You not only have to retemplate the Expander ... you need to retemplate the ToggleButton within the Expander's template ... so that you can template bind the Background brush set on the Expander all the way down through the Expander's visuals and into the ToggleButton's visuals (using two TemplateBindings).
One thing that is helpful (at least for me) when you are learning how to modify the visuals of the WPF controls is to use the SimpleStyles as these are much easier to copy and modify ... than the full fledged, normal styles & templates.
To do this, open up Blend and go into the Asset Library (the bottom most tool) ... if you click on that you will see two sets of controls: System Controls and Simple Styles. Grab one of the controls (whichever one you want) from the Simple Styles and plunk it down on the design surface. Then, you can right click on it, Edit Control Parts (Template), and Edit a Copy. This will create a copy of the Simple Styles style and template ... which you can then (more easily) modify to your hearts content.
(I should note at this point that I would then modify that xaml (generated by Blend) in both Visual Studio and Blend ... flipping back and forth as necessary ... and taking advantage of the strengths of each: Blend for its WYSIWYG design surface ... and Visual Studio for its code editing and IntelliSense support.)
I have drafted up some quick xaml that does what you are asking and will include it below. You should be able to drop this xaml in Kaxaml or another loose xaml editor.
Hope this helps.
<Page
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Width="640"
Height="480"
>
<Page.Resources>
<LinearGradientBrush x:Key="NormalBrush" EndPoint="0,1" StartPoint="0,0">
<GradientStop Color="#EEE" Offset="0.0"/>
<GradientStop Color="#CCC" Offset="1.0"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
<LinearGradientBrush x:Key="NormalBorderBrush" EndPoint="0,1" StartPoint="0,0">
<GradientStop Color="#CCC" Offset="0.0"/>
<GradientStop Color="#444" Offset="1.0"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="GlyphBrush" Color="#444"/>
<LinearGradientBrush x:Key="MouseOverBrush" EndPoint="0,1" StartPoint="0,0">
<GradientStop Color="#FFF" Offset="0.0"/>
<GradientStop Color="#AAA" Offset="1.0"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
<LinearGradientBrush x:Key="PressedBrush" EndPoint="0,1" StartPoint="0,0">
<GradientStop Color="#BBB" Offset="0.0"/>
<GradientStop Color="#EEE" Offset="0.1"/>
<GradientStop Color="#EEE" Offset="0.9"/>
<GradientStop Color="#FFF" Offset="1.0"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
<ControlTemplate x:Key="newToggleButtonControlTemplate" TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
<Grid Background="{TemplateBinding Background}">
<Rectangle
x:Name="Rectangle"
Margin="0,0,0,0"
Fill="Transparent"
Stroke="{DynamicResource NormalBorderBrush}"
/>
<Path
x:Name="Up_Arrow"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
Fill="{DynamicResource GlyphBrush}"
Data="M 0 0 L 4 4 L 8 0 Z"
/>
<Path
x:Name="Down_Arrow"
Visibility="Collapsed"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
Fill="{DynamicResource GlyphBrush}"
Data="M 0 4 L 4 0 L 8 4 Z"
/>
</Grid>
<ControlTemplate.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="true">
<Setter Property="Fill" Value="{DynamicResource MouseOverBrush}" TargetName="Rectangle"/>
</Trigger>
<Trigger Property="IsPressed" Value="true">
<Setter Property="Fill" Value="{DynamicResource PressedBrush}" TargetName="Rectangle"/>
</Trigger>
<Trigger Property="IsChecked" Value="true">
<Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible" TargetName="Down_Arrow"/>
<Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Collapsed" TargetName="Up_Arrow"/>
</Trigger>
</ControlTemplate.Triggers>
</ControlTemplate>
<Style x:Key="newExpanderStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*" x:Name="ContentRow"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Border
x:Name="Border"
Grid.Row="0"
BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"
CornerRadius="2,2,0,0"
>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="20"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ToggleButton
Template="{DynamicResource newToggleButtonControlTemplate}"
Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
IsChecked="{Binding Path=IsExpanded, Mode=TwoWay, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}"
OverridesDefaultStyle="True"
/>
<ContentPresenter Grid.Column="1" Margin="4" RecognizesAccessKey="True" ContentSource="Header"/>
</Grid>
</Border>
<Border
x:Name="ExpandSite"
Grid.Row="1"
Visibility="Collapsed"
BorderThickness="1,0,1,1"
CornerRadius="0,0,2,2"
>
<ContentPresenter
HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"
Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
Focusable="false"
/>
</Border>
</Grid>
<ControlTemplate.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsExpanded" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible" TargetName="ExpandSite"/>
</Trigger>
</ControlTemplate.Triggers>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</Page.Resources>
<Page.Background>
<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.997,0.996" StartPoint="0.002,0.058">
<GradientStop Color="#FF63A6DE" Offset="0"/>
<GradientStop Color="#FFC2DEF5" Offset="1"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Page.Background>
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<Expander
Style="{DynamicResource newExpanderStyle}"
Header="Expander"
HorizontalAlignment="Left"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
Background="{DynamicResource NormalBrush}"
>
<Grid>
<Button Content="Hello World"/>
</Grid>
</Expander>
</Grid>
</Page>
WPF doesn't have a built-in property to hide the title bar's Close button, but you can do it with a few lines of P/Invoke.
First, add these declarations to your Window class:
private const int GWL_STYLE = -16;
private const int WS_SYSMENU = 0x80000;
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int GetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd, int nIndex);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern int SetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd, int nIndex, int dwNewLong);
Then put this code in the Window's Loaded
event:
var hwnd = new WindowInteropHelper(this).Handle;
SetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_STYLE, GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_STYLE) & ~WS_SYSMENU);
And there you go: no more Close button. You also won't have a window icon on the left side of the title bar, which means no system menu, even when you right-click the title bar - they all go together.
Important note: all this does is hide the button. The user can still close the window! If the user presses Alt+F4, or closes the app via the taskbar, the window will still close.
If you don't want to allow the window to close before the background thread is done, then you could also override OnClosing
and set Cancel
to true, as Gabe suggested.
Best Solution
When you want to create a new Window, you cannot use the Window class directly because it acts as a template.
To add a new Window to your project:
Right Click on your Project --> Add --> New Element --> Window. Name it as you please, but I will use the default (Window1).
Now you can operate on your new window in the same ways you did your original window. Add any UI elements you like and code them to your desire.
To show the new window: