Padding

[RobG66]

I understand Fluent theme has the excess padding to be touch compatible.... but I'm not aiming for that. So what are my options then for having a relatively nice theme, but not so much excess padding all over, especially datagrid. I've just starting migrating to Avalonia from WPF, but this feels like a showstopper for me.

It's also disappointing that ribbon is a paid item. This is my WPF app which I am trying to migrate so I can have it be cross platform compatible

Rob

[lextm]

There are several Ribbon UI repos for Avalonia on GitHub (coming from the same origin but with varied improvements), so I wonder what your real question here is.

The built-in data grid is weak, but your app doesn't seem to require more advanced features (row details, column filtering, etc.) either.

So, I am not sure where the disappointment comes from.

[RobG66]

The datagrid is one of the key features of my application. If I cannot get it working how I want then there just isn't any point continuing. There are a lot of filtering controls, but the majority of that happens on the attached source, not the datagrid itself. The disappointment comes from having to already mess around with custom styling just to tone down the padding bloat I'm currently seeing. I'm no expert and just find that extra work makes things more tedious.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

@RobG66 have you seen that you can set the theme density to compact?

[thevortexcloud]

It sounds like you want a different theme entirely. There is no requirement to use Fluent at all with Avalonia. You can use the other official theme: simple. It's a lot denser than fluent is. Otherwise, there are many third party themes. EG the Actipro theme (which integrates with a paid ribbon control)

https://github.com/Actipro/Avalonia-Controls?tab=readme-ov-file#actipro-avalonia-free-products

There is also themes like the aero theme which try to mimic old styles of Windows as closely as possible

https://github.com/Splitwirez/aero-theme-for-avalonia

But available themes are deigned for modern displays. Which means they need to be actually useable by people with a touch screen. I personally think trying to go back to extremely dense desktop only UIs is a mistake for most applications, as touch screens are still fairly popular even on desktops/laptops.

As for the datagrid: What is your issue with it? You can customise it like any other control.

[lextm]

You can customise it like any other control.

That's a common reply I see for many inquiries on data grids. But nope, you cannot. People coming from WPF world expect a full feature data grid that matches the functionality and reliability, but the built-in DataGrid and the legacy TreeDataGrid never meet that bar.

It is possible to fork and improve on your own, or switch to a paid option. That's more realistic the way to go than "customize it".

[thevortexcloud]

That's a common reply I see for many inquiries on data grids. But nope, you cannot. People coming from WPF world expect a full feature data grid that matches the functionality and reliability, but the built-in DataGrid and the legacy TreeDataGrid never meet that bar.

I was referring to the visuals of the control. It can be styled like any other control. I have done it before myself.

Avalonia's datagrid is based on the silverlight datagrid (it's basically a direct port). As such it has all the limitations of that control. There is a new readonly tabular control coming with v12 though.

#19804

I imagine once that happens the datagrid control will be deprecated, but that's speculation on my part.

[stevemonaco]

You can adjust padding to some degree in Fluent by changing the DensityStyle to Compact. Simple theme is a bit more compact, still. Outside of that, you need to pick a different theme or start putting in some effort to restyle. Most apps only require a handful of spacing/sizing changes to get where they need to be which isn't really a high bar even if it's a pain.

You can check out https://github.com/AvaloniaCommunity/awesome-avalonia?tab=readme-ov-file#theme--icons for some alternate themes although some are not presently maintained.

[RobG66]

The problem is that I don't know (yet) how easy this styles (or not). With WPF, the menuItem was a total PITA to style (for example) when I simply wanted to get rid of the left icon/checkbox spacing for certain menus. I was able to style many other controls to my liking without too much difficulty though. I thought maybe someone already has a style that cleans up the bloated padding on the datagrid, so I don't have to re-invent that myself.

Rob

[timunie]

https://github.com/AvaloniaCommunity/awesome-avalonia

Here are some nice controls and styles collected.

If in the end Avalinia isn't for you, that's also totally fine. I personally switched from WPF because of the easier styling system and I don't look back. But preferences are different, so you may have other concepts than me. So find your way. 😊

[RobG66]

https://github.com/AvaloniaCommunity/awesome-avalonia

Here are some nice controls and styles collected.

If in the end Avalinia isn't for you, that's also totally fine. I personally switched from WPF because of the easier styling system and I don't look back. But preferences are different, so you may have other concepts than me. So find your way. 😊

Well, I was going to try Material.Avalonia... but then it's not complete (yet). To make a long story short I am back to Fluent. And I am by far no means an expert, but am making progress in what I want to do.

Rob

[RobG66]

About a week into working on this and making progress.... I just discovered Fluent 'compact' which is really what I wanted... I tried other themes and just ended up coming back to fluent because those other themes were incomplete or broke some things with their own styling. And with a bit of help I've been able to style whatever I want anyhow (gradient buttons for example). Libvlcsharp is causing me grief with the video view not respecting the control boundary around it. I've put that aside for now, but if anyone knows a solution.....

Main program with gamelist xml data loaded, scraper control showing and also my drawer control with system selector clicked. I will fix combobox padding, see text cutoff...