Owner Draw Control

Question

I need to be able to create a control where I control the rendering of the image.  Based on my searches it seems like this will be difficult and/or impossible.  Some have suggested using a writable bitmap or using Direct2D.  I have looked into Direct2D a bit, but the examples seem to run full screen.  Is it possible to create a control that I can draw myself that I can place onto a 'Canvas' which also contains other controls, some of which may be partially on top of my control? I am using C++ if that helps.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi, see SurfaceImageSource class and DirectX and XAML interop .

Answer 2

Thanks for the suggestion, that looks like what I need.

Answer 3

A XAML friendly way to replace Win32 custom controls in the WinRT world is to use WinRT custom controls with VisualStateManager states.

See XAML User and Custom control sample. The custom control is very simple, but your custom control can have as many visual states as you want. And you switch from one state to another using:

VisualStateManager::GoToState(myCustomControl, "StateName", true);