Styling a custom windows phone 7 control

Question

I'm using Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Tools Beta.

I have a custom control that lives in it's own project with the following code:

public class ValidationTextBox : TextBox
{
        public ValidationTextBox()
        {
            DefaultStyleKey = typeof(ValidationTextBox);
        }
}

Then my WP7 App contains the following style in the App.xaml

<Application.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="my:ValidationTextBox">
            <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"/>
            <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMediumLarge}"/>
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="Red"/>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource PhoneContrastForegroundBrush}"/>
            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="{StaticResource PhoneBorderBrush}"/>
            <Setter Property="SelectionBackground" Value="{StaticResource PhoneAccentBrush}"/>
            <Setter Property="SelectionForeground" Value="{StaticResource PhoneContrastBackgroundBrush}"/>
            <Setter Property="CaretBrush" Value="{StaticResource PhoneTextCaretBrush}"/>
            <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="{StaticResource PhoneBorderThickness}"/>
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="2"/>
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate TargetType="my:ValidationTextBox">
                        <Grid Background="Transparent">
                            <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                                <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="MouseOver"/>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                        <Storyboard>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility" Storyboard.TargetName="EnabledBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                    <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                        <Visibility>Collapsed</Visibility>
                                                    </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledOrReadonlyBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                    <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                        <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                    </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        </Storyboard>
                                    </VisualState>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="ReadOnly">
                                        <Storyboard>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility" Storyboard.TargetName="EnabledBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                    <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                        <Visibility>Collapsed</Visibility>
                                                    </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledOrReadonlyBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                    <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                        <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                    </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledOrReadonlyBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneSubtleBrush}"/>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledOrReadonlyBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneSubtleBrush}"/>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        </Storyboard>
                                    </VisualState>
                                </VisualStateGroup>
                                <VisualStateGroup x:Name="FocusStates">
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Focused">
                                        <Storyboard>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background" Storyboard.TargetName="EnabledBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneContrastBackgroundBrush}"/>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush" Storyboard.TargetName="EnabledBorder">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneContrastBackgroundBrush}"/>
                                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        </Storyboard>
                                    </VisualState>
                                    <VisualState x:Name="Unfocused"/>
                                </VisualStateGroup>
                            </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                            <Border x:Name="EnabledBorder" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" Margin="{StaticResource PhoneTouchTargetOverhang}">
                                <ScrollViewer x:Name="ContentElement" BorderThickness="0" Margin="3,2" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" Template="{StaticResource PhoneScrollViewerNoScrollBars}"/>
                            </Border>
                            <Border x:Name="DisabledOrReadonlyBorder" BorderBrush="{StaticResource PhoneDisabledBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="Transparent" Margin="{StaticResource PhoneTouchTargetOverhang}" Visibility="Collapsed">
                                <TextBox Background="Transparent" Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneDisabledBrush}" IsReadOnly="True" SelectionForeground="{TemplateBinding SelectionForeground}" SelectionBackground="{TemplateBinding SelectionBackground}" TextAlignment="{TemplateBinding TextAlignment}" TextWrapping="{TemplateBinding TextWrapping}" Text="{TemplateBinding Text}" Template="{StaticResource PhoneDisabledTextBoxTemplate}"/>
                            </Border>
                        </Grid>
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
        </Style>
    </Application.Resources>

The XAML page that initiates the control initiates it as follows:

<my:ValidationTextBox InputScope="PersonalGivenName" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0" x:Name="tbFirstName" Height="70" VerticalAlignment="Center" MaxLength="50" />

When I run the app, the control doesn't show up, it's blank.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Have you tried giving Expressions Blend a go? It's a free download (part of the Windows Developer Tools which should be able to let you do all your styling work with a very nice GUI environment.

The second half of the Hello Phone lab in the Windows Phone 7 Training Kit runs through a few basic things you can do with Blend.

Answer 2

You have two borders. The first contains a ScrollViewer that doesn't have any content. The second contains a TextBox which should show some content except that the border visibility is set to collapsed.