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Max Katz edited this page Apr 25, 2023 · 83 revisions

Breaking changes are sometimes unavoidable. We are trying to deprecate API before removing it, but it's not always possible due to either high performance impact of the old design or due to major changes in the corresponding subsystem. The list of API areas where changes are planned and most likely unavoidable can be found here.

0.10 → 11.0

For more breaking changes in 11.0 release visit pull request list.

Interfaces removed

Many redundant interfaces were removed (see https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/9553). The concrete classes should be used instead:

  • IAvaloniaObject -> AvaloniaObject
  • IControl -> Control
  • IInteractive -> Interactive
  • ILayoutable -> Layoutable
  • IPanel -> Panel
  • IStyledElement -> StyledElement
  • ITemplatedControl -> TemplatedControl
  • IVisual -> Visual

In a few cases, the interfaces were used to hide less commonly needed functionality, e.g. IVisual.VisualRoot: the extension methods should be used, e.g. control.GetVisualRoot().

Avalonia package

Avalonia.Animation, Avalonia.Input, Avalonia.Interactivity, Avalonia.Layout, Avalonia.Visuals and Avalonia.Styling assemblies were merged into a Avalonia.Base assembly. While API surface wasn't changed, it's still a binary breaking change, and third-party packages needs to be recompiled to work with a new version.

Platform implementation members were hidden from the ref-assemblies

Now it's not possible to access platform interfaces (including IWindowImpl, window.PlatformImpl, IWindowingPlatform...). Replacement for some missing members:

  • Window.PlatformImpl.Handle can be replaced with Window.TryGetPlatformHandle.
  • Window.PlatformImpl.Resized can be replaced with Window.Resized or Window.SizeChanged.
  • Window.PlatformImpl.RenderScaling can be replaced with ((IRenderRoot)Window).RenderScaling.
  • If you are missing more API members, please raise an issue so we can discuss possibility of adding new public and stable APIs.

Note, if you are developing a custom Avalonia platform backend, you need to reference non-ref assemblies from the NuGet package directly. It should be kept in mind, that API stability is not guaranteed for these members.

Avalonia.Themes.Fluent and Avalonia.Themes.Simple themes

Both Avalonia.Themes.Fluent and Avalonia.Themes.Simple (formally, Default) are not a part of the main Avalonia NuGet package anymore. You need to add a PackageReference to include either of these packages or both. For more details, see #5593

"Mode" property with Dark/Light values was also removed from the FluentTheme/SimpleTheme. Instead, use Application.RequestedThemeVariant. You also can set the same property on Window or ThemeVariantScope.

Old Default theme was renamed to SimpleTheme. Now, to include Simple theme, you need to use shorten syntax:

<App.Styles>
    <SimpleTheme />
</App.Styles>

StyleInclude with old relative path won't work anymore.

Avalonia core no longer depends on System.Reactive

If you wish to use any features of System.Reactive, for example to subscribe to observables using the lambda syntax observable.Subscribe(x => { }) then you must add a dependency on Avalonia.ReactiveUI or System.Reactive to your application.

Similarly all extension methods that exposed an ISubject<T> had to be removed from the core API as that type is defined in System.Reactive. Add a reference to Avalonia.ReactiveUI to get these extension methods back.

ItemsControl changes (including all ItemsControl inherited controls, like ListBox or Menus)

ItemsControl.VirtualizationMode was removed. You can control whether virtualization is enabled for a control by changing the panel, e.g.:

To disable virtualization:

<ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
  <ItemsPanelTemplate>
    <StackPanel/>
  </ItemsPanelTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>

To enable virtualization:

<ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
  <ItemsPanelTemplate>
    <VirtualizingStackPanel/>
  </ItemsPanelTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>

ItemsControl.Items property is now readonly and works exactly like in WPF/UWP - a collection of item containers. To bind a collection to the items control, please use ItemsControl.ItemsSource. For more details, see #10590 #10831 #10827 #11008.

