Achieve “slide down” animation in WPF

Question

I am attempting to create my own template for an Expander control. When the control is expanded, I want the content to slide down slowly.

The desired he

Answer 1

If you can use Interactions with FluidLayout (Blend 4 SDK) you are in luck, it's really useful for those fancy animation things.

First set the content CP's Height to 0:

<ContentPresenter Grid.Row="1"
    HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
    x:Name="_expanderContent"
    Height="0"/>

To animate this, the Height just needs to be animated to NaN in the VisualState that represents the expanded state (non-discrete animations would not let you use NaN):

xmlns:is="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/interactions"

<Grid x:Name="MainGrid" Background="White">
    <VisualStateManager.CustomVisualStateManager>
        <is:ExtendedVisualStateManager/>
    </VisualStateManager.CustomVisualStateManager>
    <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
        <VisualStateGroup x:Name="ExpansionStates" is:ExtendedVisualStateManager.UseFluidLayout="True">
            <VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="0:0:1"/>
            </VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
            <VisualState x:Name="Expanded">
                <Storyboard>
                    <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Height)"
                                                   Storyboard.TargetName="_expanderContent">
                        <DiscreteDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="NaN"/>
                    </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                </Storyboard>
            </VisualState>
            <VisualState x:Name="Collapsed"/>
        </VisualStateGroup>
    </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
    <!-- ... --->

That should be all that is necessary, the fluid layout will create the transition for you from there.

---

If you have a code-behind solution that would be fine, you can even use code-behind in dictionaries like this:

<!-- TestDictionary.xaml -->
<ResourceDictionary x:Class="Test.TestDictionary"
                    ...>

//TestDictionary.xaml.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;

namespace Test
{
    partial class TestDictionary : ResourceDictionary
    {
        //Handlers and such here
    }
}

Answer 2

This is kind of an old question but I had problems with this today, so I guess posting my solution would be worth it:

I had to animate the Height property of a grid row (sliding up and down), but needed dynamic binding so that the row would slide again to the same position as before.

I found this answer to be very helpful (after fruitlessly battling XAML): http://go4answers.webhost4life.com/Question/found-solution-work-protected-override-190845.aspx

Sometimes doing things in the code-behind is just simpler:

        Storyboard sb = new Storyboard();

        var animation = new GridLengthAnimation
        {
                Duration = new Duration(500.Milliseconds()),
                From = this.myGridRow.Height,
                To = new GridLength(IsGridRowVisible ? GridRowPreviousHeight : 0, GridUnitType.Pixel)
        };

        // Set the target of the animation
        Storyboard.SetTarget(animation, this.myGridRow);
        Storyboard.SetTargetProperty(animation, new PropertyPath("Height"));

        // Kick the animation off
        sb.Children.Add(animation);
        sb.Begin();

The GridLengthAnimation class can be found here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/wpf/thread/da47a4b8-4d39-4d6e-a570-7dbe51a842e4/

Answer 3

There is a ready-to-use and XAML-only solution on CodeProject:

The Styles:

    <local:MultiplyConverter x:Key="MultiplyConverter" />
    <Style TargetType="Expander" x:Key="VerticalSlidingEmptyExpander">
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
                    <ScrollViewer x:Name="ExpanderContentScrollView"
                  HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden"
                  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden"
                  HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
                  VerticalContentAlignment="Top"
                  >
                        <ScrollViewer.Tag>
                            <system:Double>0.0</system:Double>
                        </ScrollViewer.Tag>
                        <ScrollViewer.Height>
                            <MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource MultiplyConverter}">
                                <Binding Path="ActualHeight" ElementName="ExpanderContent"/>
                                <Binding Path="Tag" RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Self}" />
                            </MultiBinding>
                        </ScrollViewer.Height>
                        <ContentPresenter x:Name="ExpanderContent" ContentSource="Content"/>
                    </ScrollViewer>
                    <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                        <Trigger Property="IsExpanded" Value="True">
                            <Trigger.EnterActions>
                                <BeginStoryboard>
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation 
                       Storyboard.TargetName="ExpanderContentScrollView"
                       Storyboard.TargetProperty="Tag"
                       To="1"
                       Duration="0:0:0.2"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </BeginStoryboard>
                            </Trigger.EnterActions>
                            <Trigger.ExitActions>
                                <BeginStoryboard>
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation 
                         Storyboard.TargetName="ExpanderContentScrollView"
                         Storyboard.TargetProperty="Tag"
                         To="0"
                         Duration="0:0:0.2"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </BeginStoryboard>
                            </Trigger.ExitActions>
                        </Trigger>
                    </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>
    <Style TargetType="Expander" x:Key="HorizontalSlidingEmptyExpander">
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Expander}">
                    <ScrollViewer x:Name="ExpanderContentScrollView"
                  HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden"
                  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden"
                  HorizontalContentAlignment="Left"
                  VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch"
                  >
                        <ScrollViewer.Tag>
                            <system:Double>0.0</system:Double>
                        </ScrollViewer.Tag>
                        <ScrollViewer.Width>
                            <MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource MultiplyConverter}">
                                <Binding Path="ActualWidth" ElementName="ExpanderContent"/>
                                <Binding Path="Tag" RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Self}" />
                            </MultiBinding>
                        </ScrollViewer.Width>
                        <ContentPresenter x:Name="ExpanderContent" ContentSource="Content"/>
                    </ScrollViewer>
                    <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                        <Trigger Property="IsExpanded" Value="True">
                            <Trigger.EnterActions>
                                <BeginStoryboard>
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation 
                       Storyboard.TargetName="ExpanderContentScrollView"
                       Storyboard.TargetProperty="Tag"
                       To="1"
                       Duration="0:0:0.2"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </BeginStoryboard>
                            </Trigger.EnterActions>
                            <Trigger.ExitActions>
                                <BeginStoryboard>
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation 
                         Storyboard.TargetName="ExpanderContentScrollView"
                         Storyboard.TargetProperty="Tag"
                         To="0"
                         Duration="0:0:0.2"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </BeginStoryboard>
                            </Trigger.ExitActions>
                        </Trigger>
                    </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>

MultiplyConverter:

public class MultiplyConverter : IMultiValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType,
           object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {
        double result = 1.0;
        for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
        {
            if (values[i] is double)
                result *= (double)values[i];
        }

        return result;
    }

    public object[] ConvertBack(object value, Type[] targetTypes,
           object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new Exception("Not implemented");
    }
}

I duplicated the Style to have a horizontal and vertical version and omitted the ToggleButtons, but you can easily get that from the original post.