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How to make the sidebar transition?

I have a simple splitview that has a rectangle of width 4px that indicates the selected item in the spiltview.
<Rectangle HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top"
Width="4" Height="48" Margin="1,0"
Fill="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColor}" Grid.Row="2"
Visibility="{x:Bind btnHome.IsChecked, Mode=OneWay}"/>
Right now I've multiple rectangles turned on/off depending whether the checkbox is selected or not! But instead, I want a single rectangle in my code that should transition from the place where it previously was to place where the user has clicked.

Simplest for you would be using the new NavigationView if your minimum version is set to Fall Creators Update or use the HamburgerMenu control from UWP Community Toolkit (note that it's updated to use style very similar to yours, the docs aren't just updated with current screenshots). You can download the UWP Community Toolkit Sample App from Windows Store if you want to see how it currently looks.
If you want to use your custom solution, you should create a custom style or rather edit an existing style of the control you're using as hamburger menu items. Default styles are available for example here.

Customise WinRT XAML Toolkit - Calendar Control

I wrote a Windows Phone 8.1 (WINRT) App. I need to show Calendar in the page. So, I added WinRT XAML Toolkit - Calendar Control from nuget.
PM> Install-Package WinRTXamlToolkit.Controls.Calendar
<Page
x:Class="DrFit.Pages.ActivityTimeTablePage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:DrFit.Pages"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
xmlns:WinRT="using:WinRTXamlToolkit.Controls"
Background="Black">
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<WinRT:Calendar Height="500">
</WinRT:Calendar>
</Grid>
</Page>
How to Customise this Calendar control, example FontWeight,Foreground,Background?

If the properties aren't exposed by the control or template-bound to template part properties - you'll probably need to change the template. You can find the default template here and templates for calendar parts are in the same folder:
WinRTXamlToolkit.Controls.Calendar/WinRTXamlToolkit.Controls.Calendar.Shared/Controls/Calendar

You probably have figured out the answer to this but I was facing a similar problem and figured out a solution so I thought I'd post it here for anyone else who faces a similar conundrum. If the calendar control is going out of the page, you can wrap it inside a Viewbox so that it fits the screen. This is how I managed to do it.
<Viewbox Stretch="Uniform">
<Grid Height="600" Width="600">
<toolkit:Calendar HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Tapped="Calendar_Tapped"/>
</Grid>
</Viewbox>

ReactiveUI - Views not rendering properly (or in full)

I'm in the process of starting a new project, using ReactiveUI and MahApps.Metro. The first hurdle I've hit is a problem of views not showing in their entirety. I have a Window, and in that Window I have a ViewModelViewHost from the RxUI library. It is a simple container for a nested view-model. The ActiveItem binding is properly binded to the view-model of the User Control, and the Button from the user control is visible on screen.
What I expect to see is a Window with a dark gray background and a button in the middle. What I see is the Window with its default background and a Button in the middle. This is not right. If I remove the button, I see nothing on the Window, only the default background.
It seems the ViewModelViewHost is only showing the actual contents of a UserControl and is disregarding what isn't considered a real Control, such as grids etc.
Has anyone come across this behaviour before?
<mah:MetroWindow x:Class="...MainWindow"
xmlns:mah="clr-namespace:MahApps.Metro.Controls;assembly=MahApps.Metro"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:rx="clr-namespace:ReactiveUI;assembly=ReactiveUI"
WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"
ShowTitleBar="False"
ShowCloseButton="False"
ShowMaxRestoreButton="False"
ShowMinButton="False"
Height="768"
Width="1024">
<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center">
<rx:ViewModelViewHost ViewModel="{Binding ActiveItem}" />
</Grid>
</mah:MetroWindow>
<UserControl x:Class="...NestedView"
Name="TheUserControl"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
mc:Ignorable="d"
TextOptions.TextHintingMode="Auto"
TextOptions.TextRenderingMode="Auto"
d:DesignHeight="768" d:DesignWidth="1024">
<Grid Background="DarkGray">
<Button Width="200" Height="100" />
</Grid>
</UserControl>

This won't be a ReactiveUI problem, just a simple WPF one.
The ViewModelViewHost is centered in your window. While your UserControl has a DesignHeight and DesignWidth set, when it's rendered at runtime it will automatically size itself to the height and width of its content - the Button.
Add VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" to your ViewModelViewHost declaration and remove the other two Alignment attributes (they default to Stretch) and it should stretch its contents to the size of the Window while centering any item that has a fixed size.

