XAML Power Toys for Cider

Current Version 2.1.0.0, Last Update 7 July 2010

Introduction

XAML Power Toys for Cider is a different product from the XAML Power Toys Visual Studio Add-in.

XAML Power Toys for Cider is an extensibility application that extends the WPF & Silverlight Designer for Visual Studio 2010, providing additional features for the Designer.  Cider is the name of the team at Microsoft that writes the WPF & Silverlight Designer.  The Cider team blog can be read here.

This application is an example for writing a globalized WPF & Silverlight platform neutral control designer.  Both WPF & Silverlight applications use the same Design library.  You can check out the source code to see how this is done.  This source code is in VB.NET.

I have also posted a comprehensive two part series on writing control design times that you can read here:  Part 1 and Part 2.

I must give credit where credit is due.  I got a good bit of feedback and suggestions from my teammates on the Cider Team.  Thanks Mark, Zhanbo, Bin, Pav, Marco, Ben  and Ray.  My great friend Josh Smith also came over one day for some pair programming activities.  Thanks Josh!

For those that care, the above designer is an MVVM application that is completely data driven from the ViewModel.

New in this Release

• Added support for Silverlight 4
• Fixed installer for x64 systems.  Added workaround for Visual Studio 2010 issue with loading custom control designers for Silverlight 4

Requirements

• Visual Studio 2010 RTM or later version.  (Not Beta1,  Beta2 or Release Candidate)
• Silverlight 4.  Install from here: Silverlight.net Getting Started 

Grid Layout Tool

The Grid Layout Tool provides an abstract view of the selected Grid control in the designer that enables editing the Rows and Columns of the selected Grid.

The above image is the Grid Layout Tool that allows you to:

• Move (reorder) rows and columns
• Move (reorder) multiple rows and columns (when multi-selected with CTRL+click)
• Insert row or column before or after any row or column
• Delete row or column
• Set all row or all columns sizes using the TextBoxes at the top.  Enter value and press ENTER.
• Set individual row or column size by clicking the text value the Azure row or column headers and then editing them.  Enter value and press ENTER.
• To set size to auto type “a” or “auto” and press ENTER.
• Designer is updated real time as you make your changes.
• Clicking the “Save” button commits the changes into one Undo Transaction.
• Clicking the “Cancel” button cancels all changes and puts the designer back in its original state.

Menu Options

This menu is only available when you have selected a GRID control in the WPF or Silverlight designer.

Chainsaw – Leaves Alignment

The chainsaw will remove all Margins, MinHeights, MinWidths and from CheckBox, RadioButton, Label, TextBlock will remove height and widths and on TextBox will remove height.  Will set all Grid Rows to Auto.  Will remove Name and x:Name if enabled.

Use this command if you do not have styles defined that determine layout for your form.  (see video)

Chainsaw – Clears Alignments

The chainsaw will remove all HorizontalAlignments, VerticalAlignments, Margins, MinHeights, MinWidths and from CheckBox, RadioButton, Label, TextBlock will remove height and widths and on TextBox will remove height.  Will set all Grid Rows to Auto.  Will remove Name and x:Name if enabled.

Use this command is you have a styles defined that determines layout for your form.  (see video)

Modify Control Tags on Create

If this option is checked the following controls will be affected when you create the control using the ToolBox.

StackPanel and Grid – Alignments and Name cleared  (note: when the StackPanel is created inside a GroupBox or Expander, the tag modifications are ignored and overridden by the designer.)

TextBox, TextBlock, Label, CheckBox, RadioButton – smaller sizes than the Visual Studio defaults and Named is cleared.  The smaller sizes widths were 120, now 80, except TextBox which is 100.  You can play around with control creation to see if this makes sense for you.

Modify Control Tags and Chainsaw Clears Name

If you want control names cleared by the Chainsaw or the control Modify Control Tags on Create feature check this menu option.  To turn off name clearing, uncheck this menu option.

Video

PLEASE view this short tutorial video.  You will get a full and quick understanding of this great feature.

Videos are now hosted on Vimeo.   You can read about the cool feature provided by Vimeo here.

  XAML Power Toys 2010 for Cider Tutorial Video (13 minutes)

Downloads

Download now comes from my Windows Live Sky Drive page.  The below link will take you to a page where you can download the installer and/or the source.

After downloading and unzipping, please right click Setup.exe and select, “Run as administrator”

XAML Power Toys 2010 for Cider v2.1.0.0

Close

Hope you use and enjoy XAML Power Toys for Cider

Have a great day,

Just a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.