Treeview binding of button on node CanExecute issue [duplicate] - wpf

This question already has answers here:
WPF CommandParameter is NULL first time CanExecute is called
(16 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
Not sure if this is something I am not understanding about WPF or about Catel, but I have a treeview with 3 datatemplates for different node types. 2 of the node types can be bound to a delete button. The binding of the button command binds to the viewmodel of the parent control (rather than to the node itself) and a command parameter of the node where the button was clicked is passed. I am providing a small snippet of one of the data templates (the whole thing is too large to enter here):
<Grid Margin="10" x:Name="CriteriaGrid">
<TreeView ItemsSource="{Binding Criteria}" >
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type self:Leaf}">
<Button Command="{Binding Source={x:Reference CriteriaGrid}, Path=DataContext.DeleteLeaf}"
CommandParameter="{Binding}">X</Button>
</DataTemplate>
</TreeView>
</Grid>
ViewModel (again just a small extract):
public class ManageCriteriaViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
public ManageCriteriaViewModel()
{
DeleteLeaf = new Command<Leaf>(OnDeleteLeaf, CanDeleteLeaf);
}
private bool CanDeleteLeaf(Leaf leafNode)
{
return (leafNode?.Parent as Group) != null;
}
private void OnDeleteLeaf(Leaf leafNode)
{
// Some code
}
public Command<Leaf> DeleteLeaf { get; private set; }
}
The problem is that when the Tree is initially being constructed, the command parameter is always null, and my CanExecute test returns false if the parameter is null. So when my tree initially displays, all my buttons are disabled.
However, if I click any of the buttons, all of them get re-evaluated and become enabled because now the command parameter is being passed correctly.
I have tried adding:
protected override Task InitializeAsync()
{
CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();
ViewModelCommandManager.InvalidateCommands(true);
return base.InitializeAsync();
}
In an attempt to re-evaluate all the commands after the UI is loaded but this does not seem to work. What am I missing here?

Try switching the order of the command parameter and command object. The reason is that the CommandParameter is not bindable, and does not raise any change notifications. Therefore, the command is not being re-evaluated after "updating" (it's still the initial binding process).
If that doesn't work, something like this could:
protected override async Task InitializeAsync()
{
await base.InitializeAsync();
_dispatcherService.BeginInvoke(() => ViewModelCommandManager.InvalidateCommands(true););
}

Related

MVVM WPF databound checkbox won't firing events to the ViewModel for Checked and Unchecked states

I have a databound CheckBox inside a DataGrid, using WPF and MVVM;
<DataGridTemplateColumn Width="80" Header="Enabled">
<DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding Path=IsEnabled, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged, Mode=TwoWay}" Name="theCheckbox" HorizontalAlignment="Center"/>
</DataTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn>
This works fine and the CheckBox is being checked when IsEnabled is set. IsEnabled is a property in my collection of objects which I have bound to the DataGrid. What I want to do is to be able to validate if a specific rows CheckBox within the DataGrid should be allowed to be checked when the user selects it and if not remove their check and display a warning message something like "Row 1 cannot be checked without rows 5 and 9 being checked". I found out how to do this using code behind using the Checked and Unchecked properties of the CheckBox, but I am using MVVM and therefore want to handle things in the ViewModel associated with the View the DataGrid and CheckBox are in. How do I do this? I need a way of passing the Id field of the DataRow through too in order to identify which row I am working on, for arguments sake lets say the Id field is called BorderId.
Implement IDataErrorInfo on your objects, which is WPF's default interface for validation, and setup your validation code to validate if the checkbox can be checked or not
This is actually a bit trickier than normal because you are validating a property on your data item using data that doesn't exist on the data item, which means you need to provide some way of attaching unrelated validation to your object at run time.
The solution I usually use is to expose a ValidationDelegate from my object, which other objects can use to attach additional validation to the object. The code for it is posted on my blog, and it allows you to attach validation to your object like this:
public class MyViewModel
{
// Keeping this generic to reduce code here, but it
// should be a full property with PropertyChange notification
public ObservableCollection<SomeObject> SomeCollection { get; set; }
public MyViewModel()
{
SomeCollection = LoadDataGridObjects();
// Add the validation delegate to each object
foreach(var item in SomeCollection)
item.AddValidationDelegate(ValidateObject);
}
// Validation Delegate to verify the right checkboxes are checked
private string ValidateObject(object sender, string propertyName)
{
if (propertyName == "IsChecked")
{
var item = (SomeObject)sender;
if (item.Id == 1
&& !SomeCollection.First(p => p.Id == 5).IsChecked
&& !SomeCollection.First(p => p.Id == 9).IsChecked)
{
return "Row 1 cannot be checked without rows 5 and 9 being checked";
}
}
return null;
}
}
Could you add to the PropertyChanged event handler of each item in your list? Something like this:
foreach (Object x in List)
{
x.PropertyChanged += OnItemChanged;
}
Then in the change listener you can do whatever you like with the sender object including changing the IsEnabled property.
void OnItemChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
// change sender object properties or set bound label text here
}
If I understand your question, you have a checkbox and you want to control if it can be checked or not. Instead of letting the user check it at all times and push back an error message if you don't want to allow it, make your checkbox inactive in the first place if you don't want the user to check it.
