How to Programmatically access Constants declared in your Xaml

Tweet

If you have been looking out for a way to declare some constants in your xaml and then programmatically access them, then here’s a way I follow.

Open your App.xaml and add the following string constant to it

<Application
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="SampleSilverlight.App"
    xmlns:clr="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib">
    <Application.Resources>
        <clr:String x:Key="DC">DevCurry</clr:String>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

We will access this string constant programmatically using C# or VB.NET. 

Open your Page.xaml and add a TextBlock and a Button to it.

<StackPanel Height="200" Width="200">
   <TextBlock x:Name="tb"></TextBlock>
    <Button x:Name="btnFetch" Content="Fetch"
            Click="btnFetch_Click"></Button>
</StackPanel>

Now add the following code on button click:

C# 

private void btnFetch_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (Application.Current.Resources.Contains("DC"))
    {
        tb.Text = (string)Application.Current.Resources["DC"];
    }
}

VB.NET

Private Sub btnFetch_Click(ByVal sen As Object, ByVal e As RoutedEventArgs)
    If Application.Current.Resources.Contains("DC") Then
       tb.Text = CStr(Application.Current.Resources("DC"))
    End If
End Sub

The Application.Resources gets a collection of Application-Scoped resources.

On clicking the button, the text ‘DevCurry’ gets displayed

Tweet

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, Developer Technologies MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) is the founder and contributor for DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He is the Chief Editor of a Developer Magazine called DNC Magazine. He has also authored two Books - 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls. and The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Follow him on twitter @suprotimagarwal.