How do I get a widget from xeto/xaml into C#?

[Antonio225t]

I have a <DropDown /> in the xeto file that I wish to modify it's Items at runtime, is there a way for me to access this from inside the C# file? I wish to do something like:
MainForm.xeto

<DropDown Name="DropMenu" />

MainForm.xeto.cs

// [...]
DropMenu.Items.Add("Runtime added option");

Is something like this possible?

Thanks in advance 👍

[KevinAndrewDong]

Yep, you can do that. Use x:Name instead of Name, then add a property with the same name in your code-behind.

In MainForm.xeto, change the dropdown to:

<DropDown x:Name="DropMenu" />

Then, inside your existing MainForm class in MainForm.xeto.cs:

protected DropDown DropMenu { get; set; }

public MainForm()
{
    XamlReader.Load(this);
    DropMenu.Items.Add("Runtime added option");
}

XamlReader.Load(this) fills in the property, so the Items.Add line needs to come after it. The property name and x:Name have to match exactly.

Eto's own example does this with a named dropdown and a matching C# property. You can pass a string straight to Items.Add, as in your original snippet.

[Antonio225t]

Ohhh it was x: because I already tried Name and it didn't work, now I understand. Thank you so much! I tried it and it worked.

[cwensley]

Thanks for answering this @KevinAndrewDong.

I've been working on improving .xeto/.jeto support recently, and with Eto 2.14 when released will be able to compile .xeto to code with <EtoXamlCodeGen>true</EtoXamlCodeGen> in your project, and will also generate the fields for any controls with a x:Name/ID automatically, so you won't have to create them yourself. It won't trample on anything you have added manually so your existing code should still work.