Win11 Theming outstanding Issue Tracker

[dipeshmsft]

Description

This issue tracks the review comments mentioned in #8870 :

• Use ThemeGenerator to combine all the merged dictionaries ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Enhance accent color management ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) , Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Undo TextEditorContextMenu, DataGridCheckBoxColumn, Window SetResourceReference workarounds ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Document introducing dependency on fonts present in Win11 only ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Handling WindowBackdrop in OnSourceInitialized ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Remove dependency on Application.Current ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Enabling glass frame causes client area and caption button overlap. ( Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment) )
• Access keys are not respected and rendered as character

The issues related to control styles ( XAML and resources ) will be tracked separately.

[robloo]

I see at least two more critical ones:

• Key names
  • Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment)
  • Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment)
• Hardcoded font family names
  • Windows 11 Theming Changes #8870 (comment)

As noted a deep comparison with and understanding of upstream WinUI source is really needed.

[robert-abeo]

There are a number of outstanding PRs fixing several known issues:

https://github.com/dotnet/wpf/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22Win+11+Theming%22

Can we get these reviewed and merged in ASAP? Considering the bulk of the Fluent theme is already committed we need to keep it up to date much more quickly. Open PRs not getting merged in is a long-standing issue with this project. Management or team leads need to set aside time to review these specifically.

In this case those open PRs are preventing full feedback of the Fluent theme. The source code needs to be kept up to date so it can be well tested until release. Personally, I would be testing a lot more of it if it was all in one place with latest fixes. (I have an internal Fluent theme on a framework WPF app that will be replaced with this official theme).

[dipeshmsft]

@robert-abeo, thanks for the point out, actually most of them were already merged in main. We will keep fixing these issues in styles as they come in, but currently our main priority with Fluent theme is to provide a way to make it default. I have been figuring out a way to allow users to access colors and brush resources defined in Fluent style and following that, we would like to get the theme switch API working.

Since you have been actively involved in discussions for the theming changes, I would like to know your inputs on #8932

[robert-abeo]

@dipeshmsft Thanks, I've joined the other issue discussion.

The PR I'm looking at specifically with the highest priority is: #9171. There are a number of controls currently missing Fluent styles. There are a few other nice-to-have bug fixes as well.

[dipeshmsft]

Thanks @robert-abeo , I am going through the comments of last night. The PR you mentioned is reviewed, but depending on the direction we are going, this may need a bit of change, that's why it's still open. Rest assured, we will get to the close of this PR by Preview 7.

[dipeshmsft]

@robert-abeo

The PR I'm looking at specifically with the highest priority is: #9171. There are a number of controls currently missing Fluent styles. There are a few other nice-to-have bug fixes as well.

I think there is a misunderstanding here, the styles mentioned here are not Fluent styled. The styles here are basically copies of Aero2 styles. The ones not marked "Additional styling not needed" are basically the same in Fluent and Aero2, rest of them still needs to be styled.

[robert-abeo]

The ones not marked "Additional styling not needed" are basically the same in Fluent and Aero2, rest of them still needs to be styled.

Ok, my mistake. Thanks for the clarification. I knew these were Aero2 based styles but I thought they were updated to use Fluent resources where needed.

[dipeshmsft]

Ok, my mistake. Thanks for the clarification. I knew these were Aero2 based styles but I thought they were updated to use Fluent resources where needed.

We are getting to this.

[robert-abeo]

Another thing I notice as I start digging into the details more. There are a lot of default styles that don't set template bindings correctly. For example:

wpf/src/Microsoft.DotNet.Wpf/src/Themes/PresentationFramework.Fluent/Styles/ListBoxItem.xaml

Lines 26 to 29 in d21766c

	Margin="0"
	Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
	Background="Transparent"
	BorderThickness="1"

Should be:

<Border
  x:Name="Border"
  Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
  Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
  BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"
  CornerRadius="{TemplateBinding Border.CornerRadius}">

The Background/Border properties should be settable on the control itself and carried through to the template. These should NOT be hard-coded.

[robert-abeo]

Here is another thing I should have mentioned with the ListBoxItem.

Fluent v1 had no Pill selection indicators. So the whole background was highlighted when an item was selected usually a blue color. When Fluent v2 was released publicly first in the WinUI repository they didn't include the updated "Pill" selection indicator design for ListBox/ListView. It kept the old styles (probably for compatibility) for ListBox but they did update controls like ComboBox. However, Fluent v2 released in Windows 11 had it. But they sometimes use is differently based on controls... in the WinUI 3 [control] Gallery:

ListBox [WinUI 3 Gallery]

ListView [WinUI 3 Gallery]

Most 3rd party Fluent v2 libraries ported without the pill because they based on the WinUI repository and didn't really notice to update in Windows 11. But most apps in Windows 11 do use the pill selection indicator in lists:

Therefore, it needs to be discussed what the default needs to be: Pill or no Pill. And then we also need to have separate "Pill" styles available as well. So we should perhaps have PillListBoxItem or AlternateListBoxItem keyed resource (assuming it isn't the default).

[robert-abeo]

I've opened up separate issues to better track what I've found so far. This is only a spot check as things comes up. It will be some weeks before we can switch to an internal theme heavily based on what is in the upstream WPF repo here. At that point I'll probably have more specifics. Hopefully, there can be fixes for next year in the .NET 10 time-frame. Seems everyone is out of time at this point for .NET 9.

• The New Fluent Theme should be Fluent2 #9561
• Fluent2 DataGrid Style Doesn't Match Theme #9562
• Fluent2 ListBoxItem Style Doesn't Match Windows 11 #9563
• Fluent2 ListBoxItem Style (Et al..) Missing Bindings in ControlTemplate #9564

[lindexi]

Reference:

• Setting ThemeMode on a window causes a button to be positioned differently #10077

[dipeshmsft]

Adding the following issue related to discussion of default behavior of TextBox in regard to delete button here : #10180

[robert-abeo]

@dipeshmsft

I'm going through the released Fluent v2 theme in more detail and will keep filing issues.

However, is there any plan to devote more resources to close these? If we did a 2 week sprint to close all open issues I think that would be pretty beneficial. I'm just not seeing consistent time spent on these. Some critical ones have been open for months -- even before .NET9 release.

You MUST fix open issues early in the .NET 10 release cycle so others can actually use Fluent in the previews. Fluent very much is not usable in production right now so it's a catch 22 -- you won't ever get the feedback needed to stabilize it.

[dipeshmsft]

@robert-abeo, that is a nice idea of having a 2 week sprint for fixing all the issues. Thanks for your feedback here, I was just in the line to open a discussion post to seek everyones input on how we are going to work on rest of the issues - like missing styles, fluent bug fixes, testing etc. Please wait for a day or two and we will have the post up.

[dipeshmsft]

@robert-abeo, we have posted a Discussion Post as I mentioned above on what we are planning to do in Fluent going forward : #10387