XAML

The WinX User Interface can be vastly customized using XAML. Starting with Version 3.2, this customizing experience can be largely controlled with the new Developer Mode.

The UI is controlled by several predefined XAML templates which are loaded into the App at startup. There is a set of default template deployed with the App at installation, however, each of them can be overridden by placing the respective file in the folder [AppInstallPath]\LocalState\XAML For further information see UBIK Templates.

General

• UBIKThemes.xaml

Controls the overall styling and behavior of the App, like standard Brushes (Colors) and Fonts.

AuthenticationPage

AuthenticationPage

• UBIKSplashArea.xaml
• UBIKPageNavigation.xaml -> Deprecated and changed to UBIKHomePageButtons.xaml
• UBIKProfileItem.xaml

Content Pages

• UBIKObjectIcon.xaml
• UBIKObjectIconSmall.xaml

RootPage

RootPage

• UBIKMainLeftArea.xaml
• UBIKMainItem.xaml
• UBIKMainItemSmall.xaml

ChildPage

ChildPage

• UBIKChildItem.xaml
• UBIKChildItemSmall.xaml
• UBIKChildArea.xaml
• UBIKChildAreaSmall.xaml
• UBIKChildAction.xaml
• UBIKPriorityPropertyItem.xaml

DetailsPage

• UBIKDocumentItem.xaml
• UBIKDocumentItemSmall.xaml

Basic

CoolGridSplitter (UBIK.WinX.Controls)

Allows to make rows or columns of a grid user-resizable

Example:

UBIKImageEditor

The MergeAnnotationsOnSave property allows to configure whether annotations should be shared through the UBIK^® property from the respective Annotation classification (false, default), or if they should be merged directly into the original file (true):

UBIKPdfViewer

Advanced

EvalExpression

Allows to evaluate a C# expression in XAML, using any amount of EvalExpressionParameters

These are classes in our code used to convert one form of data into another (For example: string to color, bool to string, color to string…). We are using it often on Data Bindings, so we can simply ‘change’ the data that got provided by the model. Mostly, in our environment, we use the Converters for the Visibility Property, Background Property or the Source Property (converting Byte to an Image).

Initialization of a converter in a XAML file:

Using the ItemCountLesserThanToVisiblity in a visibility attribute:

Example of an EqualToVisConverter being used in order to set the visibility of a grid:

Example of a StringFormatConverter, which converts a value into a string and also accepts a parameter, in this case the GlobalDateTimeFormat, which ‘tells’ the converter how to format the string:

List of all converters

For a complete and up-to-date list of all converters, please refer to the developer mode.

Advanced

• StringFormatConverter

Returns a formatted string where placeholders will be filled with values supplied to its parameter properties (Param0, Param1, Param2).

Example:

• EvalExpressionConverter

Evaluates a C# expression with 3 optional variables (Param0, Param1, Param2) and returns the result. The object fed into the converter can be referenced in the expression as Context.

Example:

• CollectionToViewConverter

Outdated and replaced by the ListCollectionView.

• ChildItemTemplateSelectorSuffixConverter

Converts a template selector to use templates with a certain suffix (e.g. "_Grid" to use "UBIKChildItem_Grid.xaml" instead of "UBIKChildItem.xaml"). The small template file name will be combined as <TemplateName><Suffix>Small.xaml (e.g. "UBIKChildItem_GridSmall.xaml").

Example:

The previously listed available commands for binding is removed from here. Since it's more accurate and up-to-date to use the Developer Mode to inspect them in your version of the clients.

Examples for commands with complex parameters

CaptureMediaCommand

The KeyValueList parameter is supported only . In previous versions, simple string parameters were supported.

Whether the creation succeeds also depends on the server configuration. For example, if "*.mp4" is not included as a selective list item in the file type meta property, video document creation will not be possible. Similarly, audio document creation requires a file type "*.wav" to be included in the selective list.

• MediaCaptureMode: Photo, Video, Audio. Defaults to Photo if unspecified;
• ChildMetaDefUid: The Guid of the child meta definition to be used for creating the captured media document. If unspecified, the client will simply pick the first child meta definition that is of media type and is allowed under the current context/parent object.

Behaviors in style definitions

It's very common and easy to attach behaviors to different UI controls to extend their functionalities. For example, see StringFormatConverter.

For better code reusability, it's sometimes necessary to implement the functionality of a control in a style so that it can be applied to the same control used in various occasions. In this case, the regular behaviors won't work and you have to use a special type AttachBehavior with some limitations. Below is such an example.

UBIKContentControl

In UWP XAML, one often uses a <ContentControl ... ContentTemplateSelector="{StaticResource TaskPropertyTemplateSelector}" /> to choose different templates depending on the binding context. However, it seems to have its limit, namely the template selection happens only once at the beginning. In other words, the template will not change even when the binding context later changes and another template would be the choice. For such scenarios, we have created a UBIKContentControl. See the example below.

As you maybe already noticed we have two different clients, one is WinX UWP and the other one Xamarin, which is used to develop clients for three different platforms namely iOS, Android and new UWP (-> it doesn’t really differentiate from the previously mentioned UWP except it’s developed in a different framework which is Xamarin in this case). The customizing stays the same in case of the syntax, but there are some differences in the naming of controls and attributes. Unfortunately, there is no decent documentation of these differences, but the Microsoft documentation and, in general, the internet can support you when searching e.g. for a control in Xamarin that you used in UWP. More specific documentations about Xamarin Customizing can be found under Xamarin XAML.

Starting from the UBIK UWP client, we have restructured & renamed some of our outdated or inaccurate namespaces. This means modifications are necessary for any previous XAML customizing code that refers to these changed namespaces. The complete list of such changes is documented below.

Take the namespace UBIK.Win8 for example, it is now changed to UBIK.WinX. A few affected XAML namespace references are e.g.

• using:UBIK.Win8.Views -> using:UBIK.WinX.Views
• using:UBIK.Win8.GART.Controls -> using:UBIK.WinX.GART.Controls

Important notes on the namespace UBIK.WinX.UI:

• One exception is the namespace UBIK.WinX.UI.CollectionView. It is not changed since the content is indeed WinX specific.
• For namespaces that are changed from UBIK.Win8.UI such as UBIK.Win8.UI.Controls, do not further remove the WinX segment even though the results are something like UBIK.WinX.UI.Controls.

• Developer Mode
  
• Xamarin XAML
  
• XAML Basics
  
• XAML Best practices