Prevent a readonly textbox from being grayed out in Silverlight

Question

In Silverlight, How do I make a TextBox with IsReadOnly=\"True\" not become grayed out. The gray effect looks horrible with my app and I would like to disable it, o

Answer 1

There are a couple of options in Silverlight 2, the simplest would be to use a TextBlock since that's only ever readonly.

If you need a TextBox then what you need to do is give it a different style that doesn't do the grey affect.

To do this open up blend. right click on your TextBox and select Edit Control Parts (Template) -> Edit a Copy... Call the new style whatever you want.

You then want to edit this new style and delete the border called "ReadOnlyVisualElement" and delete the storyboard that alters the opacity property of that border.

Hope this helps.

Added Style XAML

    <Style x:Key="ReadOnlyStyle" TargetType="TextBox">
        <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1"/>
        <Setter Property="Background" Value="#FFFFFFFF"/>
        <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="#FF000000"/>
        <Setter Property="Padding" Value="2"/>
        <Setter Property="BorderBrush">
            <Setter.Value>
                <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
                    <GradientStop Color="#FFA3AEB9" Offset="0"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FF8399A9" Offset="0.375"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FF718597" Offset="0.375"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FF617584" Offset="1"/>
                </LinearGradientBrush>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="TextBox">
                    <Grid x:Name="RootElement">
                        <vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                            <vsm:VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="MouseOver">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="MouseOverBorder" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.BorderBrush).(SolidColorBrush.Color)">
                                            <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#FF99C1E2"/>
                                        </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledVisualElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity">
                                            <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="1"/>
                                        </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="ReadOnly">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                            </vsm:VisualStateGroup>
                            <vsm:VisualStateGroup x:Name="FocusStates">
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="Focused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="FocusVisualElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity">
                                            <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="1"/>
                                        </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="Unfocused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="FocusVisualElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity">
                                            <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="0"/>
                                        </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                            </vsm:VisualStateGroup>
                            <vsm:VisualStateGroup x:Name="ValidationStates">
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="Valid"/>
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="InvalidUnfocused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                    <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                                <vsm:VisualState x:Name="InvalidFocused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                    <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                    <System:Boolean>True</System:Boolean>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </vsm:VisualState>
                            </vsm:VisualStateGroup>
                        </vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                        <Border x:Name="Border" Opacity="1" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" CornerRadius="1">
                            <Grid>
                                <Border x:Name="MouseOverBorder" BorderBrush="Transparent" BorderThickness="1">
                                    <ScrollViewer x:Name="ContentElement" BorderThickness="0" IsTabStop="False" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}"/>
                                </Border>
                            </Grid>
                        </Border>
                        <Border x:Name="DisabledVisualElement" IsHitTestVisible="False" Opacity="0" Background="#A5F7F7F7" BorderBrush="#A5F7F7F7" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"/>
                        <Border x:Name="FocusVisualElement" Margin="1" IsHitTestVisible="False" Opacity="0" BorderBrush="#FF6DBDD1" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"/>
                        <Border x:Name="ValidationErrorElement" Visibility="Collapsed" BorderBrush="#FFDB000C" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="1">
                            <ToolTipService.ToolTip>
                                <ToolTip x:Name="validationTooltip" DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" Template="{StaticResource ValidationToolTipTemplate}" Placement="Right" PlacementTarget="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}">
                                    <ToolTip.Triggers>
                                        <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Canvas.Loaded">
                                            <BeginStoryboard>
                                                <Storyboard>
                                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsHitTestVisible">
                                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                                <System:Boolean>true</System:Boolean>
                                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                        </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                </Storyboard>
                                            </BeginStoryboard>
                                        </EventTrigger>
                                    </ToolTip.Triggers>
                                </ToolTip>
                            </ToolTipService.ToolTip>
                            <Grid Height="12" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="1,-4,-4,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="12" Background="Transparent">
                                <Path Fill="#FFDC000C" Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 1,0 L6,0 A 2,2 90 0 1 8,2 L8,7 z"/>
                                <Path Fill="#ffffff" Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 0,0 L2,0 L 8,6 L8,8"/>
                            </Grid>
                        </Border>
                    </Grid>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>

I would get the preview of Blend, coding the above by hand would be a large amount of unnecessary work.