Wpf what is resource dictionary

Contents Exit focus mode. Example Application exposes an application-scope store for shared resources: Resources. Yes No. Any additional feedback? Skip Submit. Submit and view feedback for This product This page. View all page feedback. A unique key is specified to an XAML resource and with that key, it can be referenced by using a StaticResource markup extension.

A StaticResource is a onetime lookup, whereas a DynamicResource works more like a data binding. It remembers that a property is associated with a particular resource key. If the object associated with that key changes, dynamic resource will update the target property. When you click the "Change Resource" button, you will see that the rectangle with DynamicResource will change its color to Red.

Resources are defined in resource dictionaries , but there are numerous places where a resource dictionary can be defined. In what dictionary a resource is defined immediately limits the scope of that resource. Resources element as follows:. Now we can use the items in the external resource dictionary as if they were defined in the view. For example:. What if we have multiple applications which want to share the same styles? The answer is simple, we allow them to access a resource dictionary in a shared assembly, typically a class library.

Let's assume that we have created a separate class library called WpfExternalDictionary. We add a reference to the file in the Window. I have created a simple demonstration application and a separate class library, which illustrate the concepts described above.

The link is of course at the start of this article. Sign in Email. Forgot your password? Search within: Articles Quick Answers Messages. You can, however, use a single dictionary and merge only this dictionary when switching the themes, provided you do not have any theme-specific changes in it.

Such changes would include any modified control templates as these differ from theme to theme and may result in errors when switching. Add the resource dictionary to the application's MergedDictionaries collection:. Then, in the buttons' Click handlers, we will clear the merged dictionaries from the application resources and merge the new resource dictionaries from the theme assemblies along with our custom styles contained in the custom resource dictionaries:.

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