Creating New Cell Template

New cell templates are created the same way as custom control templates - by creating a new .NET Style with TargetType set to CellPresenter. The Style should provide a setter for the Template property. The following XAML snippet illustrates how.

XAML

<Style TargetType="planner:CellPresenter" x:Key="MyStyle">
  <Setter Property="Template">
    <Setter.Value>
      <ControlTemplate TargetType="planner:CellPresenter">
      ...
      </ControlTemplate>
    </Setter.Value>
  </Setter>
</Style>

The style definition needs to be placed in the application's resources (App.xaml or Application.xaml). The style needs to specify a Key which should be subsequently used to assign the style to the CellPresenter through one of its properties - StyleKeySimple, StyleKeyWithHeader and StyleKeyToday. The Default Cell Template uses this technique to provide different templates for the cells in different views. Below is an example XAML code illustrating this.

XAML

<Style TargetType="local:CellPresenter" x:Key="SimpleCellStyle">
  <Setter Property="Template">
    <Setter.Value>
      <ControlTemplate TargetType="local:CellPresenter">

        <!-- The template for Timetable and Resource view cells goes here -->

      </ControlTemplate>
    </Setter.Value>
  </Setter>
</Style>

<Style TargetType="local:CellPresenter" x:Key="TodayCellStyle">
  <Setter Property="Template">
    <Setter.Value>
      <ControlTemplate TargetType="local:CellPresenter">

        <!-- The template for the cell representing the current day goes here -->

      </ControlTemplate>
    </Setter.Value>
  </Setter>
</Style>

<Style TargetType="local:CellPresenter" x:Key="WithHeaderCellStyle">
  <Setter Property="Template">
    <Setter.Value>
      <ControlTemplate TargetType="local:CellPresenter">

        <!-- The template for SingleMonth, MonthRange, List and WeekRange view cells goes here -->

      </ControlTemplate>
    </Setter.Value>
  </Setter>
</Style>

By default, the CellPresenter is initialized with the above styles as follows:

C#

StyleKeySimple = "SimpleCellStyle";
StyleKeyToday = "TodayCellStyle";
StyleKeyWithHeader = "WithHeaderCellStyle";

Visual Basic

StyleKeySimple = "SimpleCellStyle"
StyleKeyToday = "TodayCellStyle"
StyleKeyWithHeader = "WithHeaderCellStyle"

When you define one or more new styles for the presenter you need to assign their keys to the corresponding properties. A common way to do this is by handling the CellPresenterCreated event of the Calendar class. The following code illustrates how to assign a custom style (MyStyle) to newly created presenters:

C#

calendar.CellPresenterCreated += (sender, e) =>
    {
        e.CellPresenter.StyleKeySimple = "MyStyle";
        e.CellPresenter.StyleKeyToday = "MyStyle";
        e.CellPresenter.StyleKeyWithHeader = "MyStyle";
    };

For more information on how to create new templates, check the DualView sample.