Setting background of content control

Question

<UserControl .....>
  <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:AViewModel}">
    <vw:AView />
  </DataTemplate>

  <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:BViewModel}">
    <vw:BView />
  </DataTemplate>

  <ContentControl x:Name="chartScreen" Content="{Binding Screen}" Background="Yellow" />
</UserControl>

As you can see from above code, ContentControl is setting its content through binding to ViewModel's Screen property. Screen property will return an instance of AViewModel or BViewModel, depending on some condition. The problem is, when UserControl is loaded on screen, Screen property is null, so there is no content set yet. At this point, I would like to set some background for the ContentControl, but I cannot find a way how to do this? Background="Yellow" does nothing...

Any ideas how to set the background of ContentControl? This backgound should be applied always, even when content is displaying AView or Biew, or null.

Answer 1

Just wrap your ContentControl in a Border

<Border Background="Yellow">
  <ContentControl x:Name="chartScreen"
                  Content="{Binding Screen}" />
</Border>

If all you have in your UserControl is your ContentControl, just set the Background on the UserControl itself. That would remove the extra Border as well.