Pro XAML Toolbox

It's like the standard Visual Studio Toolbox but much better.

Currently supporting .NET MAUI. WPF, & WinUI support coming soon - maybe.

⚗️ A Rapid XAML Toolkit experiment. If/when this ships beyond an experiment/preview, it will be moved to that project and repository.

What?

A Visual Studio extension that adds a new tool window.

It's a cross between Visual Studio's Toolbox and the ability to use smart snippets.

There are 2 ways of using it:

You can drag items onto the editor and get a much richer snippet.

Or, you can double-click on an item, and it will be added in the editor where the cursor is positioned.
But if you add an element that is (or can be) a container for other elements, the cursor is moved inside the added element.
This means that if you want two Buttons inside a Grid you can double-click the Grid item and then double-click the Button item twice and you'll get all this:

<Grid
    x:Name="Grid9870"
    ColumnDefinitions="*,*"
    RowDefinitions="Auto,Auto,*">
    <Button
        x:Name="Button7240"
        Command="{Binding CommandName}"
        SemanticProperties.Hint="Add a description of what happens when clicked"
        Text="click me" />
    <Button
        x:Name="Button4139"
        Command="{Binding CommandName}"
        SemanticProperties.Hint="Add a description of what happens when clicked"
        Text="click me" />

</Grid>

Not bad for only 3 [double-]clicks. Just imagine how many keystrokes that saves you!

It doesn't (& cant) do everything

Look at the above code and you'll see that it's not 100% how you'd want in your code. This is intentional. It doesn't know what name you might want to give your Grid or what the Text or Hint should be on each Button.

However, it's easier to change placeholder values than to have to write everything from scratch. It's also easier for people who don't know what properties are available (or should be set).

It's configurable!

Yes, you can choose between common preferences for coding style and requirements.

Options:

Include an x:Name attribute for each added element.
Prefer the use of Events or Commnads.
Include common accessibility-related properties.

Only does what's necessary

The XAML it adds to the file isn't ideally formatted. This is by design.

There are other tools (XAML Styler is recommended) that can format your code how you want it. Recreating this functionality wouldn't be a good use of my time. Just like it isn't a good use of your time to type all of your XAML.

Why?

Because you should have better uses for your time than typing all your XAML!

Feedback wanted

This extension is being released as a preview. Please open issues with comments, feedback, suggestions, etc.

mrlacey / ProXamlToolbox