ApplicationBar is always NULL

Question

I have the following XAML code:

<phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>
    <shell:ApplicationBar IsVisible="True" IsMenuEnabled="False" x:Name="PageBar">
        <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/Assets/Icons/appbar.questionmark.rest.png" Text="Help" x:Name="HelpIcon" Click="HelpIcon_Click" />
        <shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems>
            <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="Help" x:Name="HelpItem" Click="HelpIcon_Click" />
            <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="About" x:Name="AboutItem" Click="AboutItem_Click" />
        </shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems>
    </shell:ApplicationBar>
</phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>

But inside C# code is always null.

Do you know why?

At what point in the application/page lifecycle are you trying to access the application bar? Perhaps it hasn't been created at the time when you are trying to access it. — Derek Lakin, May 09 '11 at 06:06

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered May 09 '11 at 06:35

16

In some stupid decision an ApplicationBar isn't a standard Silverlight object, because of that it doesn't really fit in the visual tree, can't be bound to and x:Name doesn't work.

You can refer to the ApplicationBar via a property on the PhoneApplicationPage.

var helpItem = this.ApplicationBar.MenuItems[0];
var aboutItem = this.ApplicationBar.MenuItems[1];

answered May 09 '11 at 06:35

Nigel Sampson

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You can also create the ApplicationBar in code and then be able to reference it by name. – Matt Lacey May 09 '11 at 19:30

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

6

I found this worked for me when I wanted to change the visiblity:

(ApplicationBar as ApplicationBar).IsVisible = true;

I got that answer from Matthew

edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

Community

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answered Jun 20 '12 at 12:46

Phil

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ApplicationBar is always NULL

2 Answers2

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