Referencing UI elements created by XAML during runtime

Question

I am creating a WinUI 3 application, I need to manipulate one of the UI elements during runtime in a very custom and versatile way, so I don't want to define it within XAML.

To manipulate it with code I had to assign the element to a variable during runtime. To do that I had to start from my main window Content property and loop over the nested UI elements until I find the one I am looking for.

There must be a more efficient way, I know the Name of the element, but I cannot know where in the UI hierarchy it would be located, how can I reference it during runtime?

Andrew KeepCoding · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-13 00:29:31Z

1

I don't want to define it within XAML.

If you are creating the UI element in C#, why not keeping it in a variable?

You can also try the FindDescendant() and FindDescendants() methods from the CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Extensions.

MainWindow.xaml

<Grid Loaded="RootGrid_Loaded">
    <!--  Your UI here.  -->
</Grid>

And let's say you are looking for a Button with the name "someButton".

MainWindow.xaml.cs

private void RootGrid_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if ((sender as Grid)?.FindDescendants()
        .OfType<Button>()
        .FirstOrDefault(button => button.Name is "someButton") is not { } someButton)
    {
        return;
    }

    // Your logic here.
}

edited Jul 13, 2024 at 0:29

answered Jul 12, 2024 at 23:42

Andrew KeepCoding

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2 Comments

Eliy Arlev Over a year ago

Thanks for the answer, unfortunately this toolkit is not compatible with my system: net8.0-windows10.0.19041. Perhaps because that is UWP and my App is developed as WinUI App

Eliy Arlev Over a year ago

CommunityToolkit.WinUI.UI.FrameworkElementExtensions did the trick, exactly what I needed, thank you for the direction

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