clone Xaml FramworkElement in WinRT

Question

i need to clone a FrameworkELement in my CodeBehind in WinRT...

I did found a solution in the internet, though this workaround doesn't work in WinRT because the XamlWriter is NOT available in winRT! Is there an easy/built-in way to get an exact copy (clone) of a XAML element?

is there any other way to get another instance of my FrameworkElement?

Answer 1

I don't think there is an easy way to clone an element exactly - I don't know for example if there is a way to figure out the arbitrary attached properties set on one or figure out if properties are set by style, animation, template, explicit value etc.

There is one way that would possibly be a solution for your scenario if you have a specific element tree you want cloned - simply put it in a DataTemplate in XAML and then retrieve that template by name or resource key in code behind and call LoadContent() to generate an instance from the template.

If you have your original one in your XAML already that you don't want to put in resources and generate or lay out from code behind again - simply wrap it inside ContentControl/ContentTemplate/DataTemplate.