Look at this code:

mediaplayer.Height = 500; mediaplayer.Width = 500; Stream s = File.Open("myskin.xaml", FileMode.Open); ResourceDictionary rd = (ResourceDictionary)XamlReader.Load(s); s.Close(); this.Resources = rd;

Skin.xaml contains this:

<Style x:Key="mediaplayer" TargetType="{x:Type Grid}"> <Setter Property="Width" Value="200" /> <Setter Property="Height" Value="200" /> </Style>

Why will the mediaplayer get the height/width 500 and not 200? I want the last assigned value to have priority over the old one, regardless if it's set manually or through a ResourceDictionary.

Hello,

I'm new to wpf but I recently worked with skins...

Do you have a grid that looks something like this:

<Grid Style="{StaticResource mediaplayer}">

....

</Grid>

If so, I think you would need to change to;

<Grid Style="{DynamicResource mediaplayer}">

....

</Grid>

That way when you load your skin the skin's properties will kick in dynamically.

One other thing...

If you have multiple ResourceDictionaries remember to merge them...

Houman

I'm using a DynamicResource so that's not the problem, thanks anyway.

Loading a resourcedictonary that says that the width is 1000 and then loading another RD that says that the width is 200 works, then the Grid will first get the widht 1000 and when you load the second RD it will get 200. But if you set the width manually by code it will override all other settings and RDs.

Solved the problem by running this code before i load the resourcedictionary.

mediaplayer.ClearValue(Grid.WidthProperty); mediaplayer.ClearValue(Grid.HeightProperty);

If someone has any better sollution i'm still happy to hear it.

Calling ClearValue there seems like a perfectly reasonable solution. Any locally set value is going to beat all ResourceDictionary values except animations, and the best way to get rid of something locally set is ClearValue. Then what happens with your styles and RDs can jump into action. Other trickery like trying to bind the value still won't help, if the goal is to have an RD value beat a local value. However, I'm curious how you are getting the local value in the first place, and if it's necessary. If you could have those initial height/width values in styles, you could just be swapping styles, which seems like a much more natural way to work with skins.

Ok, thanks.

I also noticed that animations have even higher priority than manually set properties. If you have animated an object somewhere, not even ClearValue helps. So i have to set the property to the current position manually in the animationcomplete-event and then ClearValue works again.
This is a pretty ugly sollution but it works fine because im only using this sollution once in my project.

The reason why i do this way?

I'm making a mediaplayer and when i play the movies in fullscreen i want the aspectratio to be correct, this has to be calculated manually cause i have placed everything in a ViewBox with fixed height/width to allow easier skinning for all resolutions. If you'r monitors aspectratio isn't the same as the skins, the movie will get a strange stretch even if you use StretchUniform on the MediaElement.

So, when you enter fullscreenmode i override all skinsettings and calculate the height/width manually and when you switch back from fullscreen the skins get priority again. Here the aspectratio for the movie isn't that important, it's just a small previewwindow so i don't think anyone will watch an entire movie here.