Since there's no button.PerformClick() method in WPF, is there a way to click a WPF button programmatically?
Like JaredPar said you can refer to Josh Smith's article towards Automation. However if you look through comments to his article you will find more elegant way of raising events against WPF controls
someButton.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(ButtonBase.ClickEvent));
I personally prefer the one above instead of automation peers.
WPF takes a slightly different approach than WinForms here. Instead of having the automation of a object built into the API, they have a separate class for each object that is responsible for automating it. In this case you need the ButtonAutomationPeer to accomplish this task.
ButtonAutomationPeer peer = new ButtonAutomationPeer(someButton);
IInvokeProvider invokeProv = peer.GetPattern(PatternInterface.Invoke) as IInvokeProvider;
invokeProv.Invoke();
Here is a blog post on the subject.
Note: IInvokeProvider interface is defined in the UIAutomationProvider assembly.
if you want to call click event:
SomeButton.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(Button.ClickEvent));
And if you want the button looks like it is pressed:
typeof(Button).GetMethod("set_IsPressed", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic).Invoke(SomeButton, new object[] { true });
and unpressed after that:
typeof(Button).GetMethod("set_IsPressed", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic).Invoke(SomeButton, new object[] { false });
or use the ToggleButton
this.PowerButton.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(Button.ClickEvent));
One way to programmatically "click" the button, if you have access to the source, is to simply call the button's OnClick event handler (or Execute the ICommand associated with the button, if you're doing things in the more WPF-y manner).
Why are you doing this? Are you doing some sort of automated testing, for example, or trying to perform the same action that the button performs from a different section of code?
As Greg D said, I think that an alternative to Automation to click a button using the MVVM pattern (click event raised and command executed) is to call the OnClick method using reflection:
typeof(System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase).GetMethod("OnClick", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic).Invoke(button, new object[0]);
You can also call the method for the button getting clicked
Button_Click(new object(), new RoutedEventArgs(ButtonBase.ClickEvent));
Anther way is ButtonName.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(ButtonBase.ClickEvent));
Both ways need using System.Windows.Controls.Primitives;
Button_Click(new object(), new RoutedEventArgs(ButtonBase.ClickEvent));
ButtonName.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(ButtonBase.ClickEvent));
When using the MVVM Command pattern for Button function (recommended practice), a simple way to trigger the effect of the Button is as follows:
someButton.Command.Execute(someButton.CommandParameter);
This will use the Command object which the button triggers and pass the CommandParameter defined by the XAML.
The problem with the Automation API solution is, that it required a reference to the Framework assembly UIAutomationProvider as project/package dependency.
An alternative is to emulate the behaviour. In the following there is my extended solution which also condiders the MVVM-pattern with its bound commands - implemented as extension method:
public static class ButtonExtensions
{
/// <summary>
/// Performs a click on the button.<br/>
/// This is the WPF-equivalent of the Windows Forms method "<see cref="M:System.Windows.Forms.Button.PerformClick" />".
/// <para>This simulates the same behaviours as the button was clicked by the user by keyboard or mouse:<br />
/// 1. The raising the ClickEvent.<br />
/// 2.1. Checking that the bound command can be executed, calling <see cref="ICommand.CanExecute" />, if a command is bound.<br />
/// 2.2. If command can be executed, then the <see cref="ICommand.Execute(object)" /> will be called and the optional bound parameter is p
/// </para>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sourceButton">The source button.</param>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">sourceButton</exception>
public static void PerformClick(this Button sourceButton)
{
// Check parameters
if (sourceButton == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(sourceButton));
// 1.) Raise the Click-event
sourceButton.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.ClickEvent));
// 2.) Execute the command, if bound and can be executed
ICommand boundCommand = sourceButton.Command;
if (boundCommand != null)
{
object parameter = sourceButton.CommandParameter;
if (boundCommand.CanExecute(parameter) == true)
boundCommand.Execute(parameter);
}
}
}
Related
I am little new to Command binding so this might be a trivial question to many. I know that we can add Command bindings in xaml of a window and give its correspondng property in viewmodel. This viewmodel will be given to the DataContext of the window. Something like the following
--app.xaml.cs
mainWindow.DataContext = viewModel;
-- xaml
lt;Button Grid.Row="1" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,3,18,3" Name="button1" Width="110"
Command="{Binding LoadCommand}">_Load</Button>
-- viewmodel
/// <summary>
/// Gets the load command.
/// </summary>
/// <value>The load command.</value>
public ICommand LoadCommand
{
get
{
if (m_LoadCommand == null)
{
m_LoadCommand = new RelayCommand(param => CanLoad(), param => Load());
}
return m_LoadCommand;
}
}
Here the relaycommand is a class which implements ICommand interface. CanLoad() and Load() are the methods which will get executed for canexecute and execute action of the relaycommand respectively. This is the click event of the button which is handled.
