Make radio button appear as toggle button in UWP

Question

I want to make two radio buttons appear as toggle buttons (so user is only able to select one, but they look like buttons). I saw answers regarding WPF how you can just create a style for radio buttons, based on toggle buttons, but in UWP, this is not supported:

<RadioButton Style="{StaticResource {x:Type ToggleButton}}" />

What would be the cleanest way to achieve this?

Answer 1

With XAML this is very easy to do.

Here is what I did:

• Create a button and right click on it, select Edit Template then Edit Copy.
• Create a Radio Button, right click on it, select Edit Template then edit copy.
• now replace the style of the radio button style with the XAML from the Button Style.
• only keep the radio button specific visual states: Checked, Unchecked, etc..
• now make sure the animations reference the right UIElements. you can modify how the radio button will look like when checked however you want.

this will give you a radio button that look like a toggle button.

here is how it looks like:

and here is the Radio Button style:

<Style TargetType="RadioButton">
        <Setter Property="Background" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBackground}" />
        <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonForeground}" />
        <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBorderBrush}" />
        <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBorderThemeThickness}" />
        <Setter Property="Padding" Value="8,4,8,4" />
        <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Left" />
        <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Center" />
        <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{ThemeResource ContentControlThemeFontFamily}" />
        <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Normal" />
        <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="{ThemeResource ControlContentThemeFontSize}" />
        <Setter Property="UseSystemFocusVisuals" Value="True" />
        <Setter Property="FocusVisualMargin" Value="-3" />
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="RadioButton">
                    <Grid x:Name="RootGrid" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}">
                        <ContentPresenter
                            x:Name="ContentPresenter"
                            Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
                            HorizontalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}"
                            VerticalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"
                            AutomationProperties.AccessibilityView="Raw"
                            BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
                            BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}"
                            Content="{TemplateBinding Content}"
                            ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}"
                            ContentTransitions="{TemplateBinding ContentTransitions}" />
                        <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                            <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                <VisualState x:Name="Normal">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <PointerUpThemeAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="RootGrid" />
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="PointerOver">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="RootGrid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBackgroundPointerOver}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBorderBrushPointerOver}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonForegroundPointerOver}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <PointerUpThemeAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="RootGrid" />
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="Pressed">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="RootGrid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBackgroundPressed}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBorderBrushPressed}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonForegroundPressed}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <PointerDownThemeAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="RootGrid" />
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="RootGrid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBackgroundDisabled}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonBorderBrushDisabled}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource ButtonForegroundDisabled}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                            </VisualStateGroup>
                            <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CheckStates">
                                <VisualState x:Name="Checked">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{ThemeResource SystemControlBackgroundAccentBrush}" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ContentPresenter" Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderThickness">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="4" />
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="Unchecked" />
                                <VisualState x:Name="Indeterminate" />
                            </VisualStateGroup>
                        </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                    </Grid>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>

Hopefully this answers your question.