Actually, this post has a way too fancy title , because in fact I will merely show that enum-based dependency properties are IntelliSense compatible “out-of-the-box”. (by the way, if you know all about dependcy properties: simply read the line in bold and you’ll know all there is to know).
When creating a (WP7/SL/WPF) usercontrol, one often ends up creating one more dependency properties (DP). Most of the times you only want a discrete set of possible values that can be assigned to the DP. The logical choice then of course is to have an enum-based DP.
Now, for the Intellisense to work it is important that you define the enum type OUTSIDE the usercontrols class. For example, suppose we have define the following enum:
public enum GraphTypes {Default, Point, Line}
Now, all that remains is to add a DP that uses this enum (remember that you can use the ‘dependencyproperty’ snippet that comes with VS):
public static readonly DependencyProperty GraphTypeProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("GraphType", typeof (GraphTypes), typeof (GraphControl), new PropertyMetadata(GraphTypes.Default));
public GraphTypes GraphType
{
get { return (GraphTypes) GetValue(GraphTypeProperty); }
set { SetValue(GraphTypeProperty, value); }
}
Once you now add the usercontrol elsewhere in your xaml-code, IntelliSense will happily show what values can be assigned to the DP:
There we go. That’s all there was too it.
Next post I’ll show how to create a WP7 user control to plot graphs using data binding. Consider some of the code here a sneak preview.
Tim Dams 
Couldn’t get the Intellisense to work for me using this approach — a class OUTSIDE of the UserControl or even an enum in a class in a separate library outside of the project?? Are you using ReSharper or something else that might be doing the Intellisense for you?
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What you are missing in your code is the Public Shared Function GetEventType and SetEventType … it’s possible you are inheriting these from something else and hence you confusion as to why the Enum must be OUTSIDE the class … it does not.
Here is correct code sample (in VB):
Partial Public Class DCButtonMain
Inherits UserControl
Public Enum TestEvents
Errors
Tables
System
TransactionCodes
Forms
Communications
End Enum
Public Shared ReadOnly EventTypeProperty As DependencyProperty = DependencyProperty.Register(“EventType”, GetType(TestEvents), GetType(DCButtonMain), New PropertyMetadata(TestEvents.Forms))
Public Shared Function GetEventType(ByVal obj As Button) As TestEvents
Return CInt(obj.GetValue(EventTypeProperty))
End Function
Public Shared Sub SetEventType(ByVal obj As Button, ByVal value As TestEvents)
obj.SetValue(EventTypeProperty, value)
End Sub
Private _EventType As TestEvents
Public Property EvenType() As TestEvents
Get
Return _EventType
End Get
Set(ByVal value As TestEvents)
_EventType = value
End Set
End Property
Public Sub New
InitializeComponent()
End Sub
End Class
Cheers, Rob
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It worked for me as well inside the control class. Here is my snippet:
#region CountryFormat
public enum CountryFormats : int
{
Alpha2Code = 0,
Alpha3Code = 1,
Name = 2
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty CountryFormatProperty = DependencyProperty.Register
(
“CountryFormat”,
typeof(CountryFormats),
typeof(CountryAndSubdivisionFilter),
new PropertyMetadata(CountryFormats.Name)
);
public CountryFormats CountryFormat
{
get
{
return (CountryFormats) GetValue(CountryFormatProperty);
}
set
{
SetValue(CountryFormatProperty, value);
switch (value)
{
case CountryFormats.Alpha2Code:
this.CountryAlpha2CodeBox.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
this.CountryAlpha3CodeBox.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
this.CountryNameBox.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
break;
case CountryFormats.Alpha3Code:
this.CountryAlpha2CodeBox.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
this.CountryAlpha3CodeBox.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
this.CountryNameBox.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
break;
default:
this.CountryAlpha2CodeBox.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
this.CountryAlpha3CodeBox.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
this.CountryNameBox.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
break;
}
}
}
#endregion
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