Silverlight ControlTemplate and F#

Question

Has anybody had any success incorporating a Silverlight ControlTemplate into an F# Silverlight application. I am trying to add transitions to the Navgiation.Frame element and following along on with a C# example: http://www.davidpoll.com/2009/07/19/silverlight-3-navigation-adding-transitions-to-the-frame-control

The downloaded source uses the MSBUILD:Compile option on the template XAML and the file is included as a "Page"... ILDASM doesn't show any object created for the XAML;

In my project I incldued it as a "Resource" (same as I have done for my pages) and referenced it in app.xaml:

<Application xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
             x:Class="Module1.MyApp">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
                <ResourceDictionary Source="/FSSilverlightApp;component/TransitioningFrame.xaml"/>
            </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

the TransitioningFrame.xaml is as follows:

<ResourceDictionary
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:navigation="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Navigation"
    xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Layout.Toolkit">
    <ControlTemplate x:Key="TransitioningFrame" TargetType="navigation:Frame">
        <Border Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
                BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
                BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"
                HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}">
            <toolkit:TransitioningContentControl Content="{TemplateBinding Content}"
                                                 Cursor="{TemplateBinding Cursor}"
                                                 Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
                                                 HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                                                 VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"
                                                 HorizontalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                                                 VerticalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"
                                                 Transition="DefaultTransition" />
        </Border>
    </ControlTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>

My page objects all load their respective xaml with the follwoing code:

type Page1() as this =
    inherit UriUserControl("/FSSilverlightApp;component/Page1.xaml")
    do
        Application.LoadComponent(this, base.uri)

and somewhere in app startup:

let p1 = new Page1()

I donot have a comparable piece for the ControlTemplate - though I was hoping the application object and App.xaml would pull it in magically (as an aside, the reliance on this magic has made setting up a 100% f# silverlight application rather tricky - as nearly all the published articles I find are based around wizards and short cuts - very little on the acual plumbing - ugh).

the page xaml references the control via:

<StackPanel Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="2" Name="mainPanel">
     <navigation:Frame Name="contentFrame" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"  Template="{StaticResource TransitioningFrame}"/>
</StackPanel>

Any advice or thougts on the subject are appreciated.

---

Per brians comment, I investigated the MSBUILD command diagnostics and it doesn't look like it does anythining other than include it as a resource:

Generating .resources file: 'obj\Debug\TransitioningNavigation.g.resources'... (TaskId:14) Reading Resource file: 'C:\Users\todd.brown\Desktop\TransitioningNavigation\TransitioningNavigation\Assets\Styles.xaml'... (TaskId:14) Resource ID is 'assets/styles.xaml'. (TaskId:14)
Reading Resource file: 'C:\Users\todd.brown\Desktop\TransitioningNavigation\TransitioningNavigation\Assets\TransitioningFrame.xaml'... (TaskId:14) Resource ID is 'assets/transitioningframe.xaml'. (TaskId:14)

---

Well one interesting thing is that If I rename the reference to the ContentTemplate xaml inide of the App.xaml - the application deosn't load and throws an error - so I guess the page is being referenced and loaded correctly. ie this is bad

<ResourceDictionary Source="/FSSilverlightApp;component/TransitioningFrameBAD.xaml"/>

Answer 1

It may be useful to go to the command line, and run

msbuild /t:clean
msbuild /v:diag > diagnostics.txt

and inspect the diagnostic log to find out 'what the Compile of that Xaml file (with the ResourceDictionary) is doing under the hood'. This may be suggestive of what to do for F#.