I found a workaround here: https://web.archive.org/web/20120429044747/http://eric.burke.name/dotnetmania/2009/04/26/22.09.28
Edit: This is the corrected link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110825185059/http://eric.burke.name/dotnetmania/2009/04/26/22.09.28
It basically stores the ContentPresenter of the tab and loads that up when switching tabs instead of redrawing it. It was still causing the delay when dragging/dropping tabs since that was an remove/add operation, however with some modifications I got that to go away as well (ran the Remove code at a lower dispatcher priority then the Add code, so the add operation had a chance to cancel the Remove operation and use the old ContentPresenter instead of drawing a new one)
Edit: The link above appears to no longer work, so I’ll paste a copy of the code here. It’s been modified a bit to allow dragging/dropping, but it should still work the same way.
using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Threading;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Controls.Primitives;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
// Extended TabControl which saves the displayed item so you don't get the performance hit of
// unloading and reloading the VisualTree when switching tabs
// Obtained from http://eric.burke.name/dotnetmania/2009/04/26/22.09.28
// and made a some modifications so it reuses a TabItem's ContentPresenter when doing drag/drop operations
[TemplatePart(Name = "PART_ItemsHolder", Type = typeof(Panel))]
public class TabControlEx : System.Windows.Controls.TabControl
{
// Holds all items, but only marks the current tab's item as visible
private Panel _itemsHolder = null;
// Temporaily holds deleted item in case this was a drag/drop operation
private object _deletedObject = null;
public TabControlEx()
: base()
{
// this is necessary so that we get the initial databound selected item
this.ItemContainerGenerator.StatusChanged += ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged;
}
/// <summary>
/// if containers are done, generate the selected item
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sender"></param>
/// <param name="e"></param>
void ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.ItemContainerGenerator.Status == GeneratorStatus.ContainersGenerated)
{
this.ItemContainerGenerator.StatusChanged -= ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged;
UpdateSelectedItem();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// get the ItemsHolder and generate any children
/// </summary>
public override void OnApplyTemplate()
{
base.OnApplyTemplate();
_itemsHolder = GetTemplateChild("PART_ItemsHolder") as Panel;
UpdateSelectedItem();
}
/// <summary>
/// when the items change we remove any generated panel children and add any new ones as necessary
/// </summary>
/// <param name="e"></param>
protected override void OnItemsChanged(NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
base.OnItemsChanged(e);
if (_itemsHolder == null)
{
return;
}
switch (e.Action)
{
case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset:
_itemsHolder.Children.Clear();
if (base.Items.Count > 0)
{
base.SelectedItem = base.Items[0];
UpdateSelectedItem();
}
break;
case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add:
case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove:
// Search for recently deleted items caused by a Drag/Drop operation
if (e.NewItems != null && _deletedObject != null)
{
foreach (var item in e.NewItems)
{
if (_deletedObject == item)
{
// If the new item is the same as the recently deleted one (i.e. a drag/drop event)
// then cancel the deletion and reuse the ContentPresenter so it doesn't have to be
// redrawn. We do need to link the presenter to the new item though (using the Tag)
ContentPresenter cp = FindChildContentPresenter(_deletedObject);
if (cp != null)
{
int index = _itemsHolder.Children.IndexOf(cp);
(_itemsHolder.Children[index] as ContentPresenter).Tag =
(item is TabItem) ? item : (this.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(item));
}
_deletedObject = null;
}
}
}
if (e.OldItems != null)
{
foreach (var item in e.OldItems)
{
_deletedObject = item;
// We want to run this at a slightly later priority in case this
// is a drag/drop operation so that we can reuse the template
this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.DataBind,
new Action(delegate()
{
if (_deletedObject != null)
{
ContentPresenter cp = FindChildContentPresenter(_deletedObject);
if (cp != null)
{
this._itemsHolder.Children.Remove(cp);
}
}
}
));
}
}
UpdateSelectedItem();
break;
case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Replace:
throw new NotImplementedException("Replace not implemented yet");
}
}
/// <summary>
/// update the visible child in the ItemsHolder
/// </summary>
/// <param name="e"></param>
protected override void OnSelectionChanged(SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
base.OnSelectionChanged(e);
UpdateSelectedItem();
}
/// <summary>
/// generate a ContentPresenter for the selected item
/// </summary>
void UpdateSelectedItem()
{
if (_itemsHolder == null)
{
return;
}
// generate a ContentPresenter if necessary
TabItem item = GetSelectedTabItem();
if (item != null)
{
CreateChildContentPresenter(item);
}
// show the right child
foreach (ContentPresenter child in _itemsHolder.Children)
{
child.Visibility = ((child.Tag as TabItem).IsSelected) ? Visibility.Visible : Visibility.Collapsed;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// create the child ContentPresenter for the given item (could be data or a TabItem)
/// </summary>
/// <param name="item"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
ContentPresenter CreateChildContentPresenter(object item)
{
if (item == null)
{
return null;
}
ContentPresenter cp = FindChildContentPresenter(item);
if (cp != null)
{
return cp;
}
// the actual child to be added. cp.Tag is a reference to the TabItem
cp = new ContentPresenter();
cp.Content = (item is TabItem) ? (item as TabItem).Content : item;
cp.ContentTemplate = this.SelectedContentTemplate;
cp.ContentTemplateSelector = this.SelectedContentTemplateSelector;
cp.ContentStringFormat = this.SelectedContentStringFormat;
cp.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
cp.Tag = (item is TabItem) ? item : (this.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(item));
_itemsHolder.Children.Add(cp);
return cp;
}
/// <summary>
/// Find the CP for the given object. data could be a TabItem or a piece of data
/// </summary>
/// <param name="data"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
ContentPresenter FindChildContentPresenter(object data)
{
if (data is TabItem)
{
data = (data as TabItem).Content;
}
if (data == null)
{
return null;
}
if (_itemsHolder == null)
{
return null;
}
foreach (ContentPresenter cp in _itemsHolder.Children)
{
if (cp.Content == data)
{
return cp;
}
}
return null;
}
/// <summary>
/// copied from TabControl; wish it were protected in that class instead of private
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
protected TabItem GetSelectedTabItem()
{
object selectedItem = base.SelectedItem;
if (selectedItem == null)
{
return null;
}
if (_deletedObject == selectedItem)
{
}
TabItem item = selectedItem as TabItem;
if (item == null)
{
item = base.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromIndex(base.SelectedIndex) as TabItem;
}
return item;
}
}