12:41**

Hi Andy,

Controls shouldn't be placed into Resources because an instance of a control can only have 1 logical parent. As Jesús pointed before, you just have to use your UserControl class as you would do with any other control provided by NoesisGUI.

For example, if you designed a WobbleTile user control:

Assets/GUI/UserControls/WobbleTile.xaml

using UnityEngine;
using System;
using Noesis;

namespace GUI.UserControls
{
  [UserControlSource("Assets/GUI/UserControls/WobbleTile.xaml")
  public class WobbleTile : UserControl
  {
    ...
  }
}

Assets/GUI/UserControls/WobbleTile.cs

<UserControl
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  x:Class="GUI.UserControls.WobbleTile">
    ...
</UserControl>

Then you can use it in any other XAML file like this (make sure you don't forget the namespace declaration (xmlns:local) to refer to the correct class):

<Grid
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  xmlns:local="clr-namespace:GUI.UserControls">
    <StackPanel>
        <Button Content="Some button here"/>
        <local:WobbleTile .../> <!-- an instance of your UserControl -->
        <local:WobbleTile .../> <!-- another instance of your UserControl -->
        ...
    </StackPanel>
</Grid>

We will improve the Unity tutorial to incorporate an example where the proposed ColorPicker user control is used.

Posted: **03 Aug 2015, 14:31**

Great!

I got that working using my own namespace rather than GUI.UserControls.

Just FYI, if I use the namespace you gave I get the following errors in Unity console...

Assets/Editor/NoesisGUI/NoesisAbout.cs(18,13): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Label' does not exist in the namespace 'GUI'. Are you missing an assembly reference?
Assets/Editor/NoesisGUI/NoesisAbout.cs(33,13): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'skin' does not exist in the namespace 'GUI'. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Thanks for your help!

Posted: **03 Aug 2015, 15:23**

Yes, that GUI.UserControls namespace was just an example because I didn't know where you placed your class definition. You have to use in each case the appropriate namespace where your classes are defined.

Posted: **03 Aug 2015, 15:39**

It seems that using GUI namespace in Unity turns the compiler crazy, so better avoid using it

I'm getting compiling errors in UnityTestTools scripts too if I use it.

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