ItemContainerGenerator changes

The Containers property was removed: use ItemsControl.GetRealizedContainers

ItemsRepeater was moved to its own separated package

If you use ItemsRepeater in your project, please include https://www.nuget.org/packages/Avalonia.Controls.ItemsRepeater package

Virtual generic methods were removed from API

Methods like OnPropertyChanged do not have generic parameter anymore. See #7980.

In additon, generic methods were removed from IAvaloniaObject, so if you have an instance of this interface or one of its derived interfaces (e.g. IControl) then you should cast to a concrete type in order to access the typed GetValue<T>, SetValue<T> etc. methods or use the extension methods in the Avalonia namespace.

Avalonia.ReactiveUI.Events

Avalonia.ReactiveUI.Events will no longer be supported. Use Pharmacist.MSBuild instead. How to use it? For more details, see #5423

XamlNameReferenceGenerator is part of the main package now

Because of that, there are two breaking changes:

  1. If you had XamlNameReferenceGenerator used in the project before, it will conflict with build in generator now. Simply delete reference to the XamlNameReferenceGenerator package to avoid conflicts.
  2. If you didn't use XamlNameReferenceGenerator before, now it is used automatically, which might cause compile errors (missing partial keyword, for instance). If you want to disable this generator, add <AvaloniaNameGeneratorIsEnabled>false</AvaloniaNameGeneratorIsEnabled> to your csproj file.

Removal of Default/Empty properties from some value types

Default/Empty properties were removed from types like Rect, Point, BoxShadow and others. In most cases, please replace it with C# "default" keyword.

Binding Commands to Methods

When binding to methods, the method must either have no parameters or a single object parameter, see #8905.

It's not possible to create style setters with activators for the Direct Properties.

Previously it was possible to create a style with activators (pseudoclass or any other dynamic kind of selectors) and put setters on direct properties (including Button.Command, ListBox.Items...). It was causing undefined behavior, as it's not possible to remove value from the direct property if selector doesn't match anymore. In 11.0 it's not allowed anymore to create setters for these properties. At the same time, most of the old DirectProperties were converted to the StyledProperty, including Button.Command. Which means, it is possible to style them now.

Assemblies with XAML files has changed resource structure

Previously, xaml resources were packed as XML resources in the assembly. Now binary format is used. Third party libraries with any XAML resources should be recompiled. See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/9949

Clipboard was moved from Application class to the TopLevel.

To access clipboard methods, please use window.Clipboard or TopLevel.GetTopLevel(control).Clipboard.

Control changes

PointerEntered and PointerExited events were renamed to match UWP/WinUI naming. See #8396.

NumericUpDown.Value is now a decimal property. See #5981.

ManagedFileDialog is now a templated control. See #4615.

0.9 → 0.10

Avalonia Properties

  • If your readonly property fields are declared as of type AvaloniaProperty<T> then you should change them to StyledProperty<> or DirectProperty<,> fields

  • The signature for OnPropertyChanged has changed and is now a generic method in order to avoid allocation and boxing. To cast the oldValue and newValue parameters to a concrete type, use .ValueOrDefault<T>() on Optional<T> and BindingValue<T>

  • Avalonia properties now take a separate validation and coercion callback the same as WPF. The validation callback cannot be overridden, though the coercion callback can.

  • The PropertyMetadata class has now been renamed to AvaloniaPropertyMetadata.

Routed Events

Binding

  • Many AvaloniaObject.Bind() overloads have been moved to be extension methods, so you may have to add this. to your Bind() call when binding to this

Pseudoclasses

The static PseudoClass method was removed: https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/3292

The recommended way to implement pseudoclasses is now like this https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/3292/files#diff-45a4dd48c9a2f83d7def2fd422d1423c

DrawingContext

  • Removed opacity parameter from DrawingContext.DrawImage - instead use PushOpacity before drawing the image

Typeface/FormattedText

  • FontSize is no longer part of TypeFace - it can now be found on FormattedText
  • FormattedText.Wrapping is now called TextWrapping

DevTools

Avalonia.Diagnostics is now a separate NuGet package so if you're using AttachDevTools you'll have to add a reference to that.

