XAML Property values in Silverlight/WPF

Introduction:

In this article, I am going demo various ways we can set property values in XAML using Silverlight. XAML provides several different ways to set property values:

1. Simple Properties
2. Type Converters
3. Complex Properties
4. Markup Extensions
5. Attached Properties

We will see all above properties in detail.

1. Simple Properties: These are properties that provide values as simple strings. For example Content and Name property of button control.

    

2. Type Converters: These properties that Markup supplies as strings. For example

• Height and Width property of button. Internally it is converted to integer.
• HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment property of a button. Internally it is converted from string to number that corresponds to enumerated value Bottom, Top, Center, and Stretch.
  
  
  

3. Complex Properties: These are the properties whose values are not as simple as strings but are represented as nested elements.

   

4. Markup Extensions: These are the properties whose values are set dynamically at runtime. The property can be set declaratively.

• Property = {Binding ElementName=ObjectName, Path=PropertyName}

5. Attached Properties: Attached property is a type of global property that is settable on any object. The purpose of an attached property is to allow different child elements to specify unique values for a property that is actually defined in a parent element.
The type that defines the attached property typically follows one of these models:

• The type that defines the attached property is designed so that it can be the parent element of the elements that will set values for the attached property. The type then iterates its child objects through internal logic against some object tree structure, obtains the values, and acts on those values in some manner.

 
• The type that defines the attached property represents a service. Other types set values for the attached property. Then, when the element that set the property is evaluated in the context of the service, the attached property values are obtained through internal logic of the service class.
  
  Here in following example Grid is of 2 rows and 2 columns and button is placed in each cell.
  
  
  

Conclusion: In this article, we have seen the various ways value of property that can be set in Silverlight or WPF.