#158 – When to Create a Custom Dependency Property

When you’re implementing a new class and creating properties of that class, you need to decide for each property whether to make it a full-fledged WPF dependency property.

If a property is a standard CLR property, rather than a dependency property, you can still set property values from XAML.

But you might want to create a custom dependency property if you want your class to do any of the following:

• Set the property from a style
• Use data binding on the property
• Set property value using DynamicResource
• Get property value through inheritance
• Get property value through animation
• Use PropertyChanged, CoerceValue or ValidateValue callbacks
• You want support for the property in the Visual Studio or Blend designers