In Silverlight, the Datagrid control is a powerful tool for displaying tabular data in a user-friendly manner. However, sometimes the default appearance of the Datagrid header may not fit the design of your application. One common customization is changing the background color of the Datagrid header to better match your app's color scheme. In this article, we will explore how to achieve this customization in a few simple steps.
First, let's take a look at the default appearance of the Datagrid header in Silverlight. By default, the header has a light gray background color and white text. While this may work for some applications, it may not be the best fit for yours. To change the background color, we will need to use a combination of XAML and code-behind.
Step 1: Add a Style for the Datagrid Header
The first step is to define a style for the Datagrid header. This style will contain the desired background color and any other visual changes we want to make. We can add this style in the Resources section of our XAML file, either at the application level or the page level.
<Grid.Resources>
<Style x:Key="CustomHeaderStyle" TargetType="dataprimitives:DataGridColumnHeader">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="#004d80"/>
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White"/>
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
In the above code, we have defined a style with a key of "CustomHeaderStyle" and set the TargetType to "dataprimitives:DataGridColumnHeader". This ensures that the style is applied only to the Datagrid header and not any other elements. We have also set the Background property to a dark blue color (#004d80) and the Foreground property to white.
Step 2: Apply the Style to the Datagrid
Now that we have defined the style, we need to apply it to the Datagrid. To do this, we simply add the Style property to the Datagrid and set its value to the key of our custom style.
<datagrid Style="{StaticResource CustomHeaderStyle}">
<!-- Datagrid columns and data -->
</datagrid>
Once this is done, we should see the Datagrid header with a dark blue background and white text, as defined in our custom style.
Step 3: Handle the Loaded Event
There is one final step to ensure that our custom style is applied correctly. We need to handle the Loaded event of the Datagrid and set the HeaderStyle property of each column to our custom style.
private void datagrid_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
foreach (DataGridColumn column in datagrid.Columns)
{
column.HeaderStyle = this.Resources["CustomHeaderStyle"] as Style;
}
}
This code loops through each column in the Datagrid and sets its HeaderStyle property to our custom style. This ensures that the style is applied to each column header, not just the main Datagrid header.
And there we have it! With just a few simple steps, we have successfully changed the background color of the Datagrid header in Silverlight. Of course, this is just one example of customization that can be done with the Datagrid header. You can also change the font, font size, and other visual properties to fit your application's design.
In conclusion, the Datagrid control in Silverlight is a versatile tool that can be easily customized to fit the needs of your application
