custom drawn wpf / xaml textbox

Question

I'm looking for a textbox control(and or combo box) much like the IE or FireFox URL bar, as in i can pass it an image for the left side, and can get a styled combo box drop down instead of standards. And if there isnt, can i be informed on a good way to write the control myself?

Answer 1

What you don't want to do is go about this the WinForms way and rewrite the control from scratch - this is actually very easy in WPF.

1. Create a subclass of TextBox
2. Add new DependencyProperties (Image for example)
3. In Blend, click on an instance of your textbox and edit the default template.
4. Group the PART_ContentHost into a Grid, then put your Image on the left side and TemplateBinding it to your new dependency properties
5. Get rid of the style's name, so it'll apply to all instances of your subclassed Textbox.

It seems like a lot of steps, but really your subclassed codebehind will end up being very small, and editing the template gets right into the meat of what you're interested in, to change the look of a standard control.