Silverlight ControlTemplate和F＃

Question

Has anybody had any success incorporating a Silverlight ControlTemplate into an F# Silverlight application. I am trying to add transitions to the Navgiation.Frame element and following along on with a C# example: http://www.davidpoll.com/2009/07/19/silverlight-3-navigation-adding-transitions-to-the-frame-control

The downloaded source uses the MSBUILD:Compile option on the template XAML and the file is included as a "Page"... ILDASM doesn't show any object created for the XAML;

In my project I incldued it as a "Resource" (same as I have done for my pages) and referenced it in app.xaml:

<Application xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
             x:Class="Module1.MyApp">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
                <ResourceDictionary Source="/FSSilverlightApp;component/TransitioningFrame.xaml"/>
            </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

the TransitioningFrame.xaml is as follows:

<ResourceDictionary
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:navigation="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Navigation"
    xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Layout.Toolkit">
    <ControlTemplate x:Key="TransitioningFrame" TargetType="navigation:Frame">
        <Border Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
                BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
                BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"
                HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}">
            <toolkit:TransitioningContentControl Content="{TemplateBinding Content}"
                                                 Cursor="{TemplateBinding Cursor}"
                                                 Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
                                                 HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                                                 VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"
                                                 HorizontalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                                                 VerticalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"
                                                 Transition="DefaultTransition" />
        </Border>
    </ControlTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>

My page objects all load their respective xaml with the follwoing code:

type Page1() as this =
    inherit UriUserControl("/FSSilverlightApp;component/Page1.xaml")
    do
        Application.LoadComponent(this, base.uri)

and somewhere in app startup:

let p1 = new Page1()

I donot have a comparable piece for the ControlTemplate - though I was hoping the application object and App.xaml would pull it in magically (as an aside, the reliance on this magic has made setting up a 100% f# silverlight application rather tricky - as nearly all the published articles I find are based around wizards and short cuts - very little on the acual plumbing - ugh).

the page xaml references the control via:

<StackPanel Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="2" Name="mainPanel">
     <navigation:Frame Name="contentFrame" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"  Template="{StaticResource TransitioningFrame}"/>
</StackPanel>

Any advice or thougts on the subject are appreciated.

---

Per brians comment, I investigated the MSBUILD command diagnostics and it doesn't look like it does anythining other than include it as a resource:

Generating .resources file: 'obj\\Debug\\TransitioningNavigation.g.resources'... (TaskId:14) Reading Resource file: 'C:\\Users\\todd.brown\\Desktop\\TransitioningNavigation\\TransitioningNavigation\\Assets\\Styles.xaml'... (TaskId:14) Resource ID is 'assets/styles.xaml'. (TaskId:14)
Reading Resource file: 'C:\\Users\\todd.brown\\Desktop\\TransitioningNavigation\\TransitioningNavigation\\Assets\\TransitioningFrame.xaml'... (TaskId:14) Resource ID is 'assets/transitioningframe.xaml'. (TaskId:14)

---

Well one interesting thing is that If I rename the reference to the ContentTemplate xaml inide of the App.xaml - the application deosn't load and throws an error - so I guess the page is being referenced and loaded correctly. ie this is bad

<ResourceDictionary Source="/FSSilverlightApp;component/TransitioningFrameBAD.xaml"/>

Answer 1

It may be useful to go to the command line, and run

msbuild /t:clean
msbuild /v:diag > diagnostics.txt

and inspect the diagnostic log to find out 'what the Compile of that Xaml file (with the ResourceDictionary ) is doing under the hood'. This may be suggestive of what to do for F#.

Answer 2

Well, I actually wrote ControlTemplates in WPF 4.0, so this should pretty much work for Silverlight too, check the below posts and the git-hub source that I have mentioned,

http://fadsworld.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/f-wpf-component-development/

You should pretty much get the idea about how to declare resources, use them with control templates and also load control templates inside a custom control. I also got BLEND working in this way.

Let me know if you need any help.

Thanks, Fahad