Customizing the components: slots¶

The parts of the ReportDesigner, FieldList, FilterBar, FilterEditor and DashboardView are slots: named places where an application adds its own content (before or after the default content), replaces it, or hides it.

<bi:ReportDesigner Context="{Binding Context}">
    <bi:Slots.Items>
        <!-- Under the preview -->
        <bi:Slot Name="{x:Static bi:ReportDesignerSlots.Preview}">
            <Button Content="Publish" Command="{Binding DataContext.PublishCommand, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=Window}}" />
        </bi:Slot>
        <bi:Slot Name="{x:Static bi:ReportDesignerSlots.Title}" Mode="Before"><TextBlock Text="Title:" /></bi:Slot>
        <bi:Slot Name="{x:Static bi:ReportDesignerSlots.FiltersShelf}" Mode="Hide" />
    </bi:Slots.Items>
</bi:ReportDesigner>

Slots.Add(designer, ReportDesignerSlots.Header, exportButton);              // after the default content
Slots.Add(designer, ReportDesignerSlots.Fields, help, SlotMode.Before);      // above the field list
Slots.Add(filterBar, FilterBarSlots.AddButton, myAddButton, SlotMode.Replace);
Slots.Hide(designer, ReportDesignerSlots.FieldPanel);

Modes¶

Several slots with the same name show in declaration order; the last Replace or Hide wins.

Names¶

The band menu of a dashboard is a menu, not a slot: change it in BandMenuBehavior.MenuOpening.

Data context¶

Your content takes the data context of the place it shows in:

To reach your window's view-model from the designer: {Binding DataContext.MyCommand, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=Window}}.

Repeated slots take a template¶

An element can only be shown once. A slot shown several times (FilterBarSlots.Slicer once per global filter, the dashboard item slots once per item, slots declared for several components) takes a ContentTemplate, applied to the data context of each place:

Slots.AddTemplate(dashboard, DashboardSlots.ItemToolbar, (DataTemplate)FindResource("ExportButton"));

Inheritance¶

Slots.Items is inherited: slots declared on a window or a panel apply to every component in it, and the nearest declaration replaces the others. The designer opened to edit a dashboard visual takes the slots of the dashboard.

Your own templates¶

The components are lookless controls. Their default templates (Themes/*.xaml of EasyBI.Wpf) are built from SlotHosts (<bi:SlotHost Slot="..." Orientation="Vertical"> with the default content inside), so a template of yours keeps the slots it hosts. A template works with the components' read-only properties and commands: