WPF custom control with generics - possible?

Question

I'd like to create a custom WPF control using generics:

public class MyGenericTypeControl<T> : ItemsControl 
{   
   // ...
}

Is this possible to do? In my initial experimentation, I get design-time/compile-time XAML errors as soon as I try to add this control somewhere. This isn't surprising, as construction of my custom control requires additional information that XAML does not provide.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

There is limited support using x:TypeArguments

For XAML 2006 usage, and XAML that is used for WPF applications, the following restrictions exist for x:TypeArguments and generic type usages from XAML in general:

• Only the root element of a XAML file can support a generic XAML usage that references a generic type.
• The root element must map to a generic type with at least one type argument. An example is PageFunction<T>. The page functions are the primary scenario for XAML generic usage support in WPF.
• The root element XAML object element for the generic must also declare a partial class using x:Class. This is true even if defining a WPF build action.
• x:TypeArguments cannot reference nested generic constraints.