I have a user control which has a custom routedevent registered in it and the user control is then used on a window. I am currently adding the event handler explicitly in code.
//hook up event listeners on the actual UserControl instance
this.ucCustomEvent1.CustomClick += new RoutedEventHandler(ucCustomEvent_CustomClick);
//hook up event listeners on the main window (Window1)
this.AddHandler(UserControlThatCreatesEvent.CustomClickEvent, new RoutedEventHandler(ucCustomEvent_CustomClick));
I dont want to hook up the routedevent explicitly in code but in the xaml in the similar way as in the button example. I have uploaded the working sample code here for your perusal.
I'm not sure I fully understand your question but I hope one of my answers below helps you out.
To attach a "direct" event handler in XAML, just do the following:
<c:MyUserControl x:Name="uc1" CustomClick="uc1_CustomClickHandler"/>
To hook up a handler for the (routed) event of one element (e.g. the CustomClick event in your example) to another element (e.g. the parent window):
<Window c:MyUserControl.CustomClick="ucCustomEvent_CustomClick"/>
Now, if you want to tie up an event in your UI to a Command in your ViewModel, you will need attached behaviors to do that. There are lots of frameworks around featuring different implementations of this. Here's one you can try out: http://sachabarber.net/?p=514. It will allow you to do something like the following in your code:
<c:MyUserControl local:CommandBehavior.RoutedEventName="MyCustomClick"
local:CommandBehavior.TheCommandToRun="{Binding MyViewModelCommand}"/>
Hope this helps.
I have searched on google about how to get started with the dependency property used in WPF/silverlight but didn't get any idea of the dependency property, can any one tell me about it , from beginner point of view, so that I get some idea about it and use it in my project
thanks in advance.
Can any one give me link or code example of simple application which explain in simple manner what is dependency Property is ???
I will be very thankfull
I find that implementing a DependencyProperty often involves four parts:
The DependencyProperty itself
Property with get and set
Static changed handler
Instance change handler
You can add a dependency property to a UserControl so that you can data bind to something in the DataContext where the UserControl is instantiated. For example you could add a property to a SoUserControl:
#region SampleProperty // Demo for SO 2424526
public static readonly DependencyProperty SamplePropertyProperty
= DependencyProperty.Register("SampleProperty", typeof(int), typeof(SoUserControl), new PropertyMetadata(OnSamplePropertyChanged));
/// <summary>
/// Demo for SO 2424526
/// Gets or sets dependency property.
/// </summary>
public int SampleProperty
{
get { return (int)GetValue(SamplePropertyProperty); }
set { SetValue(SamplePropertyProperty, value); }
}
/// <summary>
/// Handld changes to SamplePropertyProperty by calling a handler in the associated object.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="obj">object the property is associated with</param>
/// <param name="e">details of change</param>
static void OnSamplePropertyChanged(DependencyObject obj, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
(obj as SoUserControl).OnSamplePropertyChanged(e);
}
/// <summary>
/// Handle changes to the SamplePropertyProperty dependency property.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="e">details of change</param>
private void OnSamplePropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
int SamplePropertyNewValue = (int)e.NewValue;
// do something with the internal logic of the control
}
#endregion
From my use with Dependency Properties. They become most important when binding. When you bind to display a regular property, the initial binding will work great, however, the UI will not always update when the property changes, in which case you could implement INotifyPropertyChanged on your class and raise a the NotifyPropertyChanged event, but a Dependency Property will update for you without implementing INotifyProperty Changed.
Triggers is another big one. If you wish to create a Trigger to fire off a WPF Animation whenever one of your properties is set to a certain value... then you need to be triggering off of a dependency property.
DepenedencyProperties can only be implemented on types that derive from DependencyObject.
UIElement derives from Visual which derives from DependencyObject, so most properties from .Net controls are dependency properties already. And when creating and registering my own DependencyProperties it's usually on my custom UserControls as that inherits from UIElement.
It was very frustrating for me when I first tried to create a dependency property on one of my regular classes (you're better off using INotifyPropertyChanged here)
Links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752914.aspx, http://www.wpftutorial.net/DependencyProperties.html
Have a look at Luis Abreu's blog :http://msmvps.com/blogs/luisabreu/
He's got a lot of info there about dependecy properties and how to use them.
I think you can compare it to the keyword yield.
it allows you to generate a lazy list, or an infinite generator.
every time it's needed one item is requested from that list, and the code continue with the flow.
A dependency property is the same idea for values or content. it computes the needed value, lazily, based on the other values it depends on.
it can cache the value, and when the underlying parts are "dirty", that is, something changed, it will propagate -- invalidate -- all the levels that depend on it.
the object needs to have the facilities of DependencyObject to participate (that is, so the engine will know about it, to introduce it to the chain.)
the mechanism is generic and unfixed, there isn't just one interface to comply with.
but it's somewhat more complex than what I said.