To do this through your ViewModel (which is of course your DataContext), you need to bind the Checkbox's "Command" to a custom command in your ViewModel.
A WPF Command will provide the following functionality:
Automatically enable/disable a control based on custom logic
Handles the "action" event of your control (on a button of checkbox, it would be "click").

How to pass the selectedItem of a listbox to the View Model

This is a running question that I have updated to hopefully be a little more clear.
In short what I am trying to accomplish is pass a property from a listbox selected item to the viewmodel so that this property can be used within a new query. In the code below the Listbox inherits databinding from the parent object. The listbox contains data templates (user controls) used to render out detailed results.
The issue I am having is that within the user control I have an expander which when clicked calls a command from the ViewModel. From what I can see the Listbox object is loosing it's data context so in order for the command to be called when the expander is expanded I have to explicitly set the datacontext of the expander. Doing this seems to instantiate a new view model which resets my bound property (SelectedItemsID) to null.
Is there a way to pass the selected item from the view to the viewmodel and prevent the value from being reset to null when a button calls a command from within the templated listbox item?
I realize that both Prism and MVVMLite have workarounds for this but I am not familiar with either framework so I don't know the level of complexity in cutting either of these into my project.
Can this be accomplished outside of Prism or MVVMLite?
original post follows:
Within my project I have a listbox usercontrol which contains a custom data template.
<ListBox x:Name="ResultListBox"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
Background="{x:Null}"
BorderThickness="0"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
ItemsSource="{Binding SearchResults[0].Results,
Mode=TwoWay}"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled"
SelectionChanged="ResultListBox_SelectionChanged">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<dts:TypeTemplateSelector Content="{Binding}" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch">
<!-- CFS Template -->
<dts:TypeTemplateSelector.CFSTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<qr:srchCFS />
</DataTemplate>
</dts:TypeTemplateSelector.CFSTemplate>
<!-- Person Template -->
<dts:TypeTemplateSelector.PersonTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<qr:srchPerson />
</DataTemplate>
</dts:TypeTemplateSelector.PersonTemplate>
<!-- removed for brevity -->
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
SelectionChanged calls the following method from the code behind
private void ResultListBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem != null)
_ViewModel.SelectedItemID = (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem as QueryResult).ID.ToString();
this.NotifyPropertyChanged(_ViewModel.SelectedItemID);//binds to VM
}
Within the ViewModel I have the following property
public string SelectedItemID
{
get
{
return this._SelectedItemID;
}
set
{
if (this._SelectedItemID == value)
return;
this._SelectedItemID = value;
}
}
the listbox template contains a custom layout with an expander control. The expander control is used to display more details related to the selected item. These details (collection) are created by making a new call to my proxy. To do this with an expander control I used the Expressions InvokeCommandAction
<toolkit:Expander Height="auto"
Margin="0,0,-2,0"
Foreground="#FFFFC21C"
Header="View Details"
IsExpanded="False"
DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SearchViewModelDataSource}}"
Style="{StaticResource DetailExpander}">
<i:Interaction.Triggers>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="Expanded">
<i:InvokeCommandAction Command="{Binding GetCfsResultCommand}" />
</i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>
Within the ViewModel the delegate command GetCFSResultCommandExecute which is called is fairly straight forward
private void GetCfsResultCommandExecute(object parameter)
{
long IdResult;
if (long.TryParse(SelectedItemID, out IdResult))
{
this.CallForServiceResults = this._DataModel.GetCFSResults(IdResult);}
The issue I am experiencing is when selecting a listbox Item the selectionchanged event fires and the property SelectedItemID is updated with the correct id from the selected item. When I click on the expander the Command is fired but the property SelectedItemID is set to null. I have traced this with Silverlight-Spy and the events are consistent with what you would expect when the expander is clicked the listbox item loses focus, the expander (toggle) gets focus and there is a LeftMouseDownEvent but I cannot see anything happening that explains why the property is being set to null. I added the same code used in the selection changed event to a LostFocus event on the listboxt item and still received the same result.
I'd appreciate any help with understanding why the public property SelectedItemID is being set to null when the expander button which is part of the listbox control is being set to null. And of course I would REALLY appreciate any help in learning how prevent the property from being set to null and retaining the bound ID.
Update
I have attempted to remove the datacontext reference from the Expander as this was suggested to be the issue. From what I have since this is a data template item it "steps" out of the visual tree and looses reference to the datacontext of the control which is inherited from the parent object. If I attempt to set the datacontext in code for the control all bindings to properties are lost.
My next attempt was to set the datacontext for the expander control within the constructor as
private SearchViewModel _ViewModel;
public srchCFS()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.cfsExpander.DataContext = this._ViewModel;
}
This approach does not seem to work as InvokeCommandAction is never fired. This command only seems to trigger if data context is set on the expander.
thanks in advance
With this line you create a new SearchViewModelDataSource using its default constructor.
DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SearchViewModelDataSource}}"
I guess this is why you find null because this is the default value for reference type.
You can resolve the issue by setting DataContext to the same instance used to the main controll (you can do it by code after all components are initialized).
Hope this help!
Edit
I don't think that binding may be lost after setting datacontext from code. I do it every time I need to share something between two or more model.