OnTemplateApplied

OnTemplatedApplied has been renamed to on OnApplyTemplate.

DatePicker

DatePicker was renamed to CalendarDatePicker. A DatePicker control has been added.

Logging

The LogToDebug method has moved from the Avalonia.Logging.Serilog namesapce to the Avalonia namespace. Remove using Avalonia.Logging.Serilog; to fix.

0.8 → 0.9

Application startup

The preferred way of managing app startup and lifetime is now using lifetimes. You still can use AppMain approach introduced in 0.8 for more fine-grained control, but some of Application.Run/AppBuilder.Start overloads were removed or deprecated.

XAML

  • x:Class is now mandatory for XAML files with codebehind (windows, user controls, App.cs, etc)
  • Class constructors and codebehind event handlers must be public
  • <Style> without selector is no longer valid
  • Style selectors without type information (e. g. <Style Selector=".myclass">) are no longer valid, specify the target type using either Control.myclass or :is(Control).myclass

Name scopes

Controls are no longer automagically registered in some random name scope that they find in the visual tree. Instead name scopes are now managed manually. If you are using XAML you probably won't notice any breaking changes since our XAML engine manages name registrations automatically, but just setting Name from code will no longer work, you'd have to actually register your controls and pass INameScope instance to bindings.

MemberSelector

ItemsControl.MemberSelector has been removed. Instead use a DataTemplate with a binding to the property to be displayed.

Orientation

The Orientation enum was moved to the Avalonia.Layout namespace.

AdornerDecorator

Has been renamed to VisualLayerManager.

IWindowImpl/Window

Both BeginResizeDrag and BeginMoveDrag now has an additional PointerPressedEventArg parameter.

0.7 → 0.8

DropDown

DropDown has been renamed to ComboBox. A shim for DropDown is still available for now but deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

FormattedText

FormattedText.Measure has become FormattedText.Bounds.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/2344

Screen Coordinates

The following members now use PixelPosition/PixelRect:

  • IWindowBaseImpl.Position
  • IWindowBaseImpl.PositionChanged
  • ITopLevelImpl.PointToClient
  • ITopLevelImpl.PointToScreen
  • IMouseDevice.Position
  • Screen.Bounds
  • Screen.WorkingArea

You can use one of the From* static methods and To* instance methods on these structs with a scaling factor to convert between Position and Rect.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/2250

StringConverters

The StringConverter methods have been renamed to add an Is prefix:

  • StringConverters.NullOrEmpty becomes StringConverters.IsNullOrEmpty
  • StringConverters.NotNullOrEmpty becomes StringConverters.IsNotNullOrEmpty

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/2253

TreeContainerIndex in TreeView

The TreeContainerIndex.Items property have been renamed to Containers.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/2356

Refactored platform options

Before:

public static AppBuilder BuildAvaloniaApp()
{
    var builder = AppBuilder.Configure<App>();
    if(RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Linux))
         builder.UseX11(new X11PlatformOptions() {UseGpu = false});
    else if(RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.OSX))
         builder.UseAvaloniaNative(anopts => 
         {
              anopts.UseGpu = false;
              anopts.MacOptions.ShowInDock = 0;
         });
    else if(RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
          builder.UseWin32(false, true);
    return builder;
}

After:

public static AppBuilder BuildAvaloniaApp() => AppBuilder.Configure<App>()
     .UsePlatformDetect()
     .With(new X11PlatformOptions { UseGpu = false })
     .With(new AvaloniaNativePlatformOptions { UseGpu = false })
     .With(new MacOSPlatformOptions { ShowInDock = false })
     .With(new Win32PlatformOptions { UseDeferredRendering = false });

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/2368

0.6 → 0.7

Reactive UI

  • Projects that use ReactiveUI framework will need to migrate to Reactive UI 9.0.1 which Avalonia now uses.

