WPF ControlTemplate: How to provide a default value for TemplateBinding?

Question

I am writing a WPF control that subclasses a Button. I then provide a default style in Themes\generic.xaml, that looks like this (simplified):

<Style TargetType="{x:Type WPFControls:MyButton}">     <Setter Property="Template">         <Setter.Value>             <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type WPFControls:MyButton}">                 <Button                      x:Name="PART_Button"                     Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"                     BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"                     />             </ControlTemplate>         </Setter.Value>     </Setter> </Style> 

I would like the user to have the opportunity to change the control's background, but if he doesn't, I'd like to provide default value. How do I do it?

When I do it like in the posted code, the Background and BorderBrush is null (= nonexistent) unless user explicitly specifies them (which effectively forces user to always provide some value), but the standard windows controls (like Button) provide a default look, that can still be customized by user. How to do this in my control?

Thank you!

Solution by Michael Morton:

You can provide defaults as setters in style:

<Style TargetType="{x:Type TestTemplate:MyButton}">     <Setter Property="Background" Value="Red" />     <Setter Property="Template">         <Setter.Value>             <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type TestTemplate:MyButton}">                 <Button                      x:Name="PART_Button"                     IsEnabled="{TemplateBinding IsEnabled}"                     Content="{TemplateBinding Content}"                     Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"                     />             </ControlTemplate>         </Setter.Value>     </Setter> </Style> 

Usage:

<StackPanel>     <TestTemplate:MyButton Background="Blue">Explicitly blue</TestTemplate:MyButton>     <TestTemplate:MyButton>Naturally red</TestTemplate:MyButton> </StackPanel> 

Answer 1

You can just define setters on your style for the two properties in question.

For example, some general definitions:

<LinearGradientBrush x:Key="ButtonNormalBackground" EndPoint="0,1" StartPoint="0,0">     <GradientStop Color="#F3F3F3" Offset="0"/>     <GradientStop Color="#EBEBEB" Offset="0.5"/>     <GradientStop Color="#DDDDDD" Offset="0.5"/>     <GradientStop Color="#CDCDCD" Offset="1"/> </LinearGradientBrush>  <SolidColorBrush x:Key="ButtonNormalBorder" Color="#FF707070"/> 

Then, in your style definition:

<Setter Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource ButtonNormalBackground}" /> <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="{StaticResource ButtonNormalBorder}" />