In relation to the code you've written :
private SearchViewModel _ViewModel;
public srchCFS()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.cfsExpander.DataContext = this._ViewModel;
}
Instead of using this.cfsExpander you can try to use the FindName method. Maybe this will return you the correct instance.
object item = this.FindName("expander_name");
if ((item!=null)&&(item is Expander))
{
Expander exp = item as Expander;
exp.DataContext = this._ViewModel;
}
Try if its work for you.
Of course, this._ViewModel has to expose a property of type ICommand named GetCfsResultCommand but I think this has been already done.
While this was a hacky approach I found an intermediate solution to get the listbox item value to the view model. I ended up using the selection changed event and passing the value directly to a public property wihtin my view model. Not the best approach but it resolved the issue short term
private void ResultListBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem != null)
_ViewModel.SelectedItemID = (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem as QueryResult).ID.ToString();
MySelectedValue = (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem as QueryResult).ID.ToString();
this.NotifyPropertyChanged(_ViewModel.SelectedItemID);
}
For this to fire I did have to also setup a property changed handler within the view to push the change to the VM. You can disregard the MySelectedValue line as it is secondary code I have in place for testing.
For those intereted the generic property changed handler
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string info)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
{
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
}
}

In C# (or in C# with WPF), how would I build a checkbox at run time?

In C# (or in C# with WPF), how would I build a checkbox at run time?
I would I be able to query the check box to see if the user clicked on it?
In other words, suppose I have a "grid" on which I want to have displayed some checkboxes. But I do not know how many checkboxes to display. I suppose I could (in WPF) fill the grid with checkboxes at design time and mark them as hidden (or visibly == false) and then show them at run time. But I was hoping there was a more elegant way to do this.
There are several ways to do this in WPF. A quick and dirty approach would be to do something like this:
<StackPanel x:Name="CheckBoxes" />
Then in your code behind do:
for (int i=0; i < 10; i++) {
this.CheckBoxes.Children.Add(new CheckBox());
}
But while at first glance it looks simple, this makes it somewhat of a pain to work with in the long run. Instead, a better solution would be to have a class that has a boolean property such as:
// this should really implement INotifyPropertyChanged but
// we'll ignore that for now...
public class SelectableThing {
public bool IsSelected {
get;
set;
}
public string Description {
get;
set;
}
}
Then in your XAML, you would have a bindable control such as ItemsControl:
<ItemsControl x:Name="CheckBoxes">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding IsSelected, Mode=TwoWay}"
Content="{Binding Description}" />
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
Then in your code behind you could create a collection of these SelectableThing's and set them as the ItemsSource.
private SelectableThing[] things;
// where you do this is up to you really
private void Window_Load(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {
things = new SelectableThing[] {
new SelectableThing("First Thing"),
new SelectableThing("Second Thing"),
new SelectableThing("Third Thing")
};
CheckBoxes.ItemsSource = things;
}
In an event handler or something like that, eventually a method that gets called, you could do this. Let's say your Canvas is called myCanvas.
var cb = new CheckBox { //... set the properties, e.g.:
Checked = true, Content = "Check me" };
// do whatever you like to do with your newly created CheckBox
myCanvas.Children.Add(cb);
Hope this helps; of course you can do this inside a loop. If you need to hold a specific set of references to the created CheckBoxes be aware of that or use the Tag Property to identify these special CheckBoxes. Also, you could check myCanvas.Children for CheckBoxes.

WPF CommandParameter is NULL first time CanExecute is called

I have run into an issue with WPF and Commands that are bound to a Button inside the DataTemplate of an ItemsControl. The scenario is quite straight forward. The ItemsControl is bound to a list of objects, and I want to be able to remove each object in the list by clicking a Button. The Button executes a Command, and the Command takes care of the deletion. The CommandParameter is bound to the Object I want to delete. That way I know what the user clicked. A user should only be able to delete their "own" objects - so I need to do some checks in the "CanExecute" call of the Command to verify that the user has the right permissions.
The problem is that the parameter passed to CanExecute is NULL the first time it's called - so I can't run the logic to enable/disable the command. However, if I make it allways enabled, and then click the button to execute the command, the CommandParameter is passed in correctly. So that means that the binding against the CommandParameter is working.
The XAML for the ItemsControl and the DataTemplate looks like this:
<ItemsControl
x:Name="commentsList"
ItemsSource="{Binding Path=SharedDataItemPM.Comments}"
Width="Auto" Height="Auto">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Button
Content="Delete"
FontSize="10"
Command="{Binding Path=DataContext.DeleteCommentCommand, ElementName=commentsList}"
CommandParameter="{Binding}" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
So as you can see I have a list of Comments objects. I want the CommandParameter of the DeleteCommentCommand to be bound to the Command object.
So I guess my question is: have anyone experienced this problem before? CanExecute gets called on my Command, but the parameter is always NULL the first time - why is that?
Update: I was able to narrow the problem down a little. I added an empty Debug ValueConverter so that I could output a message when the CommandParameter is data bound. Turns out the problem is that the CanExecute method is executed before the CommandParameter is bound to the button. I have tried to set the CommandParameter before the Command (like suggested) - but it still doesn't work. Any tips on how to control it.
