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How to: Create Items with Custom Content in DiagramControl

  • 4 minutes to read

Simple shapes in DiagramControl display only their content as an editable string. If it’s necessary to add custom elements to diagram items, use the DiagramContentItem class. DiagramContentItem has the DiagramContentItem.ContentTemplate property, which can be used to put any elements into the item.

<Style x:Key="formattedTextContentItem" TargetType="dxdiag:DiagramContentItem">
    <Setter Property="ContentTemplate">
        <Setter.Value>
            <DataTemplate>
                ...
            </DataTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

To register DiagramContentItem in the toolbox, use the DiagramStencil.RegisterTool method with FactoryItemTool as a parameter:

stencil.RegisterTool(new FactoryItemTool(
    "Calendar",
    () => "Calendar",
    diagram => new DiagramContentItem() {
        CustomStyleId = "formattedTextContentItem"
    },
    new Size(230, 110), true));

After that, register the stencil using DiagramToolboxRegistrator.RegisterStencil.

Please note that to properly deserialize DiagramContentItem, it’s necessary to set its CustomStyleId property, which accepts a key of a Style applied to the item.

The following example shows how to create diagram items that display custom content.

View Example

Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Windows

Namespace DXDiagram.ContentItem
    Public Class ButtonItemModel
        Public Sub ShowMessage()
            MessageBox.Show("This command has been created by our POCO machanism based on the ShowMessage method")
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace