Is there a Windows (Phone) equivalent of the Android selector?

Question

Android xml has a nice thing for button (and other things) states which are selectors.

Here is an example of the Android Documentation:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:constantSize=["true" | "false"]
    android:dither=["true" | "false"]
    android:variablePadding=["true" | "false"] >
    <item
        android:drawable="@[package:]drawable/drawable_resource"
        android:state_pressed=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_focused=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_hovered=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_selected=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_checkable=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_checked=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_enabled=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_activated=["true" | "false"]
        android:state_window_focused=["true" | "false"] />
</selector>

Is there something in XAML or C# we can use to obtain the same effect on Windows (Phone) apps. (Or Universal Apps for that matter).

Nowadays I use the Listeners GotFocus, LostFocus, etc. But i don't think it is a straghtforward solution.

Anyone has a better idea on how to do this?

Answer 1

You can define a complete multi-state layout of a control purely in xaml. Define a custom style for button and set the Template property. Unfortunately this completely overrides the template, so you would probably have to copy the default one. There you can set different VisualStates for Pressed , MouseOver etc.

To get the button default style use Blend as described here: http://www.geekchamp.com/tips/windows-phone-button-default-style

More info on custom button templates: http://www.geekchamp.com/tips/custom-styles-and-templates-in-windows-phone-button