Update2: Is there any way to detect when the binding is "done", so that I can force re-evaluation of the command? Also - is it a problem that I have multiple Buttons (one for each item in the ItemsControl) that bind to the same instance of a Command-object?
Update3: I have uploaded a reproduction of the bug to my SkyDrive: http://cid-1a08c11c407c0d8e.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Code%20samples/CommandParameterBinding.zip
I was having this same issue while trying to bind to a command on my view model.
I changed it to use a relative source binding rather than referring to the element by name and that did the trick. Parameter binding didn't change.
Old Code:
Command="{Binding DataContext.MyCommand, ElementName=myWindow}"
New Code:
Command="{Binding DataContext.MyCommand, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=Views:MyView}}"
Update: I just came across this issue without using ElementName, I'm binding to a command on my view model and my data context of the button is my view model. In this case I had to simply move the CommandParameter attribute before the Command attribute in the Button declaration (in XAML).
CommandParameter="{Binding Groups}"
Command="{Binding StartCommand}"
I have found that the order in which I set Command and CommandParameter makes a difference. Setting the Command property causes CanExecute to be called immediately, so you want CommandParameter to already be set at that point.
I have found that switching the order of the properties in the XAML can actually have an effect, though I'm not confident that it will solve your problem. It's worth a try, though.
You seem to be suggesting that the button never becomes enabled, which is surprising, since I would expect the CommandParameter to be set shortly after the Command property in your example. Does calling CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested() cause the button to become enabled?
I stumbled upon a similar problem and solved it using my trusty TriggerConverter.
public class TriggerConverter : IMultiValueConverter
{
#region IMultiValueConverter Members
public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
// First value is target value.
// All others are update triggers only.
if (values.Length < 1) return Binding.DoNothing;
return values[0];
}
public object[] ConvertBack(object value, Type[] targetTypes, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
#endregion
}
This value converter takes any number of parameters and passes the first of them back as the converted value. When used in a MultiBinding in your case it looks like the following.
<ItemsControl
x:Name="commentsList"
ItemsSource="{Binding Path=SharedDataItemPM.Comments}"
Width="Auto" Height="Auto">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Button
Content="Delete"
FontSize="10"
CommandParameter="{Binding}">
<Button.Command>
<MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource TriggerConverter}">
<Binding Path="DataContext.DeleteCommentCommand"
ElementName="commentsList" />
<Binding />
</MultiBinding>
</Button.Command>
</Button>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
You will have to add TriggerConverter as a resource somewhere for this to work. Now the Command property is set not before the value for the CommandParameter has become available. You could even bind to RelativeSource.Self and CommandParameter instead of . to achieve the same effect.
I've come up with another option to work around this issue that I wanted to share. Because the CanExecute method of the command gets executed before the CommandParameter property is set, I created a helper class with an attached property that forces the CanExecute method to be called again when the binding changes.
public static class ButtonHelper
{
public static DependencyProperty CommandParameterProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached(
"CommandParameter",
typeof(object),
typeof(ButtonHelper),
new PropertyMetadata(CommandParameter_Changed));
private static void CommandParameter_Changed(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
var target = d as ButtonBase;
if (target == null)
return;
target.CommandParameter = e.NewValue;
var temp = target.Command;
// Have to set it to null first or CanExecute won't be called.
target.Command = null;
target.Command = temp;
}
public static object GetCommandParameter(ButtonBase target)
{
return target.GetValue(CommandParameterProperty);
}
public static void SetCommandParameter(ButtonBase target, object value)
{
target.SetValue(CommandParameterProperty, value);
}
}
And then on the button you want to bind a command parameter to...
<Button
Content="Press Me"
Command="{Binding}"
helpers:ButtonHelper.CommandParameter="{Binding MyParameter}" />
I hope this perhaps helps someone else with the issue.
I'll add what worked for me for a DataGridTemplateColumn with a button.
Change the binding from:
CommandParameter="{Binding .}"
to
CommandParameter="{Binding DataContext, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}"
Not sure why it works, but it did for me.
I recently came across the same problem (for me it was for the menu items in a context menu), nad while it may not be a suitable solution for every situation, I found a different (and a lot shorter!) way of solving this problem:
<MenuItem Header="Open file" Command="{Binding Tag.CommandOpenFile, IsAsync=True, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type ContextMenu}}}" CommandParameter="{Binding Name}" />
Ignoring the Tag-based workaround for the special case of context menu, the key here is to bind the CommandParameter regularly, but bind the Command with the additional IsAsync=True. This will delay the binding of the actual command (and therefore its CanExecute call) a bit, so the parameter will already be available. This means, though, that for a brief moment, the enabled-state might be wrong, but for my case, that was perfectly acceptable.
You may be able to use my CommandParameterBehavior that I posted to the Prism forums yesterday. It adds the missing behaviour where a change to the CommandParameter cause the Command to be re-queried.
There's some complexity here caused by my attempts to avoid the memory leak caused if you call PropertyDescriptor.AddValueChanged without later calling PropertyDescriptor.RemoveValueChanged. I try and fix that by unregistering the handler when the ekement is unloaded.
