| name | wpf-styles |
| description | Conventions for adding or editing WPF Styles, DataTemplates, and ResourceDictionaries in the Frontend.WPF project of this Digimon World app. Use whenever creating or changing any .xaml style, control template, data template, or resource dictionary, or when a control isn't picking up expected theming. |
WPF styles & templates
One style per file
- Every
Style lives in its own file under ResourceDictionaries/Styles/ — never inline, never lumped with an unrelated style.
- The first/primary style for a control type is the default, keyed
DefaultXxxStyle (DefaultButtonStyle, DefaultComboboxStyle, DefaultCheckboxStyle, …). At most one default per element + style-type. Closely-related variants of the same concept (e.g. DefaultButtonActiveStyle, DisplayOnlyButtonStyle) may share that file.
- Styles are merged into each consumer's
MergedDictionaries and applied explicitly: Style="{StaticResource DefaultXxxStyle}".
- UserControl-specific styles and
DataTemplates each live in their own file (same one-per-file rule) in a Styles/ or DataTemplates/ subfolder beside that UserControl, merged into its MergedDictionaries.
App.xaml implicit-style gotcha
App.xaml defines implicit (keyless) styles for TextBlock (DW1 font, bold), Control (DW1 font), and Grid (background #2E3841) — so every Grid paints that dark background. When laying content over a different surface, use a StackPanel/Border or set Background="Transparent", or the Grid shows a dark box.
Shared dimensions
When a size is reused (especially square button/icon/label dimensions) or likely to be tweaked, declare it once as a resource and reference it:
xmlns:system="clr-namespace:System;assembly=System.Runtime"
<system:Double x:Key="ButtonDimension">41</system:Double>
... Width="{StaticResource ButtonDimension}" Height="{StaticResource ButtonDimension}"
No comments in XAML
Keep .xaml files free of <!-- … --> comments — element/attribute names should be self-explanatory.
Theming reaches templated borders, not the control's BorderBrush
Custom control templates here (DefaultTextboxStyle, DefaultComboboxStyle, DefaultCheckboxStyle) use nested fixed-color Borders, so setting BorderBrush/Background on the control itself often won't show. To recolor on a state, add a Trigger in the ControlTemplate.Triggers targeting the named inner border (TargetName="OuterBorder", "BevelBorder", "Box", etc.). Prefer this over adorners — adorners break under LayoutTransform (double-scaling) and on Visibility-collapsed sections (stale overlays bleed onto the visible UI).
