Removing an item from the visual tree in a generic way
silverlight, visual-tree, wpf
Solution
I don't think there is a simpler way. Actually, there cannot be an easy generic way to do that. `WPF` is very flexible and you can create a custom control with a template that takes 3 children to display in 3 different places with custom templates.
What you can do best is take into account all the basic controls and include them in you `if-else` ladder. These are `Panel`, `Border`, `ContentControl`, `ItemsControl`, etc.
Problem
I would like to remove a FrameworkElement from the visual tree. Since the FrameworkElement has a Parent property, it would be obvious to solve this problem by removing it from there: ``` FrameworkElement childElement; if(childElement != null && childElement.Parent != null) // In the visual tree { // This line will, of course not complie: // childElement.Parent.RemoveFromChildren(childElement); } ``` The problem is that the Parent property of FrameworkElement is of DependencyObject, which has no notion of children. So the only thing I can see going about this problem is via casting the Parent to see if it's a Border, Panel etc (elements that have notion of children) and remove it from there: ``` FrameworkElement childElement; if(childElement != null && childElement.Parent != null) // In the visual tree { if(childElement.Parent is Panel) { (childElement.Parent as Panel).Children.Remove(childElement ); } if(childElement.Parent is Border) { (childElement.Parent as Border).Child = null; } } ``` Obviously this is not a very flexible solution and not generic at all. Can someone suggest a more generic approach on removing an element from the visual tree?