You'll probably need to remove the IDelegateCommand stuff unless you're using Prism (and want to make the same changes as me to the Prism library). Also note that we don't generally use RoutedCommands here (we use Prism's DelegateCommand<T> for pretty much everything) so please don't hold me responsible if my call to CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested sets off some sort of quantum wavefuntion collapse cascade that destroys the known universe or anything.
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Input;
namespace Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Wpf.Commands
{
/// <summary>
/// This class provides an attached property that, when set to true, will cause changes to the element's CommandParameter to
/// trigger the CanExecute handler to be called on the Command.
/// </summary>
public static class CommandParameterBehavior
{
/// <summary>
/// Identifies the IsCommandRequeriedOnChange attached property
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// When a control has the <see cref="IsCommandRequeriedOnChangeProperty" />
/// attached property set to true, then any change to it's
/// <see cref="System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.CommandParameter" /> property will cause the state of
/// the command attached to it's <see cref="System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.Command" /> property to
/// be reevaluated.
/// </remarks>
public static readonly DependencyProperty IsCommandRequeriedOnChangeProperty =
DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("IsCommandRequeriedOnChange",
typeof(bool),
typeof(CommandParameterBehavior),
new UIPropertyMetadata(false, new PropertyChangedCallback(OnIsCommandRequeriedOnChangeChanged)));
/// <summary>
/// Gets the value for the <see cref="IsCommandRequeriedOnChangeProperty"/> attached property.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="target">The object to adapt.</param>
/// <returns>Whether the update on change behavior is enabled.</returns>
public static bool GetIsCommandRequeriedOnChange(DependencyObject target)
{
return (bool)target.GetValue(IsCommandRequeriedOnChangeProperty);
}
/// <summary>
/// Sets the <see cref="IsCommandRequeriedOnChangeProperty"/> attached property.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="target">The object to adapt. This is typically a <see cref="System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase" />,
/// <see cref="System.Windows.Controls.MenuItem" /> or <see cref="System.Windows.Documents.Hyperlink" /></param>
/// <param name="value">Whether the update behaviour should be enabled.</param>
public static void SetIsCommandRequeriedOnChange(DependencyObject target, bool value)
{
target.SetValue(IsCommandRequeriedOnChangeProperty, value);
}
private static void OnIsCommandRequeriedOnChangeChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (!(d is ICommandSource))
return;
if (!(d is FrameworkElement || d is FrameworkContentElement))
return;
if ((bool)e.NewValue)
{
HookCommandParameterChanged(d);
}
else
{
UnhookCommandParameterChanged(d);
}
UpdateCommandState(d);
}
private static PropertyDescriptor GetCommandParameterPropertyDescriptor(object source)
{
return TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(source.GetType())["CommandParameter"];
}
private static void HookCommandParameterChanged(object source)
{
var propertyDescriptor = GetCommandParameterPropertyDescriptor(source);
propertyDescriptor.AddValueChanged(source, OnCommandParameterChanged);
// N.B. Using PropertyDescriptor.AddValueChanged will cause "source" to never be garbage collected,
// so we need to hook the Unloaded event and call RemoveValueChanged there.
HookUnloaded(source);
}
private static void UnhookCommandParameterChanged(object source)
{
var propertyDescriptor = GetCommandParameterPropertyDescriptor(source);
propertyDescriptor.RemoveValueChanged(source, OnCommandParameterChanged);
UnhookUnloaded(source);
}
private static void HookUnloaded(object source)
{
var fe = source as FrameworkElement;
if (fe != null)
{
fe.Unloaded += OnUnloaded;
}
var fce = source as FrameworkContentElement;
if (fce != null)
{
fce.Unloaded += OnUnloaded;
}
}
private static void UnhookUnloaded(object source)
{
var fe = source as FrameworkElement;
if (fe != null)
{
fe.Unloaded -= OnUnloaded;
}
var fce = source as FrameworkContentElement;
if (fce != null)
{
fce.Unloaded -= OnUnloaded;
}
}
static void OnUnloaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
UnhookCommandParameterChanged(sender);
}
static void OnCommandParameterChanged(object sender, EventArgs ea)
{
UpdateCommandState(sender);
}
private static void UpdateCommandState(object target)
{
var commandSource = target as ICommandSource;
if (commandSource == null)
return;
var rc = commandSource.Command as RoutedCommand;
if (rc != null)
{
CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();
}
var dc = commandSource.Command as IDelegateCommand;
if (dc != null)
{
dc.RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
}
}
}
}
There's a relatively simple way to "fix" this problem with DelegateCommand, though it requires updating the DelegateCommand source and re-compiling the Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Presentation.dll.
1) Download the Prism 1.2 source code and open the CompositeApplicationLibrary_Desktop.sln. In here is a Composite.Presentation.Desktop project that contains the DelegateCommand source.
2) Under the public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged, modify to read as follows:
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
{
add
{
WeakEventHandlerManager.AddWeakReferenceHandler( ref _canExecuteChangedHandlers, value, 2 );
// add this line
CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value;
}
remove
{
WeakEventHandlerManager.RemoveWeakReferenceHandler( _canExecuteChangedHandlers, value );
// add this line
CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value;
}
}
3) Under protected virtual void OnCanExecuteChanged(), modify it as follows:
protected virtual void OnCanExecuteChanged()
{
// add this line
CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();
WeakEventHandlerManager.CallWeakReferenceHandlers( this, _canExecuteChangedHandlers );
}
4) Recompile the solution, then navigate to either the Debug or Release folder where the compiled DLLs live. Copy the Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Presentation.dll and .pdb (if you wish) to where you references your external assemblies, and then recompile your application to pull the new versions.
