I want
to write a POCO in XAML, and use a DataTemplate
to display that
object in the GUI at runtime. So far, so good; I know how
to do all that.
Since I'll already have a DataTemplate that can transform my POCO into a WPF visual tree, is there any way
to get the Visual Studio designer
to play along, and have the Design View show me the POCO+DataTemplate's resulting GUI, as I edit the POCO's XAML? (Obviously the designer wouldn't know how
to edit the "design view"; I wouldn't expect the Toolbox or click-and-drag
to work on the design surface. That's fine -- I just want
to see a preview as I edit.)
If you're curious, the POCOs in question would be level maps for a game. (At this point, I'm not planning
to ship an end-user map editor, so I'll be doing all the editing myself in Visual Studio.) So the XAML isn't WPF GUI objects like Window and UserControl, but it's still not something where I would want
to blindly bang out some XAML and hope for the best. I want
to see what I'm doing (the GUI map) as I'm doing it.
If I try
to make a XAML file whose root is my map
object, the designer shows "Intentionally Left Blank - The document root element is not supported by the visual designer." It does this even if I've defined a DataTemplate in App.xaml's <Application.Resources>.
But I know the designer can show my POCO, when it's inside a WPF
object. One possible way of accomplishing what I want would be
to have a ScratchUserControl that just contains a ContentPresenter, and write my POCO XAML inside that ContentPresenter's Content property, e.g.:
<UserControl ...>
<ContentPresenter>
<ContentPresenter.Content>
<Maps:Map .../>
</ContentPresenter.Content>
</ContentPresenter>
</UserControl>
But then I would have
to be sure
to copy the content back out into its own file when I was done editing, which seems tedious and error-prone, and I don't like tedious and error-prone. And since I can preview my XAML this way, isn't there some way
to do it without the UserControl?
