When using Dotnet Core 3.0 Preview 1 "Design in Blend..." option missing from XAML file

[ThaDaVos]

• .NET Core Version: (e.g. 3.0 Preview1, or daily build number, use dotnet --info) Version: 3.0.100-preview-009812
• Windows version: (winver) OS Version: 10.0.18298

• Does the bug reproduce also in WPF for .NET Framework 4.8?: Yes/No Not tested - only have dotNet Core workflow and dotNet Framework 4.7.x installed

  Problem description: In dotNet Framework 4.7.x when you right click a XAML file you've got an option for "Design in Blend..." When using a dotNet Core 3.x based project (dotnet new WPF) this option is missing. Also I'm unable to start any kind of graphical designer for any xaml window/page/user control

  Actual behavior: Just no option and no designer

  Expected behavior: Have the option and designer

  Minimal repro: it's as easy as creating a folder and running dotnet new wpf to create a project. Open this project and try to use Blend or any other designer

ps: I just probably missed an announcement stating that the designers are not available yet but better to ask than to not

[Rand-Random]

That seems to be expected as the annoucement blog post states:

In the upcoming months, we’re focusing on completing the open sourcing of WPF and Windows Forms, enabling the Visual Studio designers to work with .NET Core, and adding support for APIs that are typically used in Windows Desktop apps. Please share your feedback on the dotnet/winforms, dotnet/wpf and dotnet/core repos.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2018/12/04/announcing-net-core-3-preview-1-and-open-sourcing-windows-desktop-frameworks/

[ThaDaVos]

Like I said - I've probably missed that 😂

[ThaDaVos]

Any ETA known?

[thomasclaudiushuber]

@dvdbot All we know is 2019. :)

There's also the WPF roadmap here, but it doesn't contain any info about designers: https://github.com/dotnet/wpf/blob/master/roadmap.md

Just follow the VS2019 preview versions and I'm sure we'll see more and more working there in the upcoming months.

[rladuca]

@richlander FYI

[richlander]

The designer space is a work in progress. We're not far enough along to share concrete plans. The short version is: "yes, we are working on the WPF and WinForms designers for .NET Core ." They won't be there in first release of Visual Studio 2019 but will come in a subsequent update.

And to represent the designer teams, we only just gave them a workable foundation on which to work with .NET Core 3.0 Preview 1. The builds before that were kinda creaky, so limited their progress.

[Rand-Random]

@richlander Well, thats a rather surprising answer, I for sure thought we will see a 100% finished product. Meaning the functionality between WPF .net Framework and WPF .net core will be identical upon the release of the final version of Visual Studio 2019.

Specially a designer for a design language, seems to obvious of a choice to me to put it into the final release. Maybe that's just me.

Is there a list of features that won't make it to the final version of 2019?

[richlander]

.NET Core 3.0 will not coincide with Visual Studio 2019. I can see how one would expect that, but we are not targeting the same date as Visual Studio 2019. Our release will come later.

[grubioe]

@diverdan92 can you please review?

[thomasclaudiushuber]

@diverdan92 @grubioe I just tried it in VS 2019 16.2 Prev1, and it's still the same behavior as described in the issue: But it seems that it's related to the .csproj format, not to .NET Core or FX.

The context menu has the menu item "Design in Blend" when you right-click on XAML files in projects with the old csproj format, and the menu item is missing when you right-click on XAML files in SDK-styled projects.

[diverdan92]

Following up with the VS team that owns this functionality. Thanks for reporting the issue!

[diverdan92]

This will be fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.

[pchaurasia14]

As of VS 2022, this issue has been addressed. Design in Blend option is visible for xaml files.