I have found a good explanation, to wire my understanding, in the following blog post:
http://blog.hackedbrain.com/2004/12/04/understanding-dependencyobject-and-dependencyproperty/
You should read a book, for starters.
I have read WPF In Action With Visual Sutdio 2005 from Manning.
As an answer for the negative punctuation just given to me, Dependency Property is part of a bigger plan called WPF and one can't understand Dependency Properties without the basics.
Therefore i think it's a waste of time to try to understand only what is a Dependency Property because i fear one will end up using it incorrectly.
Also, MSDN website has free information about WPF and Dependency Property.
I'm using the Silverlight 3 HyperlinkButton and I want to programmatically trigger the navigation that normally occurs when the button is clicked. There does not appear to be a public method that supports this.
The OnClick method is protected so I could inherit from this control to gain access to this method from a custom control but is there a better way to go about this?
Looking at the implementation of the OnClick method using Reflector does not give me an obvious hint for a better way and the complexity of the code makes me wonder if there is a good reason for not allowing this event to be triggered programmatically. The lowest level managed code call is to MS.Internal.XcpImports.NavigateToSafeURINative and I don't see any public method in the code path that I could use.
For an in browser application, the HtmlWindow.Navigate does the trick as follows, relying on a unique target name to make sure it opens in a different tab or window to the current window hosting the silverlight application.
var hostingWindow = HtmlPage.Window;
hostingWindow.Navigate(siteHyperLinkbutton.NavigateUri, siteHyperLinkbutton.TargetName);
For an out of browser application, the best solution I have found is to derive a very simple custom class from HyperlinkButton and implement a public method that in turn invokes the protected OnClick method as shown below. This custom class can be declared in XAML with the appropriate NavigateUri and TargetName properties, just like the base HyperlinkButton. I was hoping to avoid creating a custom class by invoking the OnClick method via reflection but this not possible due to the Silverlight Security Considerations for Reflection.
public class CustomHyperlinkButton : HyperlinkButton
{
/// <summary>
/// Exposes the base protected OnClick method as a public method.
/// </summary>
public void OnClickPublic()
{
OnClick();
}
}
You could link the button to a Command, then trigger the command anywhere from Code using Command.Execute(). Psuedo code:
XAML:
<UserControl x:Class="ClassName"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:commands="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Presentation.Commands;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Presentation">
<Button commands:Click.Command="{Binding MyCommand}" />
</UserControl>
CODE (behind or MVVM):
public class ClassName
{
///Class constructor
public ClassName()
{ /// implement the command behaviour as a delegate
MyCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(
delegate{
/// do your OnClick() behaviour implementation here
}
);
}
private DelegateCommand<object> _myCommand;
public DelegateCommand<object> MyCommand
{
get { return _myCommand; }
set { myCommand=value;
OnPropertyChanged("MyCommand");}
}
/// Another method called from somewhere else in code
void SomeOtherMethod()
{
MyCommand.Execute(null);
}
}
This works particularly well in MVVM world.
Please, don't judge strictly if this question was discussed previously or indirectly answered in huge nearby prism and mvvm blogs.
In WPF implementation of RelayCommand or DelegateCommand classes there is a such eventhandler
/// <summary>
/// Occurs whenever the state of the application changes such that the result
/// of a call to <see cref="CanExecute"/> may return a different value.
/// </summary>
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
{
add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
}
but in SL subset of namespaces there are no CommandManager class. And this is where I'm stuck. I haven't yet found an workaround for this in MVVM adoptation for SL (PRISM is so complex for me yet). Different simple HelloWorldMVVM apps don't deal with at all.
Thanks in advance and sorry for my English -)
There is no support for commands in Silverlight. When the user manipulates controls in your view you will have to write code (e.g. event handlers) that modifies the view-model in the code-behind for your view. This might be something as simple as calling a method on the view-model when the user clicks a button in the view. By using PRISM you are able to create attached properties in the XAML for your view to get rid of these event-handlers, but if you would rather not use PRISM you can simply stick to using event handlers.
One other aspect you will have to handle is modifying the view when the view-model changes. In particular you will want to enable and disable controls based on the state of the view-model. To achieve this you will have to bind the IsEnabled property of a control to something in the view-model that reflects if a certain operation is allowed. Implementing custom IValueConverter objects that converts to boolean values are often useful. For instance, if your view-model has a property that represents a count and you want a particular control in the view to only be enabled when the count is greater than zero you can create a value converter that converts to true when the number is greater than zero and use this value converter in the binding.
If you try to adapt a WPF example of an MVVM application you will have to get rid of all uses of commands and substitute your own code. The code in your example is not meaningful in Silverligt, but in WPF it is involved in the process of determining if a control in the view is enabled, visible etc.
