wpf - Change ListViewItem background colour on mouse over

Question

I need some help here. I can't understand why none of the solutions I found work for my case. Let's consider a Listview with these items:

<ListView.Items>
    <ListViewItem>
          <TextBlock xml:space="preserve">  1 <Bold>I'm bold</Bold>   </TextBlock>
    </ListViewItem>
    <ListViewItem>
          <TextBlock  xml:space="preserve"> 2 Im not </TextBlock>
    </ListViewItem>
</ListView.Items>

Initially on hover each row I saw the highlight of the TextBlock in its default light blue. It only underlined the area with text:

I don't want that highlight I want the one of the whole row, and I want to decide the colour. I also want the highlight of the whole row when selecting:

I've been playing with Styles, Triggers or the ItemContainerStyle. I realized that I have to consider the background of the Textbox, and the one of the ListViewItem for the area with text. And the background of the whole row seems to be a business of the ListView.ItemContainerStyle.

The result of adding a style fot the TextBox:

    <Style x:Key="TextBlockStyle" TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
        <Style.Triggers>
            <Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
               <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Black" />
                <Setter Property="Background" Value="White"/> 
            </Trigger>
        </Style.Triggers>
    </Style>

<ListView Grid.Column="1" Margin="0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" BorderThickness="0" >
        <ListView.Resources>
                <Style BasedOn="{StaticResource TextBlockStyle}" TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}" />   
          </ListView.Resources>

is:

Then I add another style to try to get rid of the ListView background under the TextBox:

    <Style x:Key="ListViewItemStyle" TargetType="{x:Type ListViewItem}">
                    <Style.Triggers>
                        <Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
                            <Setter Property="Background" Value="Gold" />
                        </Trigger>
                    </Style.Triggers>
     </Style>

 <ListView Grid.Column="1" Margin="0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" BorderThickness="0" >
        <ListView.Resources>
                <Style BasedOn="{StaticResource TextBlockStyle}" TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}" />
                 <Style BasedOn="{StaticResource ListViewItemStyle}" TargetType="{x:Type ListViewItem}" />    
          </ListView.Resources>

But this has no effect at all.

And trying to highlight the whole row with this doesn't work:

<ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>
    <Style>
        <Style.Triggers>
               <Trigger Property="Control.IsMouseOver" Value="True">
                    <Setter Property="Control.Background" Value="Gold" />
                        </Trigger>
         </Style.Triggers>
    </Style>
</ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>

And tried several other suggestions for hours. This one: Remove the mouse over effect on a ListView in WPF avoids the highlight over the text on hover,both for the TextBox and the ListViewItem, but I don't know how to change then the background of the whole row. Could someone provide an example of what I'm trying to do?

Answer 1

The easiest way to see and change all styling-options for a given element is to export the default template for a control.

Therefore open Visual Studio or Blend and Right Click in the Design View on a control. Hover to 'Edit Template' -> And select 'Edit a Copy...' Output:

        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="Item.MouseOver.Background" Color="Gold"/>
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="Item.MouseOver.Border" Color="#a826A0Da"/>
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="Item.SelectedInactive.Background" Color="#3DDADADA"/>
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="Item.SelectedInactive.Border" Color="#FFDADADA"/>
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="Item.SelectedActive.Background" Color="#3D26A0DA"/>
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="Item.SelectedActive.Border" Color="#FF26A0DA"/>

        <Style x:Key="ListViewContainerStyle" TargetType="{x:Type ListViewItem}">
            <Setter Property="SnapsToDevicePixels" Value="True"/>
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="4,1"/>
            <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="{Binding HorizontalContentAlignment, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type ItemsControl}}}"/>
            <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="{Binding VerticalContentAlignment, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type ItemsControl}}}"/>
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent"/>
            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="Transparent"/>
            <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1"/>
            <Setter Property="FocusVisualStyle" Value="{StaticResource FocusVisual}"/>
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ListViewItem}">
                        <Border x:Name="Bd" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" SnapsToDevicePixels="true">
                            <ContentPresenter HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"/>
                        </Border>
                        <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                            <MultiTrigger>
                                <MultiTrigger.Conditions>
                                    <Condition Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True"/>
                                </MultiTrigger.Conditions>
                                <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="Bd" Value="{StaticResource Item.MouseOver.Background}"/>
                                <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="Bd" Value="{StaticResource Item.MouseOver.Border}"/>
                            </MultiTrigger>
                            <MultiTrigger>
                                <MultiTrigger.Conditions>
                                    <Condition Property="Selector.IsSelectionActive" Value="False"/>
                                    <Condition Property="IsSelected" Value="True"/>
                                </MultiTrigger.Conditions>
                                <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="Bd" Value="{StaticResource Item.SelectedInactive.Background}"/>
                                <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="Bd" Value="{StaticResource Item.SelectedInactive.Border}"/>
                            </MultiTrigger>
                            <MultiTrigger>
                                <MultiTrigger.Conditions>
                                    <Condition Property="Selector.IsSelectionActive" Value="True"/>
                                    <Condition Property="IsSelected" Value="True"/>
                                </MultiTrigger.Conditions>
                                <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="Bd" Value="{StaticResource Item.SelectedActive.Background}"/>
                                <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="Bd" Value="{StaticResource Item.SelectedActive.Border}"/>
                            </MultiTrigger>
                            <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
                                <Setter Property="TextElement.Foreground" TargetName="Bd" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.GrayTextBrushKey}}"/>
                            </Trigger>
                        </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
        </Style>

Now you have a good starting point to get your ItemContainerStyle customized.