After this, CanExecute should be fired every time the UI renders elements bound to the DelegateCommand in question.
Take care,
Joe
refereejoe at gmail
After reading some good answers to similar questions I changed in your example the DelegateCommand slightly to make it work. Instead of using:
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged;
I changed it to:
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
{
add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
}
I removed the following two methods because I was too lazy to fix them
public void RaiseCanExecuteChanged()
and
protected virtual void OnCanExecuteChanged()
And that's all... this seems to ensure that CanExecute will be called when the Binding changes and after the Execute method
It will not automatically trigger if the ViewModel is changed but as mentioned in this thread possible by calling the CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested on the GUI thread
Application.Current?.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (Action)CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested);
In .NET 7.0 RC1 this has been fixed.
(At least in a sense...)
It should now automatically reevaluate CanExecute() whenever CommandParameter changes, including upon initialization.
Although that does not prevent the initial call to CanExecute() when CommandParameter is still null, many ICommand implementations should already be handling that and it does render obsolete the obscure and problematic XAML attribute ordering workaround / hack.
As intimated by #Daniel-Svensson in a GitHub comment:
the actual issue here is that ICommand.CanExecute is not reevaluated
when the value bound to CommandParameter changes. Doing so would
obviously be the correct behavior, since the command parameter is
passed to CanExecute, so everyone expects this behavior intuitively.
And that is what is being fixed.
According to #pchaurasia14, a Sr. Engineering Manager for WPF at Microsoft:
This has been fixed in RC1 release. You may try it out. ... I meant, .NET 7 RC1.
The GitHub tracking issue #316 in the dotnet/wpf project is listed as closed. The code change CommandParameter invalidates CanExecute #4217 has been included in .NET 7.0 RC1. It was merged on July 21, 2022 and is included in the list of commits (scroll way down) for the RC1 release.
I've logged this as a bug against WPF in .Net 4.0, as the problem still exists in Beta 2.
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=504976
Some of these answers are about binding to the DataContext to get the Command itself, but the question was about the CommandParameter being null when it shouldn't be. We also experienced this. On on a hunch, we found a very simple way to get this to work in our ViewModel. This is specifically for the CommandParameter null problem reported by the customer, with one line of code. Note the Dispatcher.BeginInvoke().
public DelegateCommand<objectToBePassed> CommandShowReport
{
get
{
// create the command, or pass what is already created.
var command = _commandShowReport ?? (_commandShowReport = new DelegateCommand<object>(OnCommandShowReport, OnCanCommandShowReport));
// For the item template, the OnCanCommand will first pass in null. This will tell the command to re-pass the command param to validate if it can execute.
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action) delegate { command.RaiseCanExecuteChanged(); }, DispatcherPriority.DataBind);
return command;
}
}
not sure if this will work in a data template, but here is the binding syntax I use in a ListView Context menu to grab the current item as a command parameter:
CommandParameter=
"{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=ContextMenu},
Path=PlacementTarget.SelectedItem,
Mode=TwoWay}"
Its a long shot. to debug this you can try:
- checking the PreviewCanExecute event.
- use snoop/wpf mole to peek inside and see what the commandparameter is.
HTH,
The commandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested works for me as well. I believe the following link talks about similar problem, and M$ dev confirmed the limitation in the current version, and the commandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested is the workaround. http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/c45d2272-e8ba-4219-bb41-1e5eaed08a1f/
What important is the timing of invoking the commandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested. This should be invoked after the relevant value change is notified.
Beside Ed Ball's suggestion on setting CommandParameter prior to Command, make sure your CanExecute method has a parameter of object type.
private bool OnDeleteSelectedItemsCanExecute(object SelectedItems)
{
// Your goes heres
}
Hope it prevents someone spending the huge amount of time I did to figure out how to receive SelectedItems as CanExecute parameter

WPF Databind Before Saving

In my WPF application, I have a number of databound TextBoxes. The UpdateSourceTrigger for these bindings is LostFocus. The object is saved using the File menu. The problem I have is that it is possible to enter a new value into a TextBox, select Save from the File menu, and never persist the new value (the one visible in the TextBox) because accessing the menu does not remove focus from the TextBox. How can I fix this? Is there some way to force all the controls in a page to databind?
#palehorse: Good point. Unfortunately, I need to use LostFocus as my UpdateSourceTrigger in order to support the type of validation I want.
#dmo: I had thought of that. It seems, however, like a really inelegant solution for a relatively simple problem. Also, it requires that there be some control on the page which is is always visible to receive the focus. My application is tabbed, however, so no such control readily presents itself.
