Andy De George
a856d83f28
* Update how-to-use-an-application-scope-resource-dictionary.md * Update how-to-use-an-application-scope-resource-dictionary.md
3.8 KiB
title, description, ms.date, dev_langs, helpviewer_keywords, ms.assetid
| title | description | ms.date | dev_langs | helpviewer_keywords | ms.assetid | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How to: Use an Application-Scope Resource Dictionary | Learn how to define and use an application-scope custom resource dictionary in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). | 03/30/2017 |
|
|
53857682-bd2c-4f2c-8f25-1307d0b451a2 |
How to: Use an Application-Scope Resource Dictionary
This example shows how to define and use an application-scope custom resource dictionary.
Example
xref:System.Windows.Application exposes an application-scope store for shared resources: xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A. By default, the xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A property is initialized with an instance of the xref:System.Windows.ResourceDictionary type. You use this instance when you get and set application-scope properties using xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A. For more information, see How to: Get and Set an Application-Scope Resource.
If you have multiple resources that you set using xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A, you can instead use a custom resource dictionary to store those resources and set xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A with it instead. The following shows how you declare a custom resource dictionary using XAML.
[!code-xamlHOWTOResourceDictionaries#1]
Swapping entire resource dictionaries using xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A allows you to support application-scope themes, where each theme is encapsulated by a single resource dictionary. The following example shows how to set the xref:System.Windows.ResourceDictionary.
[!code-xamlHOWTOResourceDictionaries#2]
The following shows how you can get application-scope resources from the resource dictionary exposed by xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A in XAML.
[!code-xamlHOWTOResourceDictionaries#4]
The following shows how you can also get the resources in code.
[!code-csharpHOWTOResourceDictionaries#3] [!code-vbHOWTOResourceDictionaries#3]
There are two considerations to make when using xref:System.Windows.Application.Resources%2A. First, the dictionary key is an object, so you must use exactly the same object instance when both setting and getting a property value. (Note that the key is case-sensitive when using a string.) Second, the dictionary value is an object, so you will have to convert the value to the desired type when getting a property value.
Some resource types may automatically use a property defined by the type as an explicit key, such as the xref:System.Windows.Style and xref:System.Windows.DataTemplate types. This may override your x:Key value. To guarantee that your x:Key key is respected, declare it before the explicit key property. For more information, see Styles, DataTemplates, and implicit keys.