C# – How to a WPF UserControl inherit a WPF UserControl

cuser-controlswpfxaml

The following WPF UserControl called DataTypeWholeNumber which works.

Now I want to make a UserControl called DataTypeDateTime and DataTypeEmail, etc.

Many of the Dependency Properties will be shared by all these controls and therefore I want to put their common methods into a BaseDataType and have each of these UserControls inherit from this base type.

However, when I do that, I get the error: Partial Declaration may not have different base classes.

So how can I implement inheritance with UserControls so shared functionality is all in the base class?

using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;

namespace TestDependencyProperty827.DataTypes
{
    public partial class DataTypeWholeNumber : BaseDataType
    {
        public DataTypeWholeNumber()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            DataContext = this;

            //defaults
            TheWidth = 200;
        }

        public string TheLabel
        {
            get
            {
                return (string)GetValue(TheLabelProperty);
            }
            set
            {
                SetValue(TheLabelProperty, value);
            }
        }

        public static readonly DependencyProperty TheLabelProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register("TheLabel", typeof(string), typeof(BaseDataType),
            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata());


        public string TheContent
        {
            get
            {
                return (string)GetValue(TheContentProperty);
            }
            set
            {
                SetValue(TheContentProperty, value);
            }
        }

        public static readonly DependencyProperty TheContentProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register("TheContent", typeof(string), typeof(BaseDataType),
            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata());


        public int TheWidth
        {
            get
            {
                return (int)GetValue(TheWidthProperty);
            }
            set
            {
                SetValue(TheWidthProperty, value);
            }
        }

        public static readonly DependencyProperty TheWidthProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register("TheWidth", typeof(int), typeof(DataTypeWholeNumber),
            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata());



    }
}

Best Answer

Ensure that you have changed the first tag in the xaml to also inherit from your new basetype

So

<UserControl x:Class="TestDependencyProperty827.DataTypes.DataTypeWholeNumber"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"        
    xmlns:s="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
    >

becomes

<myTypes:BaseDataType x:Class="TestDependencyProperty827.DataTypes.DataTypeWholeNumber"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"        
    xmlns:s="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
    xmlns:myTypes="clr-namespace:TestDependencyProperty827.DataTypes"
    >

So, to summarise the complete answer including the extra details from the comments below:

  • The base class should not include a xaml file. Define it in a single (non-partial) cs file and define it to inherit directly from Usercontrol.
  • Ensure that the subclass inherits from the base class both in the cs code-behind file and in the first tag of the xaml (as shown above).
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