Creating New Item Template

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

XAML

<Style TargetType="planner:ItemPresenter" x:Key="MyStyle">
  <Setter Property="Template">
    <Setter.Value>
      <ControlTemplate TargetType="planner:ItemPresenter">
      ...
      </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 ItemPresenter through one of its properties - StyleKeyComplex, StyleKeySimpleHorizontal and StyleKeySimpleVertical. The Default Item Template uses this technique to provide different templates for the items in different views. Below is an example XAML code illustrating this.

XAML

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

C#

StyleKeyComplex = "ComplexItemStyle";
StyleKeySimpleHorizontal = "SimpleItemHorizontalStyle";
StyleKeySimpleVertical = "SimpleItemVerticalStyle";

Visual Basic

StyleKeyComplex = "ComplexItemStyle"
StyleKeySimpleHorizontal = "SimpleItemHorizontalStyle"
StyleKeySimpleVertical = "SimpleItemVerticalStyle"

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 ItemPresenterCreated event of the Calendar class. The following code illustrates how to assign a custom style (MyStyle) to newly created presenters:

C#

calendar.ItemPresenterCreated += (sender, e) =>
    {
        e.ItemPresenter.StyleKeyComplex = "MyStyle";
        e.ItemPresenter.StyleKeySimpleHorizontal = "MyStyle";
        e.ItemPresenter.StyleKeySimpleVertical = "MyStyle";
    };

For more information on how to create new templates, check Tutorial 5: Custom Item Templates.