Silverlight 4.0 supports the ICommand interface and thus will provide a WPF like commanding infrastructure.
I've done some WPF programing and one thing I never got was the command pattern. Every example seems to be for built in ones, edit, cut, paste. Anyone have an example or suggestion of best practice for custom commands?
Ah ha! A question I can answer! Firstly, I should mention that I have personally found it easier to define and hook up commands in code rather than in XAML. It allows me to hook up the handlers for the commands a little more flexibly than an all XAML approach does.
You should work out what commands you want to have and what they relate to. In my application, I currently have a class for defining important application commands like so:
public static class CommandBank
{
/// Command definition for Closing a window
public static RoutedUICommand CloseWindow { get; private set; }
/// Static private constructor, sets up all application wide commands.
static CommandBank()
{
CloseWindow = new RoutedUICommand();
CloseWindow.InputGestures.Add(new KeyGesture(Key.F4, ModifierKeys.Alt));
// ...
}
Now, because I wanted to keep the code all together, using a code only approach to Commands lets me put the following methods in the class above:
/// Closes the window provided as a parameter
public static void CloseWindowExecute(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
{
((Window)e.Parameter).Close();
}
/// Allows a Command to execute if the CommandParameter is not a null value
public static void CanExecuteIfParameterIsNotNull(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e)
{
e.CanExecute = e.Parameter != null;
e.Handled = true;
}
The second method there can even be shared with other Commands without me having to repeat it all over the place.
Once you have defined the commands like this, you can add them to any piece of UI. In the following, once the Window has Loaded, I add command bindings to both the Window and MenuItem and then add an input binding to the Window using a loop to do this for all command bindings. The parameter that is passed is the Window its self so the code above knows what Window to try and close.
public partial class SimpleWindow : Window
{
private void WindowLoaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// ...
this.CommandBindings.Add(
new CommandBinding(
CommandBank.CloseWindow,
CommandBank.CloseWindowExecute,
CommandBank.CanExecuteIfParameterIsNotNull));
foreach (CommandBinding binding in this.CommandBindings)
{
RoutedCommand command = (RoutedCommand)binding.Command;
if (command.InputGestures.Count > 0)
{
foreach (InputGesture gesture in command.InputGestures)
{
var iBind = new InputBinding(command, gesture);
iBind.CommandParameter = this;
this.InputBindings.Add(iBind);
}
}
}
// menuItemExit is defined in XAML
menuItemExit.Command = CommandBank.CloseWindow;
menuItemExit.CommandParameter = this;
// ...
}
// ....
}
I then also later have event handlers for the WindowClosing and WindowClosed events, I do recommend you make the actual implementation of commands as small and generic as possible. As in this case, I didn't try to put code that tries to stop the Window closing if there is unsaved data, I kept that code firmly inside the WindowClosing event.
Let me know if you have any follow up questions. :)
I blogged about a bunch of resources on WPF Commands along with an example last year at http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/alanl/Blog/archive/2007/05/31/commands-in-wpf.aspx
Pasting here:
Adam Nathan’s sample chapter on Important New Concepts in WPF: Commands
MSDN article: The Command Pattern In WPF
Keyvan Nayyeri: How to Add Commands to Custom WPF Control
Ian Griffiths: Avalon Input, Commands, and Handlers
Wikipedia: Command Pattern
MSDN Library: Commanding Overview
MSDN Library: CommandBinding Class
MSDN Library: Input and Commands How-to Topics
MSDN Library: EditingCommands Class
MSDN Library: MediaCommands Class
MSDN Library: ApplicationCommands Class
MSDN Library: NavigationCommands Class
MSDN Library: ComponentCommands Class
Also buried in the WPF SDK samples, there's a nice sample on RichTextBox editing which I've extended. You can find it here: RichTextEditor.zip
In the September 2008 edition of the MSDN magazine, Brian Noyes has a excellent article about the RoutedCommand/RoutedEvents!!!
Here is the link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc785480.aspx
The thing about XAML is that it is fine for 'simple' programs, but sadly, it doesn't work well when you want to do things like share functions. Say you have several classes and UI's all of which had commands that were never disabled, you'd have to write a 'CanAlwaysExecute' method for each Window or UserControl! That's just not very DRY.
Having read several blogs and through trying several things, I've made the choice to make XAML purely about looks, styles, animation and triggers. All my hooking up of event handlers and commanding is now down in the code-behind. :)
Another gotcha by the way is Input binding, in order for them to be caught, focus must be on the object that contains the Input bindings. For example, to have a short cut you can use at any time (say, F1 to open help), that input binding must be set on the Window object, since that always has focus when your app is Active. Using the code method should make that easier, even when you start using UserControls which might want to add input bindings to their parent Window.