Clock Class
Maintains run-time timing state for a Timeline.
Assembly: PresentationCore (in PresentationCore.dll)
A Timeline, by itself, doesn't actually do anything other than describe a segment of time. It's the timeline's Clock object that does the real work: it maintains timing-related run-time state for the timeline.
In most cases, a clock is created automatically for your timeline. When you animate by using a Storyboard or the BeginAnimation method, clocks are automatically created for your timelines and animations and applied to their targeted properties. For examples, see How to: Animate a Property by Using a Storyboard and How to: Animate a Property Without Using a Storyboard.
You can also create a Clock explicitly by using the CreateClock method. In performance-intensive scenarios, such as animating large numbers of similar objects, managing your own Clock use can provide performance benefits.
Clocks are arranged in trees that match the structure of the Timeline objects tree from which they are created. The root clock of such a timing tree can be interactively manipulated (paused, resumed, stopped, and so on) by retrieving its Controller. Non-root clocks cannot be directly controlled.
Once created, a clock cannot be modified (but it can be manipulated).
Using a Timeline as a Timer
A timeline's clock will only progress when there's an event handler associated with it or (in the case of an AnimationClock object) it is associated with a property. For this reason (and others), it's not recommended that you use a Timeline as a timer.
Derived classes should implement GetCurrentTimeCore if they want to modify how time flows for this clock. Derived classes can be made to do additional work when the clock repeats, skips, seeks, begins, pauses, resumes, or stops by overriding the DiscontinuousTimeMovement, SpeedChanged, and Stopped methods.
This example shows how to use Clock objects to animate a property.
There are three ways to animate a dependency property:
Create an AnimationTimeline and associate it with that property by using a Storyboard.
Use the object's BeginAnimation method to apply a single AnimationTimeline to a target property.
Create an AnimationClock from an AnimationTimeline and apply it to a property.
Storyboard objects and the BeginAnimation method enable you to animate properties without directly creating and distributing clocks (for examples, see How to: Animate a Property by Using a Storyboard and How to: Animate a Property Without Using a Storyboard); clocks are created and distributed for you automatically.
The following example shows how to create an AnimationClock and apply it to two similar properties.
/* This example shows how to create and apply an AnimationClock. */ using System; using System.Windows; using System.Windows.Controls; using System.Windows.Media; using System.Windows.Shapes; using System.Windows.Media.Animation; namespace Microsoft.Samples.Animation.TimingBehaviors { public class AnimationClockExample : Page { ScaleTransform myScaleTransform; public AnimationClockExample() { this.WindowTitle = "Opacity Animation Example"; this.Background = Brushes.White; StackPanel myStackPanel = new StackPanel(); myStackPanel.Margin = new Thickness(20); // Create a button that with a ScaleTransform. // The ScaleTransform will animate when the // button is clicked. Button myButton = new Button(); myButton.Margin = new Thickness(50); myButton.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left; myButton.Content = "Click Me"; myScaleTransform = new ScaleTransform(1,1); myButton.RenderTransform = myScaleTransform; // Associate an event handler with the // button's Click event. myButton.Click += new RoutedEventHandler(myButton_Clicked); myStackPanel.Children.Add(myButton); this.Content = myStackPanel; } // Create and apply and animation when the button is clicked. private void myButton_Clicked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { // Create a DoubleAnimation to animate the // ScaleTransform. DoubleAnimation myAnimation = new DoubleAnimation( 1, // "From" value 5, // "To" value new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)) ); myAnimation.AutoReverse = true; // Create a clock the for the animation. AnimationClock myClock = myAnimation.CreateClock(); // Associate the clock the ScaleX and // ScaleY properties of the button's // ScaleTransform. myScaleTransform.ApplyAnimationClock( ScaleTransform.ScaleXProperty, myClock); myScaleTransform.ApplyAnimationClock( ScaleTransform.ScaleYProperty, myClock); } } }
For an example showing how to interactively control a Clock after it starts, see How to: Interactively Control a Clock.
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.