AlternateContentProperty attribute

A new extension point we have added to Blend 3 (based on very popular demand) can be seen put to good use with the Silverlight Chart control - we call it the AlternateContentProperty attribute. Annotating the properties of a control with this attribute allows you to select objects that are set as values (including DepedencyObjects) to be selected in the Blend object tree, thereby exposing a ton of new functionality like the ability to set properties on those objects, edit templates if those objects were FrameworkElements, or set new objects as values of these properties.

Kudos to the Silverlight toolkit team for jumping onto this (I hope a lot more people notice and use this feature in Blend 3 as it really, really enables designers).

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 28, 2009
  PingBack from http://blog.a-foton.ru/index.php/2009/03/28/alternatecontentproperty-attribute/

• Anonymous
  May 25, 2009
  While Blend 3 has a number of stellar features that I am sure everyone reading this blog has heard about

• Anonymous
  May 02, 2010
  We use this extensively, thanks

• Anonymous
  July 06, 2011
  But there are differences between Silverlight and WPF! In Silverlight, you can find a property AlternateContentProperty in the namespace System.ComponentModel. Just put it over your property and it will show up in Blend like the Header-property of headercontentcontrol. The problem is, that in WPF you will not find this property in this namesspace :-( But: Add the reference Microsoft.Windows.Design.Interaction to your project, and use Microsoft.Windows.Design.PropertyEditing; in your class. And here we are. AlternateContentProperty can be placed over the properties :-)