#Nidonocu: The fact that using the menu did not move focus from the TextBox confused me as well. That is, however, the behavior I am seeing. The following simple example demonstrates my problem:
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication2.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Window.Resources>
<ObjectDataProvider x:Key="MyItemProvider" />
</Window.Resources>
<DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
<Menu DockPanel.Dock="Top">
<MenuItem Header="File">
<MenuItem Header="Save" Click="MenuItem_Click" />
</MenuItem>
</Menu>
<StackPanel DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource MyItemProvider}}">
<Label Content="Enter some text and then File > Save:" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueA}" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueB}" />
</StackPanel>
</DockPanel>
</Window>
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Data;
namespace WpfApplication2
{
public partial class Window1 : Window
{
public MyItem Item
{
get { return (FindResource("MyItemProvider") as ObjectDataProvider).ObjectInstance as MyItem; }
set { (FindResource("MyItemProvider") as ObjectDataProvider).ObjectInstance = value; }
}
public Window1()
{
InitializeComponent();
Item = new MyItem();
}
private void MenuItem_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("At the time of saving, the values in the TextBoxes are:\n'{0}'\nand\n'{1}'", Item.ValueA, Item.ValueB));
}
}
public class MyItem
{
public string ValueA { get; set; }
public string ValueB { get; set; }
}
}
I found that removing the menu items that are scope depended from the FocusScope of the menu causes the textbox to lose focus correctly. I wouldn't think this applies to ALL items in Menu, but certainly for a save or validate action.
<Menu FocusManager.IsFocusScope="False" >
Assuming that there is more than one control in the tab sequence, the following solution appears to be complete and general (just cut-and-paste)...
Control currentControl = System.Windows.Input.Keyboard.FocusedElement as Control;
if (currentControl != null)
{
// Force focus away from the current control to update its binding source.
currentControl.MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
currentControl.Focus();
}
This is a UGLY hack but should also work
TextBox focusedTextBox = Keyboard.FocusedElement as TextBox;
if (focusedTextBox != null)
{
focusedTextBox.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
}
This code checks if a TextBox has focus... If 1 is found... update the binding source!
Suppose you have a TextBox in a window, and a ToolBar with a Save button in it. Assume the TextBox’s Text property is bound to a property on a business object, and the binding’s UpdateSourceTrigger property is set to the default value of LostFocus, meaning that the bound value is pushed back to the business object property when the TextBox loses input focus. Also, assume that the ToolBar’s Save button has its Command property set to ApplicationCommands.Save command.
In that situation, if you edit the TextBox and click the Save button with the mouse, there is a problem. When clicking on a Button in a ToolBar, the TextBox does not lose focus. Since the TextBox’s LostFocus event does not fire, the Text property binding does not update the source property of the business object.
Obviously you should not validate and save an object if the most recently edited value in the UI has not yet been pushed into the object. This is the exact problem Karl had worked around, by writing code in his window that manually looked for a TextBox with focus and updated the source of the data binding. His solution worked fine, but it got me thinking about a generic solution that would also be useful outside of this particular scenario. Enter CommandGroup…
Taken from Josh Smith’s CodeProject article about CommandGroup
Simple solution is update the Xaml code as shown below
<StackPanel DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource MyItemProvider}}">
<Label Content="Enter some text and then File > Save:" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueA, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueB, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
</StackPanel>
I've run into this issue and the best solution I've found was to change the focusable value of the button (or any other component such as MenuItem) to true:
<Button Focusable="True" Command="{Binding CustomSaveCommand}"/>
The reason it works, is because it forces the button to get focused before it invokes the command and therefore makes the TextBox or any other UIElement for that matter to loose their focus and raise lost focus event which invokes the binding to be changed.
In case you are using bounded command (as I was pointing to in my example), John Smith's great solution won't fit very well since you can't bind StaticExtension into bounded property (nor DP).
Have you tried setting the UpdateSourceTrigger to PropertyChanged? Alternatively, you could call the UpdateSOurce() method, but that seems like a bit overkill and defeats the purpose of TwoWay databinding.
Could you set the focus somewhere else just before saving?
You can do this by calling focus() on a UI element.
You could focus on whatever element invokes the "save". If your trigger is LostFocus then you have to move the focus somewhere. Save has the advantage that it isn't modified and would make sense to the user.
Since I noticed this issue is still a pain in the ass to solve on a very generic way, I tried various solutions.
Eventually one that worked out for me:
Whenever the need is there that UI changes must be validated and updated to its sources (Check for changes upon closeing a window, performing Save operations, ...), I call a validation function which does various things:
- make sure a focused element (like textbox, combobox, ...) loses its focus which will trigger default updatesource behavior
- validate any controls within the tree of the DependencyObject which is given to the validation function
- set focus back to the original focused element
The function itself returns true if everything is in order (validation is succesful) -> your original action (closeing with optional asking confirmation, saveing, ...) can continue. Otherwise the function will return false and your action cannot continue because there are validation errors on one or more elements (with the help of a generic ErrorTemplate on the elements).
