For troubleshooting issues specific to the PropertyGrid control, see Property Grid Troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting

Q. When I run my application, I get a XamlParseException. The inner exception is “An instance of type ‘Mindscape.(type)’ was being created, and a valid license could not be granted for the type ‘Mindscape.(type)’.”

A. If you receive this exception and you have a full licence or a trial licence which has not expired, check that your project contains a licenses.licx file (in the Properties folder). This file should be automatically generated by the Visual Studio 2008 WPF designer when you add a WPF Elements control either via the designer or the XAML editor. If Visual Studio has not generated this file, either: (a) drag a control from the toolbox onto the designer (and delete it again) to get Visual Studio to regenerate the licences.licx file; or (b) copy a licenses.licx file from one of the sample projects.

We have identified an issue with Visual Studio whereby it does not create entries in licences.licx for all required controls. For example, if you drop a DropDownDatePicker control on the designer, Visual Studio will usually create an entry for DropDownDatePicker, but it does not create an entry for the DropDownEditBox, DateTimePicker and MonthCalendar controls used by DropDownDatePicker, resulting in a runtime error. We therefore recommend that you always copy the licenses.licx from a samples project, as this includes entries for all controls in the suite, rather than relying on Visual Studio to generate it for you.

You will also receive this exception if you are using a trial licence which has expired.

Q. After installation, I don’t see a Mindscape tab in the Visual Studio 2008 toolbox.

This is an issue with the Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox Controls Installer. Use the normal Add Tab and Choose Items menu options to add the control to the toolbar, or if you prefer to work in XAML rather than the designer, just use Add Reference in your project. The WPF Elements control assembly is located in the Mindscape folder under your Program Files directory and a link is provided in the Start menu.

Q. Visual Studio 2005 won’t open the Samples solution.

The samples are written for Visual Studio 2008, as this is the first version of Visual Studio where the WPF designer is supported. To run the samples in Visual Studio 2005, create a new project and copy the files into that project. Alternatively, download the free Visual C# Express Edition.

Q. My local calendar or script is not being displayed correctly.

We have tested WPF Elements under a variety of localization scenarios but given the very large number of different cultures, calendars and scripts, we may have been unable to test with yours. Please report the problem via the Mindscape forums or contact us using the link below.

Q. When the user selects a date using the drop-down portion of the DropDownDatePicker, it loses the time component of the DateTime.

The DropDownDatePicker supports only dates. Use the DateTimePicker if time support is required.

Q. After re-templating a numeric text box, the Visual Studio designer won’t let me view my window. It reports a problem loading the designer, and the Errors list displays an error about a property not being a valid DependencyProperty in System.Windows.Trigger.

This error occurs when you have a ControlTemplate for a numeric text box which contains triggers that refer to properties defined on NumericTextBoxBase. The Visual Studio designer does not correctly handle triggers on properties defined in generic classes. However, such triggers do compile and run correctly.

You can typically work around this error by using a DataTrigger instead of a Trigger. Alternatively, edit the file in XAML view or in the Expression Blend visual designer.