"ButtonResources" code display different in .NET3.5 and .NET4.0

faunkyou · October 11th, 2010, 10:26 AM

The book is for C#2010 and .net 4.0 ,but the code i download from your website is target for .net 3.5.There are some inconveniences to convert the code from .net 3.5 to .net 4.0 in visual studio 2010.
The main code in this demo is following.

Code:

<Window
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="ButtonResources.Window1"
    x:Name="Window"
    Title="ButtonResources"
    Width="540" Height="320"
    FontSize="16" FontWeight="Bold"
    Background="LightBlue">
    <Window.Resources>
        <BitmapEffectGroup x:Key="bmeButton">
            <DropShadowBitmapEffect/>
        </BitmapEffectGroup>
    </Window.Resources>
    <StackPanel Margin="5">
        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"></StackPanel>
        <Button Width="218" BitmapEffect="{StaticResource bmeButton}" Height="65"></Button>
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

When I set the .NET target is .NET3.5, I can see its drop shadow effect ,but not in .NET4.0. Who can help me, please?

Rod Stephens · October 12th, 2010, 12:03 PM

Sorry about that. I confess I cheated a little there. Expression Blend doesn't support Framework 4.0 yet and the older classes work better so I went with the older solution.

As you note, .NET Framework 4.0 flags BitmapEffects as obsolete. You're supposed to use the Effect class instead. So a button with a drop shadow would look like this:

<Button Width="218" Margin="10" Height="65">
<Button.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect/>
</Button.Effect>
</Button>

Unfortunately the only pre-defined Effect classes are DropShadowEffect and BlurEffect. If you want others, you need to derive them from ShaderEffect.

You can fake an outer glow by using a DropShadowEffect with ShadowDepth = 0 as in:

<Button Width="218" Margin="10" Height="65">
<Button.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="0" BlurRadius="20"/>
</Button.Effect>
</Button>

I don't know how to do others such as bevel and emboss, though.

I have also been unable to store an Effect as a resource as you're trying to do in your example, although I have been able to make a named or unnamed style that uses an Effect.

It seems to me that Microsoft has a bit more work to do here.

faunkyou · October 12th, 2010, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rod Stephens

Sorry about that. I confess I cheated a little there. Expression Blend doesn't support Framework 4.0 yet and the older classes work better so I went with the older solution.

As you note, .NET Framework 4.0 flags BitmapEffects as obsolete. You're supposed to use the Effect class instead. So a button with a drop shadow would look like this:

<Button Width="218" Margin="10" Height="65">
<Button.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect/>
</Button.Effect>
</Button>

Unfortunately the only pre-defined Effect classes are DropShadowEffect and BlurEffect. If you want others, you need to derive them from ShaderEffect.

You can fake an outer glow by using a DropShadowEffect with ShadowDepth = 0 as in:

<Button Width="218" Margin="10" Height="65">
<Button.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="0" BlurRadius="20"/>
</Button.Effect>
</Button>

I don't know how to do others such as bevel and emboss, though.

I have also been unable to store an Effect as a resource as you're trying to do in your example, although I have been able to make a named or unnamed style that uses an Effect.

It seems to me that Microsoft has a bit more work to do here.

Thanks for your reply, I believe that you can do better in next edition.

Rod Stephens · October 12th, 2010, 10:41 PM

If I were writing a new edition right now I'd do about the same thing. Perhaps I'd add a paragraph or two explaining the situation but really Microsoft needs to fix this. It wasn't very nice of them to remove this functionality without providing a replacement.

However in all fairness, they usually don't do this sort of thing. They're usually pretty concerned about "breaking changes" as they call them.

Perhaps when Expression Blend 5 and .NET Framework 5 come out, whenever that may be, they will have fixed this.