If you ever need to access the MainPage object of your Silverlight application (from elsewhere in that application), simply do this where needed:
MainPage mainPage = App.Current.RootVisual as MainPage;
Bonus Tip: Don't be hesitant to look at the code generated by Visual Studio. I found out wthat the
RootVisual
property represents the
MainPage
object and is set when the application is started. Once I discovered that, the rest was easy.
I've been paid as a programmer since 1982 with experience in Pascal, and C++ (both self-taught), and began writing Windows programs in 1991 using Visual C++ and MFC. In the 2nd half of 2007, I started writing C# Windows Forms and ASP.Net applications, and have since done WPF, Silverlight, WCF, web services, and Windows services.
My weakest point is that my moments of clarity are too brief to hold a meaningful conversation that requires more than 30 seconds to complete. Thankfully, grunts of agreement are all that is required to conduct most discussions without committing to any particular belief system.