XAML skin set in codebehind - how to skin at design time?

Question

I have a Singleton WPF app so don't have the usual app.xaml. Instead I programmatically set what would be in app.xaml in the codebehind.

I would like the app to appear skinned at design time though. I am currently getting exceptions like "Cannot find resource named 'xxx'. Resources are case sensitive." This appears for all staticresources setting styles.

Is there something similar to d:DataContext but for skinning that would allow me to see my properly skinned app in Visual Studio?

Thanks, Drammy

Answer 1

For a quick and dirty fix, in your code behind for the Window or UserControl you are working on, you can check that you are in DesignMode and if you are call your singleton code that acts as your App.xaml. For a more robust solution I suggest you look at what Dr. WPF recommends for handling a hosted WPF application. This isn't exactly what you are doing but the solutions would be similar: http://drwpf.com/blog/2007/10/05/managing-application-resources-when-wpf-is-hosted/.