WiP: Adding design time support for MPF-XAML (1 Viewer)

[morpheus_xx]

Up to now, if you open the MP2 skin files (screens, styles) inside a design tool (VisualStudio, Blend), the used elements are not known. This leads to underlining the control names and the lack of autocomplete (intellisense) feature.

Fortunately I found an solution for this issue: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms747086(v=vs.110).aspx.

It is possible to make own class implementations known to the xaml world! MPF already uses an own namespace, but the control types etc. are not yet published correctly.

First step is to map CLR namespace to our MPF XAML-namespace:

// Register CLR namespaces for XAML
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.ScreenManagement")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Commands")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Animations")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Panels")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Transforms")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Brushes")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Brushes.Animation")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Visuals")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Visuals.Styles")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Visuals.Templates")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.Controls.Visuals.Triggers")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.MpfElements.Resources")]
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("www.team-mediaportal.com/2008/mpf/directx", "MediaPortal.UI.SkinEngine.MarkupExtensions")]

This makes already all attributes visible to VS:

Next is to declare some properties as default for adding content via XAML:

  /// <summary>
  /// Screen class respresenting a logical screen represented by a particular skin.
  /// </summary>
  [ContentProperty("Root")]
  public class Screen : UIElement, INameScope, IAddChild<FrameworkElement>, IUnmodifiableResource
  {
    #region Consts

I currently add more attributes to MPF classes, so that in the end we will have (nearly complete?) designer support for MPF!!! Yeah, finally!

This is useful for both @Developers and @Designers

 

[morpheus_xx]

First changes are commited here: https://github.com/MediaPortal/MediaPortal-2/commit/5c1f41da3ebc053347da1f1b3f194037f6e48232

The auto complete is working with our own MPF object :

Then we can also use "goto to definition" (F12) on any element to jump into code:

Leads us to our source code file:

Open issues:

1. MarkupExtensions are not fully working, as they don't derive from System.Windows.MarkupExtension. You get a blue underline warning that it is used like a extension, but is not derived from it. This cannot be fixed easily
2. ResourceWrapper is using "object" as generic type. This is useful, but now XAML is checking types strictly: like "object" defined versus "Brush" expected. Not fixable for now
3. MPF-Converters are not known to XAML, it expects WPF-converters that use a different interface. Not fixable for now.

Any way, I'm really happy about the current improvements, it makes working with MPF-XAML much easier!

 

[Valk]

If we manage to fix the outstanding issues will that mean we can possible get the preview working in VS (even in a basic form without directX rendering)?

 

[morpheus_xx]

Well, that would be what I'm dreaming of. But I'm afraid that it won't work that way.
But I keep trying to make things easier

 

[FreakyJ]

That is really nice

 

[offbyone]

I have some experiences in writing a custom editor for Visual Studio. We could host our MP2 rendering engine in that But we would need a way for the rendering engine to quickly reload when the user changes something in the xml.

 

[FreakyJ]

That would be awesome!

 

[morpheus_xx]

Here are two more screenshots of before/after:


There are few problems with properties that are using SharpDX structs (like Vector2). I get an error "property member not accessible". Not sure if it is because that they are structs (value type), or that they come from SharpDX assembly? Maybe I find something later...

 

[FreakyJ]

@offbyone
having the design functionality would be aweasome!
So people could do easy modifications without looking to much at the code

 

[Quarter]

This is something that would make me move to mp2. Can't wait to see your results.