WP8 Map control with custom tiles

I'm trying to display a map control in my app targeting Windows Phone 8 but I want to use custom tiles from open street map.
I'm using this line :
mapControl.TileSources.Add(new TileSource("http://a.tile.openstreetmap.org/{zoomLevel}/{x}/{y}.png"));
When I launch the app the custom tiles are properly displayed, but there's still the default map tiles underneath them.
I tried to hide them, but I counld'nt even find where they exist in the map control and what is displaying them exactly.
I would like to know how I can remove those default tiles when loading custom tiles.
I tried to hide them, but I counld'nt even find where they exist in the map control and what is displaying them exactly.
PS : Here's the link to the "old" bing map control if you cannot find it in the latest WP Tools : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=2949

I tried this myself with the new WP8 "Nokia HERE maps" map control but was unable to achieve this. I had to resort to falling back to the older "Bing" based map control in Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Maps (marked as obsolete).
Here's how to remove the other layers in the older Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Maps control:
for (var i = Map.Children.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
MapTileLayer tileLayer = Map.Children[i] as MapTileLayer;
if (tileLayer != null)
{
Map.Children.RemoveAt(i);
}
}
Even though this older map control has been superseded in WP8 the newer control doesn't seem to support the same flexibility with layers and the "obsolete" control still works happily under WP8.1 if used in your app.
Here's my app which still uses the older control which is probably achieving what you're trying to do - NZ Topo Map app for Windows Phone.
Cut down Xaml for using the older map control in your app (you'll probably want to ignore my data bindings and replace them with your own):
<UserControl x:Class="TopoMap.Controls.Map"
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:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Maps;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Maps"
mc:Ignorable="d"
FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"
Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"
d:DesignHeight="480" d:DesignWidth="480"
DataContext="{Binding Main, Source={StaticResource Locator}}">
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
<m:Map x:Name="MapBase" LogoVisibility="Collapsed" ScaleVisibility="Visible"
Loaded="Map_Loaded"
LayoutUpdated="Map_LayoutUpdated"
ZoomLevel="{Binding ZoomLevel, Mode=TwoWay}"
Center="{Binding Center, Mode=TwoWay}">
</m:Map>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
The important reference that you need it:
xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Maps;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Maps"

Adding a WPF UserControl programmatically has no style

I'm trying to create a button-like UserControl which consists of a border and a label. When adding this UserControl directly in the XAML of MainWindow, it renders correctly (it is put in a WrapPanel), but if I add it programmatically it doesn't look the same at all. There is no border, no background color, the text size of the label is wrong and so is the text color.
This is my user control:
<UserControl x:Class="Jishi.SonosPartyMode.UserControls.Player"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="150" d:DesignWidth="300"
Width="200"
Height="100">
<Border BorderBrush="#086EAA" CornerRadius="8,8,8,8" BorderThickness="4" Margin="15" Padding="15px" VerticalAlignment="Center" Background="#0A4069">
<Label Name="PlayerName" TextElement.Foreground="White" TextElement.FontSize="20px">asdasdasd</Label>
</Border>
</UserControl>
when adding it, I just invoke it like this:
var button = new Player { Content = player.Properties.RoomName, DataContext = player.Properties.UDN };
PlayerList.Children.Add( button );
PlayerList is the actual WrapPanel and Player is my UserControl. I have tried finding information regarding this, but I don't find anything. If you have another approach that I can take, please come with suggestions. All I want is a clickable area with some rounded corners that can contain text (one or more rows).
I can apply styles programatically, but the styles defined in the xaml for the UserControl isn't preserved (Border, Margins, colors etc).

First of all, you don't need to create a custom control for this, you can easily do
var button = new Border { *border properties*, Content = new Lable {Content="dfsdfsdfsd"}};
And if you use PlayerList.Children.Add( button ); then it adds to the end of Wrappanel and in XAML code you add it not as the last element (maybe)..
And the last idea is that you lost some properties that you added in XAML when test it (like aligment, margin, etc.)
Hope this helps.