I've recently started developing Silverlight applications in Visual Studio and noticed that the XAML editor there is not optimal. Meaning, I can see the XAML in a text editor with pretty colors, but other than that it doesnt give me much productivity, like C# code, with all the list of methods and parameters in a drop down list and other helpfule views and windows. Is there really not much support in VS2010 for easier editing of XAML files?
u can try to use something like ReSharper
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In ASP.NET Forms and MVC, you can select a block of code and extract it into a separate user control or file using Resharper and possibly Visual Studio. I cannot find such a feature for XAML. Does it exist in either Resharper or Visual Studio? If so, how do you perform this action?
I think you are looking for this:
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/resharper/ReSharper_by_Language__XAML__Refactorings.html
Resharper allows you to extract styles and resources, but you have to select the XAML and go to Resharper->Refactor->Extract in order to find the options, you won't see them if you use ALT+ENTER.
I installed VS with Xamarin but Intellisense in XAML files is not working properly. In some parts of the code it shows the list of suggestions as shown below.
Except in other parts of the code it does not show the list with all the items (image below).
It is also opening the XAML with the XML Editor, but should it not be with XAML Designer?
Does anyone have any suggestions for resolving or circumventing this problem?
Thank you all.
Those 2 behaviors that you described are by design, you can look at the following screenshot, since you type “<” inside and outside the node , the auto complete member list is different which defined in the XML Schemas.
For the second question, Xamarin.Forms doesn't currently support visual designers for XAML files. There is not yet a visual designer for generating XAML in Xamarin.Forms applications, so all XAML must be hand-written. We can know this from Why doesn't the Visual Studio XAML designer work for Xamarin.Forms XAML files?, but we can try to use the XAML Previewer for Xamarin.Forms to help us to preview the UI.
Visual Studio and Blend 4 Design Problem
I have a VS 2010 C# solution file that I am opening in Blend 4. The file opens with no errors, however if I attempt to build it in Blend the program lists a few missing references and then crashes Blend. Here is the issue that I am really trying to solve since I think I can solve the missing references in due course. Once the solution is opened in blend the Design tool for any XAML does not display at all. VIEW >> Active Document View >> Design View, etc. are all grayed out. What is the secret to having a programmer work in VS and hand off solution files for a designer like me to work on GUI in Blend. It seems MS has made this a difficult procedure to master.
It sounds like you created the project using the Class Library project template instead of the WPF User Control Library template. When you put these two project files side by side, you'll see that the WPF User Control Library project has this additional line near the top of the project file:
<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>
This is what tells Blend it can display a design surface for the items in the project. There's lots of stuff you can make in Visual Studio that cannot be displayed in Blend, so Visual Studio needs some way of communicating to Blend that it should attempt to load designers. Edit your .csproj file to contain the above GUIDs and I bet it will work.
I'm a Qt developer, trying to design forms with visual studio.. but the layout toosl are.. lacking? I only see tools for fixed-size forms.
What are the visual studio alternatives to Qt's vertical/horizontal/grid layouts with minimum/maximum/preferred size hints, spacers, etc?? I can't see anything like this.
Closes things you can use are:
FlowLayoutPanel
TableLayoutPanel
Alternatively, you can go for WPF instead of WinForms.
I am a bit confused on how Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4 operate together. If I want to create a WPF application, should I start it in Expression Blend 4? If so, then how does Visual Studio 2010 natively open Expression Blend projects, or does it?
Or should I start my application in Visual Studio 2010? If so, how do I open my solution in Expression Blend.
Also, how do I modify an existing WPF form, if I need changes. If I already have events handled and code behind, how do I bring it over to expression blend, make my changes, then bring it back to visual studio without disrupting the events and code that I have created in Visual Studio 2010?
Also can someone recommend a good book that covers how to create WPF and/or Silverlight applications using Expression blend 4 and Visual Studio 2010 together.
Solutions are the same for Visual Studio and Expression Blend. You can open your solution through the file menu in expression blend, or by right clicking on a xaml file in Visual Studio and select "Open In Expression Blend".
Personally, when I need to make only a small change, like changing the text on a button, I don't go into Blend. But when I want to see what's going on, with margins and layout and stuff I always use Blend. Most often I have Visual Studio and Blend open side by side and I keep switching back and forth.
Because Expression Blend uses the same solution you don't have to worry about event handlers and such. When they are in place, they stay in place. Unless you delete the control the event is attached to of course.
Creating a solution can be done in both tools, but I start most projects in Visual Studio. There are however a few Project templates that can't be found in visual studio. For example the Databound Application project type. This will give you a start on an MVVM project, with folders in place for the Model, View and ViewModel.
You can have it open in both Visual Studio and Blend at the same time. You're prompted in Visual Studio if you make a change in Blend and vice versa.
Personally I create the new application in Visual Studio first then open it in Blend.
I usualy start my project in Blend.
Remember Blend is specially designed to make great UI, easy databindig, make easy templates and custom controls.
You can edit the code behind of your app directly in Blend but sometimes it doesn't show the intellisense; thats when you need open VS, to do that right click on your project inside blend and click on edit with Visual Studio. It'll launch VS and you can start coding.
You dont need to close VS or Blend, they booth can be open, if you make some change in VS it will notify Blend, will appear a dialogbox telling you: reload the app, click Yes the changes will be sincronized in Blend and VS, the same happens when you make changes in Blend and go to an already open instance of VS.
Too remember to install de VS tools, it will allow you to open Silverlight projects inside VS, if they arent already installed an error message will appear.
Hope my answer help you