Setting the target of an animation to a custom user control created at runtime

Question

I'm using a custom control to display news data. I store the control in codebehind so I can display it without having to reload the information (takes anywhere from 2-5 seconds to perform all the tasks associated with populating the control). The news control is essentially a ScrollViewer wrapped in a StackPanel so there's not too much to it. I'm trying to animate the height and width of the control when I call a method, but I'm getting an InvalidOperationException saying

"name cannot be found in the name scope of MainWindow"

I set the name of the control within the MainWindow constructor:

NewsControl _newsControl  = new NewsControl() { Name = "newsControl" };

and I've even tried accessing it when I set the target of my DoubleAnimation using the property value:

Storyboard.SetTargetName(heightAnimation, _newsControl.Name);

As mentioned, the control isn't in the XAML because I need the control in the codebehind anyway...so help?

Answer 1

Since you have a reference to the control, why not use Storyboard.SetTarget instead?

Storyboard.SetTarget(heightAnimation, _newsControl);