PivotViewer Shorts Part 3: Hide Collection path

Introduction

By default the SL4 PivotViewer control displays the path to the collection CXML file whilst it is being loaded. Many people have expressed a wish to hide the path.

 

This short post shows how to locate the UI element for the collection title and then alter its visibility.

 

Locating the UI Elements

The flow of the code goes something like this:

• Locate the “PART_Container” in the tree. This is a Grid control.
• Locate the CollectionViewerView control.
• Locate the ControlBarView to access the child controls.

// Locate UI Elements
Grid partContainer = (Grid)this.GetTemplateChild(“PART_Container”);
CollectionViewerView CVV = (CollectionViewerView)(partContainer).Children[0]);
Grid container = CVV.Content as Grid;
//
// For exposing the top control bar (title,views,sortby,slider)
ControlBarView ControlBar = ((UIElement)container.Children[2]) as ControlBarView;
//
// Hide collection name
((Grid)ControlBar.Content).Children[1].Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;

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FAQ

If you want to try out the code there are a few things to watch out for. You will probably want to make the title visible again when the collection event CollectionLoadingCompleted fires.

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You will need some internal Microsoft Pivot references and usings too. Depending upon the extent of your other customizations you will need these:

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using System.Windows.Pivot;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Model;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.ViewModels;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Views;

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Further things to do

• Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index
• The code should be nicely wrapped up and encapsulated in the CustomPivotViewer override class.
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is a brief guide to locating some visual elements of the Silverlight PivotViewer control in order to hide the CXML path during collection loading. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the public API.

 

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.