Modern flat themes and useful controls for your next WPF Application

License: MIT

Features:

• flat dark and light styles for the most popular controls
• highly customizable
• custom Grid and StackPanel with adjustable column and row spacing
• SimpleForm container to design forms easier than ever before
• helper classes for easier MVVM implementation in conjunction with MVVM Light

Plus:

• Alias markup extension, to define additional ReferenceKeys for existing references (may be external)
• FlatResourceDictionary class, being a ResourceDictionary which 'unrolls' existing resource dictionaries, that contain nested resources, thus flattening a resource-tree to a resource list
• ViewModelBase class, implementing INotifyPropertyChanged and rudimentary tracking for changed properties
• ViewModelsCollection - a class for syncing a collection of model objects with a collection of associated view models
• classes for implementing 'Delegate Commands", meaning objects that implement ICommand using delegates for the CanExecute() and Execute() methods
• TextboxWatermarkBehavior - a WPF behavior for TextBox controls that realizes a Watermark text, that's visible (grayed) if the text box is empty
• DragWindowAreaBehavior - a WPF behavior to mark a UI element as 'dragging area' for a window (just like the title bar of a window)

Download NuGet-Package

Getting started is as simple as adding the WpfPlus.Plus NuGet-Package to your WPF project. You can do this in the NuGet-Package-Manager or manually:

PM> Install-Package WpfPlus.Plus

After that, one way to activate WpfPlus is to slightly edit your project's App.xaml to make it looking like this:

<Application x:Class="MyApplication.App"
             [...]
             xmlns:wpfPlus="clr-namespace:WpfPlus;assembly=WpfPlus"
             StartupUri="MainWindow.xaml">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
                <wpfPlus:DarkTheme />
            </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

In case you like the light theme more you can also write <wpfPlus:LightTheme /> instead.

Alternatively, if you struggle with nested resource dictionaries or just want to use a Program.main() method, you may also do something like this:

App.xaml

<Application x:Class="MyApplication.App"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
    <!-- Notice! no StartupUri here, if you use Program.main -->
    <Application.Resources />
</Application>

App.xaml.cs

public partial class App : Application
{
    internal App()
    {
        var isDark = true;      // or obtain the value somehow

        Resources.Clear();
        Resources.MergedDictionaries.Clear();

        if (isDark)
        {
            inhaleResourceDictionary(new WpfPlus.DarkTheme());
            inhaleResourceDictionary("ADDITIONAL_DARK_RESC.xaml");
        }
        else
        {
            inhaleResourceDictionary(new WpfPlus.LightTheme());
            inhaleResourceDictionary("ADDITIONAL_LIGHT_RESC.xaml");
        }

        inhaleResourceDictionary("ADDITIONAL_APP_RESC.xaml");            
    }

    private void inhaleResourceDictionary(string sourceUri)
        => Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(
            new FlatResourceDictionary(
                sourceUri.Otherwise(s => !s.EndsWith(".xaml", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase), $"{sourceUri}.xaml")
                ));

    private void inhaleResourceDictionary(ResourceDictionary dict)
        => Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(
            new FlatResourceDictionary(dict));
}

Program.cs

public static class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var app = new App();        // must be before MainWindow instantiation

        // you may also have a variant with view model here
        var window = new MainWindow();
        app.Run(window);
    }
}

Finally you can add Style="{DynamicResource FlatWindowStyle}" to any window that should apply the flat style.

That's it. Have fun!