Missing DockPanel? Add DockPanel for Silverlight 4 or Silverlight 5

When I first created a demo project for Silverlight 5, I opened the XAML code to start editing. I started typing "DockPanel" but then I noticed that intellisense didn't show anything. It turns out that DockPanel and some other controls aren't included in the default installation of Silverlight 4 or Silverlight 5 beta.

Here's what you need to do:

Download the Silverlight 4 Toolkit. Install it. (Yes, this will work with Silverlight 5 beta)

Add a reference to "System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit". In Silverlight 5, you will need to navigate to the file: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v4.0\Toolkit\Apr10\Bin\System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit.dll

Add the following attribute to your UserControl: xmlns:tk="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit"

So your code might look like:

<UserControl x:Class="Project1.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:tk="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400">

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <tk:DockPanel>

        </tk:DockPanel>
    </Grid>

</UserControl>

Enjoy.

If you made it this far, you should follow me on Twitter.

-JP

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