A question appeared on StackOverflow asking how to animate a property on multiple elements from one or more trigger mechanisms (i.e. a button click or list box selection). The traditional approach (for brevity’s sake, I omitted the Xaml comprising the actual UI elements) is rather straight-forward:
<Window.Resources> <Storyboard x:Key="OnClick1"> <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="textBlock1" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)"> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="0"/> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00.5000000" Value="1"/> </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames> <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="textBlock2" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)"> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="0"/> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00.5000000" Value="1"/> </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames> <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="textBlock3" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)"> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="0"/> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00.5000000" Value="1"/> </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames> <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="textBlock4" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)"> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="0"/> <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00.5000000" Value="1"/> </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames> </Storyboard> <Window.Triggers> <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="ButtonBase.Click" SourceName="button"> <BeginStoryboard Storyboard="{StaticResource OnClick1}"/> </EventTrigger> </Window.Triggers> </Window.Resources>
<Window.Resources>
<UIElement x:Key=”AnimationPlaceholder” Opacity=”0″/> <Style TargetType=”TextBlock”>
<Setter Property=”Opacity”
Value=”{Binding Source={StaticResource AnimationPlaceholder}, Path=Opacity}” />
</Style>
<Storyboard x:Key=”OnClick1″>
<DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime=”00:00:00″
Storyboard.Target=”{StaticResource AnimationPlaceholder}”
Storyboard.TargetProperty=”(UIElement.Opacity)”>
<SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime=”00:00:00″ Value=”0″/>
<SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime=”00:00:00.5000000″ Value=”1″/>
</DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>
<Window.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent=”ButtonBase.Click” SourceName=”button”>
<BeginStoryboard Storyboard=”{StaticResource OnClick1}”/>
</EventTrigger>
</Window.Triggers>
</Window.Resources>
In this snippet, I’m using a UIElement to hold the animation value since it supports the Opacity property (but in fact, any property of type double, would suffice). Also, if you’re not adverse to a little coding, a custom class could be created to contain the values you wish to change for a particular animation. A style is created to affect all TextBoxes, but this can easily be modified to use explicit styling. Finally, the Storyboard targets the placeholder object and changes its value from 0 to 1 over 0.5 seconds. The style uses DataBinding to bind its Opacity property to the placeholder’s.
Though Blend creates a lot of the Xaml for you when creating trigger-based animations, sometimes the result can be less than ideal. Additionally, as I’ve had reinforced through this little exercise, there is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to Xaml, so please feel free to comment with refinements or alternative solutions.
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