XAML Unleashed

Using Arbitrary Types in XAML

Thanks to XAML’s general-purpose nature, you can use it with just about any .NET object, C++/CX objects in a C++ app targeting the Windows Runtime, or even COM objects in a WPF app, thanks to COM interoperability. This includes types you define yourself.

It doesn’t matter whether these objects have anything to do with a user interface. However, the objects need to be designed in a “declarative-friendly” way. For example, if a class doesn’t have a default constructor and doesn’t expose useful instance properties, it’s usually not going to be directly usable from XAML. A lot of care went into the design of the XAML-based frameworks—above and beyond the usual .NET or Windows Runtime design guidelines—in order to fit ...