Embed Custom GUIs in WPF

Serialization/Deserialization

Go to the WPF Compound Documents sample app. Select Edit/Insert PhotoControl. Click on the PhotoControl's Add button and add some JPEG files. Look at the XAML markup in the RichTextBox on the right. You'll see that several of the PhotoControl's XAML elements have Name attributes. But you can save and open the document by selecting File/Save and File|Open without encountering the dreaded XamlParseException. How?

This sample application uses PlaceholderControls, which are minimalist UserControls with no content. PlaceholderControls have the same Name attribute value as the UserControls that they represent. The program avoids the deserialization issue by simply replacing all UserControls with PlaceholderControls before serializing the document, and replacing all PlaceholderControls with UserControls after deserializing. Converting between UserControls and PlaceholderControls is done by the ReplaceControlsWithPlaceholders and ReplacePlaceholdersWithRealControls methods (Listing One). ReplaceControlsWithPlaceholders first calls GetUserControlNames, which scans the specified document fragment and retrieves a list of UserControl Name attribute values in the order in which the UserControls appear in the fragment. Then it uses a regular expression to replace the UserControl markup with PlaceholderControl markup. ReplacePlaceholdersWithRealControls scans through the entire document looking for BlockUIContainers and InlineUIContainers because those elements contain each of the document's PlaceholderControls. If it finds a BlockUIContainer or InlineUIContainer that contains a PlaceholderControl, it extracts the PlaceholderControl. Then it determines the type of UserControl represented by the PlaceholderControl. Finally, it creates the UserControl and loads it with state data so that it displays properly.

// Convert UserControls into PlaceholderControls in the xaml markup.
public static string ReplaceControlsWithPlaceholders(string xaml, 
                              TextPointer start, TextPointer end)
{
  string modifiedMarkup = xaml;
  // Get a list of UserControl Name attribute values in the 
  // order in which they appear in the document.
  List<string> userControlNames = GetUserControlNames(start, end);
  // Search for each Name... 
  foreach (string name in userControlNames)
  {
    foreach (string typeName in ControlTypeNames)
    {
      string enhancedUserControl = 
    string.Format(@"<{0} .*?Name=""{1}"".*?</{0}>", typeName, name);
      string placeHolderControl = 
         string.Format(@"<wpfcd:PlaceholderControl 
             Name=""{0}"" Visibility=""Hidden""/>", 
      Regex enhancedUserControlRegex = new Regex(enhancedUserControl);
      // Replace the UserControl with a Placeholder control having 
      // the same Name as the UserControl.
      modifiedMarkup = enhancedUserControlRegex.Replace(
            modifiedMarkup, placeHolderControl);
    }
  }
  return modifiedMarkup;
}
// Convert all PlaceholderControls in the document with
// the UserControls that they represent.
public static void ReplacePlaceholdersWithRealControls(
        FlowDocument document, RichTextBox richTextBox)
{
  int replacements = 0;
  TextPointer current = document.ContentStart;
  // Scan through the entire document...
  while (current.CompareTo(document.ContentEnd) < 0)
  {
    // UserControls will be nested in BlockUIContainer
    // or InlineUIContainer XAML elements.
    BlockUIContainer blockUIContainer = current.Parent as 
    InlineUIContainer inlineUIContainer = current.Parent as 
    // If we found a BlockUIContainer or InlineUIContainer...
    if (blockUIContainer != null || inlineUIContainer != null)
    {
      PlaceholderControl placeHolderControl;
      if (blockUIContainer != null)
      {
        placeHolderControl = 
           blockUIContainer.Child as PlaceholderControl;
      }
      else
      {
        placeHolderControl = inlineUIContainer.Child as 
      }
      // If we found a PlaceholderControl...
      if (placeHolderControl != null)
      {
        // Determine the type of the UserControl that the 
        // PlaceholderControl represents.
        Type controlType = 
      EnhancedUserControlUtils.GetType(placeHolderControl.Name);
        // Create a new UserControl of the proper type.
        IEnhancedUserControl newControl = 
        EnhancedUserControlUtils.ControlFactory(controlType);
        // Change the name of the new control so that it won't
        // overwrite another control's data.
        newControl.Name = 
        EnhancedUserControlUtils.NameFromGuid(Guid.NewGuid());
        // Retrieve the UserControl's state data.
        ICloneable dataToPersist = 
            (ICloneable)EnhancedUserControlUtils.
                       Load(placeHolderControl.Name);
        // Clone the state data so that the new UserControl
        //  won't overwrite another UserControl's data.
        ICloneable newObject = (ICloneable)dataToPersist.Clone();
        // Save the new UserControl's type and state.
        Globals.CompoundDocument.PersitedTypes[newControl.Name] = 
        Globals.CompoundDocument.PersitedValues[newControl.Name] = 
        // Load the new UserControl with its state data.
        ((IEnhancedUserControl)newControl).Load(newObject);
        // Nest the new UserControl inside the BlockUIContainer
        // or InlineUIContainer.
        if (blockUIContainer != null)
        {
          blockUIContainer.Child = (UserControl)newControl;
        }
        else if (inlineUIContainer != null)
        {
          inlineUIContainer.Child = (UserControl)newControl;
        }
        replacements++;
      }
    }
   current=current.GetNextContextPosition(LogicalDirection.Forward);
  }
  ...
}