Applying Custom Theme Error

[Tom Kenny]

I have created a custom theme but when applying it to the applicaiton that we are currently developing it throws an error only visible within the Firefox error console.

Error: Unhandled Error in Silverlight Application
Code: 2272
Category: ParserError
Message: Cannot find a Resource with the Name/Key BtnChrm
File:
Line: 81
Position: 61

Source File: http://localhost:4498/CustomThemeTestTestPage.aspx
Line: 56

 I was able to narrow it down with by creating a sample project, and it seems that the error is only ever thrown when the resource dictionary in the App.xaml requires a key.

This dosn't work~

<Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
           <ResourceDictionary  x:Key="test" Source="/CustomTheme;component/Themes/CustomThemeGeneric.xaml"/>
    </ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>

But this does~

<Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
        <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
            <ResourceDictionary Source="/CustomTheme;component/Themes/CustomThemeGeneric.xaml"/>
        </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
    </ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>

Thing is within our main app, there are other items within the application recources so no matter what the resource dictionary for the custom theme requires a key. So my question is what other changes do I have to make to apply the custom theme if the resource dictionary requires a key.

Also this custom theme is being applied application wide within the App.xaml.cs using:

Telerik.Windows.Controls.Theme appTheme = new CustomTheme.CustomTheme();
Telerik.Windows.Controls.StyleManager.ApplicationTheme = appTheme;

Thanks in advance!
Tom.

[Dani]

Hi Tom Kenny,

Thank you for your inquiry and for your detailed explanation.

By default, when you want to place a Resource Dictionary within another Resource Dictionary, you must do that by using Merged Resource Dictionaries. Therefore, it is only natural that the code snippet which you point as non- working is indeed wrong.

Moreover, when you add an item to a resource dictionary,  it should have a key (of course, except the cases where styles and control templates have a target type only).

Please, correct me if I am wrong, but I can judge from your post, that you have a custom theme on one hand and a few other resources on the other hand. I suggest that you keep those both in separate resource dictionary files and merge them with MergedDictionary inside App.xaml ,or better still, in a third Resource Dictionary file.

I hope this information is going to be helpful. Please, contact us again if you need further help.


Regards,
Dani
the Telerik team