TemplateBinding

  • Existing TemplateBindings which specify Path= will stop working, as the Path property was removed and replaced with Property. Simply remove the Path= qualifier or change it to Property= if the path was a simple property
  • Existing TemplateBindings which don't bind to a simple property on the templated parent will need to be changed to regular Bindings with RelativeSourceMode.TemplatedParent

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1695

StackPanel

  • The Gap property has been renamed to Spacing to be consistent with UWP and other XAML frameworks.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1786

SelectingItemsControl

  • BugFix: For the replace operation in the SelectedItems collection, AddedItems and RemovedItems members of the SelectionChangedEventArgs class had their contents switched.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1913

Window.OpenWindows

Was moved to Application.Windows: https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1662

Avalonia.Base

  • The DataValidatiorBase base class has been renamed to DataValidationBase.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1858

Avalonia.Android

  • The AndroidKeyboardEventsHelper<TView>.ActivateAutoShowKeybord method has been renamed to AndroidKeyboardEventsHelper<TView>.ActivateAutoShowKeyboard.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1859

Avalonia.iOS

  • The KeyboardEventsHelper<TView>.ActivateAutoShowKeybord method has been renamed to KeyboardEventsHelper<TView>.ActivateAutoShowKeyboard.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1859

Avalonia.Gtk3

  • The UseGtk3 method parameters changed to Gtk3PlatformOptions.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1935

Avalonia.MonoMac

We have removed Avalonia.MonoMac, please use Avalonia.Native instead.

https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1992/files

Avalonia.DotNetCoreRuntime

We have removed Avalonia.DotNetCoreRuntime, please use Avalonia.DesktopRuntime instead.

Themes

  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeBorderLightColor to ThemeBorderLowColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeControlLightColor to ThemeControlLowColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeForegroundLightColor to ThemeForegroundLowColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ErrorLightColor to ErrorLowColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeBorderLightBrush to ThemeBorderLowBrush.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeControlLightBrush to ThemeControlLowBrush.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeForegroundLightBrush to ThemeForegroundLowBrush.
  • Renamed theme resource from ErrorLightBrush to ErrorLowBrush.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeBorderDarkColor to ThemeBorderHighColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeControlDarkColor to ThemeControlHighColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeControlHighlightDarkColor to ThemeControlHighlightHighColor.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeBorderDarkBrush to ThemeBorderHighBrush.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeControlDarkBrush to ThemeControlHighBrush.
  • Renamed theme resource from ThemeControlHighlightDarkBrush to ThemeControlHighlightHighBrush.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/2023

IBitmap

Changed both PixelHeight and PixelWidth into a PixelSize struct.

WriteableBitmap

The constructor now requires the size to be provided using PixelSize and also a DPI. Use 96 as a default.

See https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia/pull/1889

0.5.1 → 0.6

BuildAvaloniaApp and previewer.

You now need BuildAvaloniaApp static method in the class with your entry point (typically in Program.cs or App.xaml.cs) which should be called from Main:

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            BuildAvaloniaApp().Start<MainWindow>();
        }

        public static AppBuilder BuildAvaloniaApp()
            => AppBuilder.Configure<App>()
                .UsePlatformDetect()
.LogToDebug();

Previewer won't be able to work without it.

DataContextChanging and DataContextChanged

They were replaced by OnDataContextBeginUpdate and OnDataContextEndUpdate

Static and Type markup extensions

They were replaced by standard x:Static and x:Type, add xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" to the root of your XAML file.

StyleResource

StyleResource has been replaced by StaticResource and DynamicResource as in other XAML frameworks. StaticResource and DynamicResource in Avalonia search both Control.Resources and Style.Resources.

Mouse device

MouseDevice is no longer available from the global context, you need to obtain one from TopLevel (Window, Popup, etc). Call GetVisualRoot() in your control and cast it to IInputRoot.

var pos = (_control.GetVisualRoot() as IInputRoot)?.MouseDevice?.Position ?? default(Point);
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