Setting ForegroundColor in a UserControl

Question

I am writing a User Control in WPF and this on is my first own Control. For your Information I am using Telerik controls. My User Control is only a `Grid` which contains only contains 2 `GridView`s. And now i want to give somebody the possibility to style the `GridView`s by setting a foreground and a background. Both I set by this way: ``` Background="{Binding ElementName=Grid, Path=DarkBackground}" Foreground="{Binding ElementName=Grid, Path=LightForeground}" ``` My code behind is: ``` public static DependencyProperty LightForegroundProperty = DependencyProperty.Register( "LightForeground", typeof( Brush ), typeof( ParameterGrid ) ); public Brush LightForeground { get { return (Brush)GetValue( LightForegroundProperty ); } set { SetValue( LightForegroundProperty, value ); } } public Brush DarkBackground { get { return (Brush)GetValue( DarkBackgroundProperty ); } set { SetValue( DarkBackgroundProperty, value ); } } ``` The problem is that the my foreground, background values are ignore…

Accepted Answer

So to clarify...you have a `UserControl` with a `Grid` inside and 2 `GridViews`.

To refer to the dependency properties on your UserControl...it can be done in different ways.

Setting DataContext to Self (code-behind)

In the constructor of your UserControl set the DataContext to point to your UserControl instance.

```
DataContext = this;
```

Then access your properties like so:

```
Background="{Binding DarkBackground}"
Foreground="{Binding LightForeground}"
```

Setting DataContext to Self (XAML)

If you don't want to do it via code-behind then you can use XAML.

```
<UserControl DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}">
```

Use a Name on your UserControl and ElementName to refer to it

Put `x:Name="MyUserControl"` on your `UserControl`, and then refer to it with `ElementName`.

```
Background="{Binding ElementName=MyUserControl, Path=DarkBackground}"
Foreground="{Binding ElementName=MyUserControl, Path=LightForeground}"
```

Use RelativeSource to tell the Binding the source of the properties.

Specify the "source" of the Binding by using RelativeSource to hunt for the UserControl in the tree.

```
Background="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type UserControl}}, Path=DarkBackground}"
Foreground="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type UserControl}}, Path=LightForeground}"
```

Setting ForegroundColor in a UserControl

Solution

Problem