Differences between WPF Custom Control Library and plain Class Library?

Question

I posted a question a few months ago about sharing resource dictionaries across assemblies. It turns out you can do that using the Component Resource Key markup extension. A

Answer 1

Apart from the extra WPF references, the WPF Custom Control Library template has an extra attribute in AssemblyInfo.

[assembly: ThemeInfo(
    ResourceDictionaryLocation.None, //where theme specific resource dictionaries are located
    //(used if a resource is not found in the page, 
    // or application resource dictionaries)
    ResourceDictionaryLocation.SourceAssembly //where the generic resource dictionary is located
    //(used if a resource is not found in the page, 
    // app, or any theme specific resource dictionaries)
)]

ThemeInfoAttribute specifies the location in which theme dictionaries are stored for types in an assembly.

Answer 2

Another difference is in the .csproj File:

In class Library the Tag is missing:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

After adding it to the first PropertyGroup, the add menu of the project shows now the typical WPF files.

Answer 3

Cameron MacFarland's answer was spot on. I have now tested it, and it works.

Here is the solution: Add the DLL refs and the Themes/generic.xaml file to the plain Class Library project. Then, open AssemblyInfo.cs and add the following code at the end of the file:

[assembly: ThemeInfo(
    ResourceDictionaryLocation.None, //where theme specific resource dictionaries are located
    //(used if a resource is not found in the page, 
    // or application resource dictionaries)
    ResourceDictionaryLocation.SourceAssembly //where the generic resource dictionary is located
    //(used if a resource is not found in the page, 
    // app, or any theme specific resource dictionaries)
)]

Recompile, and the Component Resource Key markup extension should work.