You can find for this article in the repository, in which we will add new controls and accept contributions for controls as they are made available. the code of the [TreeView](https://github.com/nventive/Uno.UI.Toolkit.SL/tree/master/Uno.UI.Toolkit.SL/Controls/TreeView) Uno.UI.Toolkit.SL In this blog post series, we’re going to cover the migration of the code for the to UWP and the , a control widely used in many line of business applications still in use today. Silverlight Toolkit TreeView control TreeView control Uno Platform This includes parts of the features that may or may not work initially, as well as modifications that will have to be made in the Uno Platform to conform to UWP if required. While the Uno Platform includes all the APIs of the Spring Creators Update (17134), many of these APIs are not implemented yet and there may be some that are used by the Silverlight control. TreeView Also, the point of this exercise is to walk through a migration process from a Silverlight code base, as there is already an existing control API in UWP. As of the writing of this article, the UWP is not implemented in the Uno Platform and migrating this Silverlight control is not an option, as the APIs are significantly different and not directly compatible. TreeView TreeView Importing the Silverlight TreeView control source To migrate a control from Silverlight, there are a few things to do: Create a cross targeted project using the Cross-Platform library template from the Uno Platform VS Addin Replace Silverlight namespaces with UWP namespaces and selectively import the source files and dependencies TreeView Adjust the code for slightly changed APIs Temporarily comment out code for APIs that have significantly changed. Adjust the XAML Cross targeted project creation To be able to build the control is a reuseable way, in a NuGet package, we need to create a Cross-platform library using the Uno Platform VS Addin, which does all the configuration to target Windows (uap10.0), iOS, Android and WebAssembly. This project will contain all the XAML files and C# source files required for the to function properly. It uses the excellent msbuild extensions to cross targeted library with minimal efforts, using the new and improved project format, and simplifies the creation of NuGet packages. TreeView MSBuild.Sdk.Extras sdk-style It will then possible to create an installable NuGet package using the context menu on the project. Pack option Importing the source The process of importing the source is somewhat straightforward. Microsoft, in all its XAML variants, kept many of the APIs signature-compatible. This means that in a large majority of cases, from to is making the code compatible with UWP. simply changing the namespaces System.Windows Windows.UI Here are some examples: -> System.Windows.Controls Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls -> System.Windows.Input Windows.Devices.Input -> System.Windows.Media Windows.UI.Xaml.Media One tip here to simplify the migration is to temporarily remove all non-windows targets in the cross-targeted projects to keep only . This helps in keeping the compilation errors limited to the UWP apis, and avoid some of the API differences that may happen including iOS/Android/Wasm targets. Once the Windows target builds, adding back the other targets will allow for special adjustments, if any. uap10.0 Most of the exercise of the code import is about making an heavy use of the Intellisense by importing files one by one, starting by and removing all the red squiggles. The controls uses , which in turn uses , etc... TreeView.cs TreeView TreeViewItem HeaderedItemsControl After the first pass of changing namespaces, and importing dependent files, we end up with a self-contained set of C# source files, but not yet compiling. Adjusting for slightly changed APIs When trying to resolve the API differences when moving from UWP, after adjusting the namespaces, the first low hangings are the ones that are slightly different. For instance, it can be member visibility differences, or just name updates. Some examples: has been moved from to FrameworkElement.OnApplyTemplate public protected The does not have constructor that only contains a parameter PropertyMetadata PropertyChangedCallback is called GeneralTransform.Transform GeneralTransform.TransformPoint does not contain a constructor taking a string path as a parameter Binding now requires a parameter Control.Focus FocusState Those a pretty easy to adjust, and the UWP runtime behavior has a great change of being identical to the one Silverlight had. The case of ItemsControl.OnItemsChanged There’s one significant change with where the method is not present anymore. This is a pretty important part of behavior of the control, used to create manipulate instances and link them to the instance. Removing the code of this method would make the control unusable. ItemsControl.OnItemsChanged TreeViewItem TreeView This method can be replaced by the event, but not completely. in Silverlight was based on which provided the property, whereas the in UWP is based on . This new implementation notably does not provide the action and it's raising then instead. ItemsControl.Items.VectorChanged ItemsControl ObservableCollection NotifyCollectionChangedAction ItemsCollection ObservableVector Replace ItemRemoved ItemInserted In this case, we must remove the part that dealt with , keeping only , and . The new API also does not provide the items being notified for, which means we have to use the property directly instead. NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Replace Remove Reset Insert Items Temporarily commenting out incompatible features In other cases, the APIs are significantly different and we’ll for now comment those out for the sake of chewing a comfortable piece of code. Parts of this include keyboard support, parts of the mouse support, localization and Peer Automation related support. UWP provides support for those features, not as virtual methods but rather as events that are not directly compatible with the Silverlight implementation. We will take a look at those features in a later part of the series. Adjusting the XAML Another part of the migration to UWP is the adjustment of the XAML. The syntax is the same, but parts differ : The custom namespace syntax is now using instead of , and in many cases simply replacing one by the other is enough using: clr-namespace: The related classes are now in the default xml namespace, meaning that the namespace is not required anymore. VisualStateManager vsm: The namespace is now part of the namespace system x: We’ll also comment out the support for adjustments, as the property is not directly mapped to UWP. Cursor Creating the sample app To be able to test the imported code, we can create a sample application using , reference our imported project and add a simple sample like this one: the Uno Platform VS Addin <controls:TreeView Margin="5"><controls:TreeViewItem Header="Controls"><controls:TreeViewItem Header="AutoCompleteBox"><controls:TreeViewItem Header="Properties" /></controls:TreeViewItem><controls:TreeViewItem Header="Expander" /><controls:TreeViewItem Header="NumericUpDown" /></controls:TreeViewItem><controls:TreeViewItem Header="Layout"><controls:TreeViewItem Header="DockPanel" /><controls:TreeViewItem Header="WrapPanel" /><controls:TreeViewItem Header="Viewbox" /></controls:TreeViewItem><controls:TreeViewItem Header="Charting"><controls:TreeViewItem Header="ColumnSeries" /><controls:TreeViewItem Header="LineSeries" /><controls:TreeViewItem Header="PieSeries" /></controls:TreeViewItem></controls:TreeView> and test it first on Windows, then iOS, Android and WebAssembly. Next steps When running the sample, a few things stand out: The is displaying content properly TreeView The nodes expand and collapse properly The glyph next to the nodes changes state once, but does not animate back There are some exceptions regarding the which has been deprecated in UWP. ItemContainerGenerator We’ll take a look at those the next parts of this series.

Microsoft

Target

Too Long; Didn't Read

Making security fun one episode at a time

Migrating the Silverlight Toolkit TreeView control to UWP and the Uno Platform

Too Long; Didn't Read

People Mentioned

Companies Mentioned

Uno Platform

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

Migrating the Silverlight Toolkit TreeView control to UWP and the Uno Platform

Too Long; Didn't Read

People Mentioned

Companies Mentioned

Uno Platform

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

RELATED STORIES