Compile Xaml into Baml?

Question

How can I convert a xaml to baml?

thanks

Answer 1

You can compile the XAML by creating an MSBuild project file that references it. This is what happens in Visual Studio "under the covers" when you do a compile on your project (it creates a temporary .proj file and builds it).

A fairly minimal project file (xamlcompile.csproj) is something like this:

  
    9.0.30729
    2.0
    library
    v3.5
    {6B8967FF-37B7-43E8-B866-FFD6F13FFC0A}
  
  
    
    
      3.5
    
    
      3.5
    
    
      3.5
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
    
      MSBuild:Compile
      Designer
    
  
  

And you can then generate the BAML file by running the command:

MSBuild /t:ResolveReferences;MarkupCompilePass1;MarkupCompilePass2 xamlcompile.csproj

This will create a baml file under obj\Debug, in the example above it will be obj\Debug\Themes\Generic.baml.

Hope that helps.