The code (validation functionality is based on the article Detecting WPF Validation Errors):
public static class Validator
{
private static Dictionary<String, List<DependencyProperty>> gdicCachedDependencyProperties = new Dictionary<String, List<DependencyProperty>>();
public static Boolean IsValid(DependencyObject Parent)
{
// Move focus and reset it to update bindings which or otherwise not processed until losefocus
IInputElement lfocusedElement = Keyboard.FocusedElement;
if (lfocusedElement != null && lfocusedElement is UIElement)
{
// Move to previous AND to next InputElement (if your next InputElement is a menu, focus will not be lost -> therefor move in both directions)
(lfocusedElement as UIElement).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Previous));
(lfocusedElement as UIElement).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
Keyboard.ClearFocus();
}
if (Parent as UIElement == null || (Parent as UIElement).Visibility != Visibility.Visible)
return true;
// Validate all the bindings on the parent
Boolean lblnIsValid = true;
foreach (DependencyProperty aDependencyProperty in GetAllDependencyProperties(Parent))
{
if (BindingOperations.IsDataBound(Parent, aDependencyProperty))
{
// Get the binding expression base. This way all kinds of bindings (MultiBinding, PropertyBinding, ...) can be updated
BindingExpressionBase lbindingExpressionBase = BindingOperations.GetBindingExpressionBase(Parent, aDependencyProperty);
if (lbindingExpressionBase != null)
{
lbindingExpressionBase.ValidateWithoutUpdate();
if (lbindingExpressionBase.HasError)
lblnIsValid = false;
}
}
}
if (Parent is Visual || Parent is Visual3D)
{
// Fetch the visual children (in case of templated content, the LogicalTreeHelper will return no childs)
Int32 lintVisualChildCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(Parent);
for (Int32 lintVisualChildIndex = 0; lintVisualChildIndex < lintVisualChildCount; lintVisualChildIndex++)
if (!IsValid(VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(Parent, lintVisualChildIndex)))
lblnIsValid = false;
}
if (lfocusedElement != null)
lfocusedElement.Focus();
return lblnIsValid;
}
public static List<DependencyProperty> GetAllDependencyProperties(DependencyObject DependencyObject)
{
Type ltype = DependencyObject.GetType();
if (gdicCachedDependencyProperties.ContainsKey(ltype.FullName))
return gdicCachedDependencyProperties[ltype.FullName];
List<DependencyProperty> llstDependencyProperties = new List<DependencyProperty>();
List<FieldInfo> llstFieldInfos = ltype.GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Static).Where(Field => Field.FieldType == typeof(DependencyProperty)).ToList();
foreach (FieldInfo aFieldInfo in llstFieldInfos)
llstDependencyProperties.Add(aFieldInfo.GetValue(null) as DependencyProperty);
gdicCachedDependencyProperties.Add(ltype.FullName, llstDependencyProperties);
return llstDependencyProperties;
}
}
The easiest way is to set the focus somewhere.
You can set the focus back immediately, but setting the focus anywhere will trigger the LostFocus-Event on any type of control and make it update its stuff:
IInputElement x = System.Windows.Input.Keyboard.FocusedElement;
DummyField.Focus();
x.Focus();
Another way would be to get the focused element, get the binding element from the focused element, and trigger the update manually. An example for TextBox and ComboBox (you would need to add any control type you need to support):
TextBox t = Keyboard.FocusedElement as TextBox;
if ((t != null) && (t.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty) != null))
t.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
ComboBox c = Keyboard.FocusedElement as ComboBox;
if ((c != null) && (c.GetBindingExpression(ComboBox.TextProperty) != null))
c.GetBindingExpression(ComboBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
What do you think about this? I believe I've figured out a way to make it a bit more generic using reflection. I really didn't like the idea of maintaining a list like some of the other examples.
var currentControl = System.Windows.Input.Keyboard.FocusedElement;
if (currentControl != null)
{
Type type = currentControl.GetType();
if (type.GetMethod("MoveFocus") != null && type.GetMethod("Focus") != null)
{
try
{
type.GetMethod("MoveFocus").Invoke(currentControl, new object[] { new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next) });
type.GetMethod("Focus").Invoke(currentControl, null);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new Exception("Unable to handle unknown type: " + type.Name, ex);
}
}
}
See any problems with that?
Using BindingGroup will help to understand and mitigate this kind of problem.
Sometimes we consider to apply MVVM model against WPF data bindings.
For example, we consider about mail's subject property:
<TextBox x:Name="SubjectTextBox" Text="{Binding Subject}" />
TextBox SubjectTextBox is on side of View.
The bound property like ViewModel.Subject will belong to ViewModel.
The problem is that changes remain to View in this case.
When we close the WPF window, WPF TextBox won't loose focus on window close.
It means data binding won't perform writing back, and then changes are lost silently.
Introducing of BindingGroup helps to control whether we should apply changes: from View to ViewModel.
BindingGroup.CommitEdit(); will ensure apply changes of direction View → ViewModel
BindingGroup.CancelEdit(); will ensure to discard changes on View.
If you don't call neither, changes are lost silently!
In the following sample, we attach RibbonWindow_Closing event handler so that we can deal with this case of problem.
XAML:
<R:RibbonWindow Closing="RibbonWindow_Closing" ...>
<FrameworkElement.BindingGroup>
<BindingGroup />
</FrameworkElement.BindingGroup>
...
</R:RibbonWindow>
C#
private void RibbonWindow_Closing(object sender, CancelEventArgs e) {
e.Cancel = !NeedSave();
}
bool NeedSave() {
if (!BindingGroup.CommitEdit()) {
// There may be validation error.
return false; // changes this to true to allow closing.
}
// Insert your business code to check modifications.
// return true; if Saved/DontSave/NotChanged
// return false; if Cancel
}
It should work.

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