How to Programmatically access Constants declared in your Xaml

If you have been looking out for a way to declare some constants in your xaml and then programmatically access them, then here’s a way I follow.

Open your App.xaml and add the following string constant to it

<Application
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="SampleSilverlight.App"
    xmlns:clr="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib">
    <Application.Resources>
        <clr:String x:Key="DC">DevCurry</clr:String>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

We will access this string constant programmatically using C# or VB.NET. 

Open your Page.xaml and add a TextBlock and a Button to it.

<StackPanel Height="200" Width="200">
   <TextBlock x:Name="tb"></TextBlock>
    <Button x:Name="btnFetch" Content="Fetch"
            Click="btnFetch_Click"></Button>
</StackPanel>

Now add the following code on button click:

C# 

private void btnFetch_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (Application.Current.Resources.Contains("DC"))
    {
        tb.Text = (string)Application.Current.Resources["DC"];
    }
}

VB.NET

Private Sub btnFetch_Click(ByVal sen As Object, ByVal e As RoutedEventArgs)
    If Application.Current.Resources.Contains("DC") Then
       tb.Text = CStr(Application.Current.Resources("DC"))
    End If
End Sub

The Application.Resources gets a collection of Application-Scoped resources.

On clicking the button, the text ‘DevCurry’ gets displayed