WPF Fade Animation

I don’t know how to do both animations (fade in and fade out) in pure XAML. But simple fade out can be achieved relatively simple. Replace DataTriggers with Triggers, and remove ExitActions since they makes no sense in Fade out scenario. This is what you will have:

 <Style TargetType="FrameworkElement" x:Key="animatedList">
  <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/>
  <Style.Triggers>
    <Trigger Property="Visibility" Value="Visible">
      <Trigger.EnterActions>
        <BeginStoryboard>
          <Storyboard>
            <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity"
                             From="0.0" To="1.0" Duration="0:0:0.2"/>
          </Storyboard>
        </BeginStoryboard>
      </Trigger.EnterActions>
    </Trigger>
  </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

But hey, don’t give up. If you want to support both animations I can suggest small coding behind the XAML. After we do a trick, we will get what you want by adding one line of code in XAML:

<Button Content="Fading button"
        x:Name="btn"
        loc:VisibilityAnimation.IsActive="True"/>

Every time we change btn.Visibility from Visible to Hidden/Collapsed button will fade out. And every time we change Visibility back the button will fade in. This trick will work with any FrameworkElement (including ListView 🙂 ).

Here is the code of VisibilityAnimation.IsActive attached property:

  public class VisibilityAnimation : DependencyObject
  {
    private const int DURATION_MS = 200;

    private static readonly Hashtable _hookedElements = new Hashtable();

    public static readonly DependencyProperty IsActiveProperty =
      DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("IsActive", 
      typeof(bool), 
      typeof(VisibilityAnimation),
      new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(false, new PropertyChangedCallback(OnIsActivePropertyChanged)));

    public static bool GetIsActive(UIElement element)
    {
      if (element == null)
      {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("element");
      }

      return (bool)element.GetValue(IsActiveProperty);
    }

    public static void SetIsActive(UIElement element, bool value)
    {
      if (element == null)
      {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("element");
      }
      element.SetValue(IsActiveProperty, value);
    }

    static VisibilityAnimation()
    {
      UIElement.VisibilityProperty.AddOwner(typeof(FrameworkElement),
                                            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(Visibility.Visible, new PropertyChangedCallback(VisibilityChanged), CoerceVisibility));
    }

    private static void VisibilityChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
      // So what? Ignore.
    }

    private static void OnIsActivePropertyChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
      var fe = d as FrameworkElement;
      if (fe == null)
      {
        return;
      }
      if (GetIsActive(fe))
      {
        HookVisibilityChanges(fe);
      }
      else
      {
        UnHookVisibilityChanges(fe);
      }
    }

    private static void UnHookVisibilityChanges(FrameworkElement fe)
    {
      if (_hookedElements.Contains(fe))
      {
        _hookedElements.Remove(fe);
      } 
    }

    private static void HookVisibilityChanges(FrameworkElement fe)
    {
      _hookedElements.Add(fe, false);
    }

    private static object CoerceVisibility(DependencyObject d, object baseValue)
    {
      var fe = d as FrameworkElement;
      if (fe == null)
      {
        return baseValue;
      }

      if (CheckAndUpdateAnimationStartedFlag(fe))
      {
        return baseValue;
      }
      // If we get here, it means we have to start fade in or fade out
      // animation. In any case return value of this method will be
      // Visibility.Visible. 

      var visibility = (Visibility)baseValue;

      var da = new DoubleAnimation
      {
        Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(DURATION_MS))
      };

      da.Completed += (o, e) =>
                        {
                          // This will trigger value coercion again
                          // but CheckAndUpdateAnimationStartedFlag() function will reture true
                          // this time, and animation will not be triggered.
                          fe.Visibility = visibility;
                          // NB: Small problem here. This may and probably will brake 
                          // binding to visibility property.
                        };

      if (visibility == Visibility.Collapsed || visibility == Visibility.Hidden)
      {
        da.From = 1.0;
        da.To = 0.0;
      }
      else
      {
        da.From = 0.0;
        da.To = 1.0;
      }

      fe.BeginAnimation(UIElement.OpacityProperty, da);
      return Visibility.Visible;
    }

    private static bool CheckAndUpdateAnimationStartedFlag(FrameworkElement fe)
    {
      var hookedElement = _hookedElements.Contains(fe);
      if (!hookedElement)
      {
        return true; // don't need to animate unhooked elements.
      }

      var animationStarted = (bool) _hookedElements[fe];
      _hookedElements[fe] = !animationStarted;

      return animationStarted;
    }
  }

The most important thing here is CoerceVisibility() method. As you can see we do not allow changing this property until fading animation is completed.

This code is neither thread safe nor bug free. Its only intention is to show the direction :). So feel free to improve, edit and get reputation ;).