wislon/xaml-xcc-info.md

## xaml-xcc-info.md

      
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              xaml-xcc-info.md
            
          
    Xam.Forms XAML conditional compilation& design-time bindings intellisense

Original article:

http://adventuresinxamarinforms.com/2015/03/17/xaml-v-code/
add (to each xaml file, near the top with the other xmlns definitions)
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    xmlns:yourviewmodels="clr-namespace:MyApp.ViewModels;assembly=MyApp"
    d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance Type=yourviewmodels:NoteViewModel, IsDesignTimeCreatable=False}"

(note that you can provide dummy data and stuff as per http://adventuresinxamarinforms.com/2015/05/20/material-designer-for-xamarin-forms/ by setting IsDesignTimeCreatable=True)
If you have multiple types of layouts or templates (e.g. inside a resource dictionary) you can use the d:DataContext multiple times with different yourviewmodels:blah types, provided you put them on the View aspect of the layout (i.e. inside the StackLayout or GridView blahView).
For example this works (Body and Author.FullName light up):

  <DataTemplate x:Key="NoteItemTemplate" >
  
    <StackLayout x:Name="sl1" Padding="4" Spacing="4" Orientation="Vertical" 
                 d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance Type=viewModels:NoteViewModel, IsDesignTimeCreatable=True}">
      
      <ContentView HeightRequest="4" />
      <!-- Hack for margin -->
      <Label VerticalOptions="Start" Text="{Binding Body}"/>
      <Label VerticalOptions="Start" Text="{Binding Author.FullName}" />
    </StackLayout>
    
  </DataTemplate>


whereas this does not (Body and Author.FullName are just magic strings):
  <DataTemplate x:Key="NoteItemTemplate" 
                d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance Type=viewModels:NoteViewModel, IsDesignTimeCreatable=True}">
  
    <StackLayout x:Name="sl1" Padding="4" Spacing="4" Orientation="Vertical" >
      
      <ContentView HeightRequest="4" />
      <!-- Hack for margin -->
      <Label VerticalOptions="Start" Text="{Binding Body}"/>
      <Label VerticalOptions="Start" Text="{Binding Author.FullName}" />
    </StackLayout>
    
  </DataTemplate>


Xaml design-time binding & intellisense (xamarin forums):

http://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/33707/xaml-bindings-not-resolved-in-visual-studio-editor-but-could-be-with-resharper
Bugzilla link for it (maybe one day they'll fix it!)

https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=27295
Workaround (there's a nuget package for it)

https://github.com/firstfloorsoftware/xcc (read their small wiki, really useful stuff here!) and check out the xamarin forms howto at https://github.com/firstfloorsoftware/xcc/wiki/How-to:-Xamarin-Forms
(add nuget package to any project containing XAML using mc:Ignorable
stuff as per the links above), this strips out any custom attributes you've defined