Serializing WPF DataTemplates and {Binding Expressions} (from PowerShell?)
- by Jaykul
Ok, here's the deal: I have code that works in C#, but when I call it from PowerShell, it fails. I can't quite figure it out, but it's something specific to PowerShell. Here's the relevant code calling the library (assuming you've added a reference ahead of time) from C#:
public class Test {
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine( PoshWpf.XamlHelper.RoundTripXaml(
"<TextBlock Text=\"{Binding FullName}\" xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation\"/>"
) );
}
}
Compiled into an executable, that works fine ... but if you call that method from PowerShell, it returns with no {Binding FullName} for the Text!
add-type -path .\PoshWpf.dll
[PoshWpf.Test]::Main()
I've pasted below the entire code for the library, all wrapped up in a PowerShell Add-Type call so you can just compile it by pasting it into PowerShell (you can leave off the first and last lines if you want to paste it into a new console app in Visual Studio.
To output (from PowerShell 2) as an executable, just change the -OutputType parameter to ConsoleApplication and the -OutputAssembly to PoshWpf.exe (or something). Thus, you can see that running the SAME CODE from the executable gives you the correct output.
But running the two lines as above or manually calling [PoshWpf.XamlHelper]::RoundTripXaml or [PoshWpf.XamlHelper]::ConvertToXaml from PowerShell just doesn't seem to work at all ... HELP?!
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @"
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Linq;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Markup;
namespace PoshWpf
{
public class Test {
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine( PoshWpf.XamlHelper.RoundTripXaml(
"<TextBlock Text=\"{Binding FullName}\" xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation\"/>"
) );
}
}
public class BindingTypeDescriptionProvider : TypeDescriptionProvider
{
private static readonly TypeDescriptionProvider _DEFAULT_TYPE_PROVIDER = TypeDescriptor.GetProvider(typeof(Binding));
public BindingTypeDescriptionProvider() : base(_DEFAULT_TYPE_PROVIDER) { }
public override ICustomTypeDescriptor GetTypeDescriptor(Type objectType, object instance)
{
ICustomTypeDescriptor defaultDescriptor = base.GetTypeDescriptor(objectType, instance);
return instance == null ? defaultDescriptor : new BindingCustomTypeDescriptor(defaultDescriptor);
}
}
public class BindingCustomTypeDescriptor : CustomTypeDescriptor
{
public BindingCustomTypeDescriptor(ICustomTypeDescriptor parent) : base(parent) { }
public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties(Attribute[] attributes)
{
PropertyDescriptor pd;
var pdc = new PropertyDescriptorCollection(base.GetProperties(attributes).Cast<PropertyDescriptor>().ToArray());
if ((pd = pdc.Find("Source", false)) != null)
{
pdc.Add(TypeDescriptor.CreateProperty(typeof(Binding), pd, new Attribute[] { new DefaultValueAttribute("null") }));
pdc.Remove(pd);
}
return pdc;
}
}
public class BindingConverter : ExpressionConverter
{
public override bool CanConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type destinationType)
{
return (destinationType == typeof(MarkupExtension)) ? true : false;
}
public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType)
{
if (destinationType == typeof(MarkupExtension))
{
var bindingExpression = value as BindingExpression;
if (bindingExpression == null) throw new Exception();
return bindingExpression.ParentBinding;
}
return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
}
}
public static class XamlHelper
{
static XamlHelper()
{
// this is absolutely vital:
TypeDescriptor.AddProvider(new BindingTypeDescriptionProvider(), typeof(Binding));
TypeDescriptor.AddAttributes(typeof(BindingExpression), new Attribute[] { new TypeConverterAttribute(typeof(BindingConverter)) });
}
public static string RoundTripXaml(string xaml)
{
return XamlWriter.Save(XamlReader.Parse(xaml));
}
public static string ConvertToXaml(object wpf)
{
return XamlWriter.Save(wpf);
}
}
}
"@ -language CSharpVersion3 -reference PresentationCore, PresentationFramework, WindowsBase -OutputType Library -OutputAssembly PoshWpf.dll
Again, you can get an executable by just altering the last line like so:
"@ -language CSharpVersion3 -reference PresentationCore, PresentationFramework, WindowsBase -OutputType ConsoleApplication -OutputAssembly PoshWpf.exe
