Unified place for resources used in XAML and cs files? - xamarin

Question

It happens that I define a ResourceDictionary for the app colors to use it in XAML files, and have a static class for these colors to use in the cs code:
for example:
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MyApp.Themes.AppTheme">
<Color x:Key="BrandColor">#ffd92e</Color>
<Color x:Key="BgColor">#343433</Color>
</ResourceDictionary>
And the opposite class:
public static class AppColors
{
public static readonly Color BrandColor = (Color)Application.Current.Resources["BrandColor"];
public static readonly Color BGColor = (Color)Application.Current.Resources["BgColor"];
}
Another scenario,I use icons font in both xaml and cs,
in XAML it looks like , and in cs it's: \ue8d5 . I want to save them in a file where I can reference them by a meaningful names in XAML and cs like:
IconBell = \ue8d5
Is it possible to define resources like those in one place and use them in both XAML and code?

Answer 1

About the colors issue, it's very easy to solve it. You basically have to create a class containing your colors, and reference it in your XAML, with the x:Static extension.
You can do the same for solving your icons issue, but you'll probably need to create a converter for using it in XAML. For example, the important part of your icon value is the "e8d5" part, but in C# you use the "\u" and in the XAML you use the "&#x". You'll have to create a class with the icons, reference it in the XAML using the x:Static extension and use a converter to convert from C# to XAML, for example:
public class IconConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
try
{
string icon = System.Convert.ToString(value);
return icon.Replace("\u", "&#x");
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw new InvalidCastException("The value is not a valid string.");
}
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
With this, you can unify your styles in a unique C# class, and just reference it in your XAML.