Experiences with Xaml Styler?

Question

I just found Xaml Styler and I'd like to give it a try. Can anyone share some experiences with this tool? Is it worth the try? Are there any drawbacks when using it in large teams?

Thanks!

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 31 '11 at 01:35

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I'm using it daily, and it's quite awesome. It's more than definitively worth a try, and I don't see any drawbacks.

Just make sure that everybody have the same settings, if you choose to divert from the default ones.

answered Aug 31 '11 at 01:35

Claus Jørgensen

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Thanks for the answer Claus. But what if some people forget to "beautify" his xaml while others do it constantly? Wouldn't it cause more SVN/GIT/TFS conflicts than usual? – alf Aug 31 '11 at 01:47
Depends how good your merge tool is. XML conflicts are generally always pain. – Claus Jørgensen Aug 31 '11 at 02:05
Still using it for Win8 dev? Seems like it doesn't like Segoe UI http://xamlstyler.codeplex.com/workitem/855 – Bart Apr 03 '13 at 14:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 22 '13 at 23:07

I absolutely love the XAML Styler. Though source control issues do happen. If you beautify a XAML document that can mean 1800 lines change if it was really ugly when you did it. If members of your team also have it checked out then they have to resolve 1800 lines of changes. So I recommend you be careful about when and which files you do this with in a team environment.

Trick: It beautifies the XAML page when that is the current tab and you hit [SAVE].
If you don't want the page beautified, then switch to a different tab and choose [SAVE ALL]. This is what I do when other team members have the same document checked out. If I'm the only one, then I do a normal save to make it nice, then check it in ASAP.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 07 '17 at 22:34

I started using this tool recently-- and I'm a big fan-- but one thing was really annoying me: it automatically formats everything whenever you hit save. I like using the green edit markup next to the line numbers in VS to keep track of where I am in big files. Whenever I hit save, it turns the whole file green.

So protip, if you turn off "Format XAML on save" in Tools>Options>XAML Styler, you can just right click on a file and hit format when you don't need your edit markup anymore.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

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After using this tool for some time, I have to say that I don't recommend it because:

Attribute Definition Order Matters, and therefore the behavior might be altered when a XAML page is "beautified". The tool does not offer a setting to exclude attribute sorting. Here's more information on this problem: Silverlight XAML Attribute Definition Order Matters
Source control conflicts are actually a pain and there's no way to "force" the team members to use the tool. It would be nice for example, that the XAML files where styled when saving the file.

Hope it helps someone!

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Sep 29 '11 at 21:06

alf

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@Downvoter - I'm sharing my experience. If you don't agree then share yours. – alf Sep 29 '11 at 21:50
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the current release has fixed both issues, so maybe give it a go again (I like it): NEW FEATURE: Ability to define preferred attribute order priority. NEW FEATURE: Option to automagically style on save (Issue: 364) detail..." – Erik Vullings Aug 06 '12 at 08:18

Experiences with Xaml Styler?

4 Answers4