Selected item loses style when focus moved out in WPF ListBox

Question

What do I have?

I have a ListBox populated with items from an XML file. Given a DynamicResource for Style property and written trigger for IsSelected in ItemContainerStyle.

What do I want to do?

I want to keep the selected Item highlighted even after focus moved out of the ListBox.

What problem am I facing?

When I select an item the style specified in IsSelected trigger works. But, when I move the focus out of list box (press tab or click on some other control) the selected item loses its style. Is there any way so that I can retain the selected item style?

Thanks in advance!

Solution 1

If you're only setting the background color, try replacing ControlBrush for the ListBox, as per this answer.

Solution 2

The answer referenced will in some cases solve the problem, but is not ideal as it breaks when the control is disabled/readonly and it also overrides the color schemes, rather than taking advantage of them. My suggestion is to add the following in the ListBox tags:

<ListBox....>
    <ListBox.Resources>
            <Style TargetType="ListBoxItem">
                <Setter Property="Template">
                    <Setter.Value>
                        <ControlTemplate TargetType="ListBoxItem">
                            <Border Name="Border" Padding="2" SnapsToDevicePixels="true">
                                <ContentPresenter />
                            </Border>
                            <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                                <Trigger Property="IsSelected" Value="true">
                                    <Setter TargetName="Border" Property="Background"
                                            Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}}"/>
                                </Trigger>
                            </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                        </ControlTemplate>
                    </Setter.Value>
                </Setter>
        </Style>
    </ListBox.Resources>
</ListBox>

What this will do is set the Highlight background color on the list box item whenever it is selected (regardless of the control state).

My answer is based on help from the answers already given to these answers, along with the following blog: http://blogs.vbcity.com/xtab/archive/2009/06/29/9344.aspx

Comments

[Vijay]

Oops!! it was by mistake. Sorry!

[jpsstavares]

Hi, I'm facing the same problem and tried the solution posted but I can't solve the problem. Can you edit your post so it contains the solution? thanks

[BrainSlugs83]

@jpsstavares try the second solution (the more popular, but yet not accepted one) -- it works, and won't screw up other WPF UI Elements.

[Vijay]

Ok. Let me try it out. Thanks!

[BrainSlugs83]

This is a bad idea -- for users with visual theming turned off, this will mess up a lot of things -- the scroll bars and buttons will change to become the current highlight color (this is blue by default -- so your inner buttons and ListView scrollbars turn blue, very bad!).