How can I assign values to UserControl elements before I add it to my MainPage?

Question

In my Windows Store app, I have a MainPage with an Add button, and a UserControl, which contains a TextBlock and a Rectangle. When I click the "Add" button on the MainPage, I would like to create a new UserControl instance and assign a string value to the TextBlock. Finally, I would like to add the UserControl instance to a container element on the MainPage.

This is what my ActionUserControl looks like right now:

<Grid x:Name="ActionGrid">
    <TextBlock x:Name="ActionText" Grid.Row="0" Text="Name Goes Here" />
</Grid>

And code-behind

public sealed partial class ActionUserControl : UserControl
{
        public string ActionName { get; set; }

        public ActionUserControl()
        {
            this.InitializeComponent();
        }
}

This is what I'm doing in my MainPage AddButton_Click event

private void AddButton_Click(object sender, PointerRoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // ActionCount holds number of active Actions
    ActionCount++;

    // Create an instance of the user control, and assign name
    ActionUserControl auc = new ActionUserControl();
    auc.ActionName = "Action " + ActionCount;

    // Add the user control to the container
    this.ActionContainer.Children.Add(auc);

    // Move the add button to the bottom of the container for consistency
    int childrenCount = this.ActionContainer.Children.Count;
    this.ActionContainer.Children.Move((uint)childrenCount - 1, (uint)childrenCount - 2);
}

I have tried assigning ActionText.Text = ActionName on the UserControl constructor and PageLoad event, but they are both coming up to be null. Should I be Binding the ActionText.Text value instead of trying to set it from codebehind?

Answer 1

You could...

1. Make your ActionName a dependency Property and bind to it.
2. Change the textblock on your UserControls in the ActionName properties setter.

Also consider: Why are you creating the user-controls in code? You could just add your a actions (as Strings) into a list and display them in a ListBox (or other ItemsControl) with a DataTemplate.