Unchecking a CheckBox from a Style Setter? - wpf

I have multiple datatriggers of the form:
<Style x:Key="VerifyCheckBox" TargetType="{x:Type CheckBox}">
<Setter Property="Height" Value="14" />
<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="12" />
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding ElementName=PrimaryInsuranceCompany, Path=(Validation.HasError)}" Value="True">
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
<Setter Property="IsChecked" Value="False" />
</DataTrigger>
The IsEnabled property on the CheckBox is set correctly. However, the IsChecked property does not get unchecked if it had been manually checked in the first place.
Can IsChecked be unchecked from a Setter?
Edit#1
To complicate matters a bit more, the checkbox is bound to a property in my viewmodel as:
<CheckBox
Style="{StaticResource VerifyCheckBox}"
IsChecked="{Binding PrimaryInsurance.SelectedInsurance.Verify}"
Content="Verify" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="789,92,0,676" Width="46" />
And there are multiple DataTrigger s in the Style.Triggers each checking a different element on the UI. In short, the UI has all the data validation. For instance, the element named above, PrimaryInsuranceCompany is:
<wc:AutoFilteredComboBox
Name="PrimaryInsuranceCompany"
IsEnabled="{Binding PrimaryInsurance.Enabled}"
ItemsSource="{Binding PrimaryInsurance.AllCompanies}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource CompanyTemplate}"
IsEditable="True"
IsCaseSensitive="False"
IsTextSearchEnabled="True"
TextSearch.TextPath="Companyname"
Text="{Binding PrimaryInsurance.NewCompanyName, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
theFilter="{Binding PrimaryInsurance.TheFilter}"
SelectedItem="{Binding PrimaryInsurance.SelectedInsurance.Company}"
h:ComboBoxRegexValidator.RegexText="{x:Static h:RegexLibrary.NonEmptyRegex}"
HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="590,138,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="363" />
So with the combobox element in particular, I was trying to avoid duplicating the validation process in the view model since it is already being done directly in the view. Can this be done?

This quite often causes a confusion. You might want to read this: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms743230%28v=vs.100%29.aspx.
Basically, dependency properties in wpf might be set in different places: locally (IsChecked=True), in style, in trigger, and so on. When property is set in multiple places, specific resolution order is used to resolve the conflict. Here is an example:
<Window.Resources>
<Style x:Key="VerifyCheckBox" TargetType="{x:Type CheckBox}">
<Setter Property="Height" Value="14" />
<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="12" />
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding TestValue}" Value="True">
<Setter Property="IsChecked" Value="False" />
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
</DataTrigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
<CheckBox Content="Hey there" IsChecked="True" Style="{StaticResource VerifyCheckBox}" />
Here we set IsChecked in two places: locally (IsChecked=True) and in trigger. Local value has higher priority and because of that, when TestValue will become true checkbox will not be unchecked. However we did not set IsEnabled locally, so it will have it's value from trigger. Note that if we did set IsEnabled=True locally, trigger would have no effect at all.
Now let's try like this:
<Window.Resources>
<Style x:Key="VerifyCheckBox" TargetType="{x:Type CheckBox}">
<Setter Property="Height" Value="14" />
<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="12" />
<Setter Property="IsChecked" Value="True"></Setter>
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding TestValue}" Value="True">
<Setter Property="IsChecked" Value="False" />
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
</DataTrigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
<CheckBox Content="Hey there" Style="{StaticResource VerifyCheckBox}" />
We moved IsChecked initial setter in style and now it works as expected, because trigger has priority over values in style setter.
Update: user clicking does not change behavior above. So, if you have local IsChecked=True, then user clicked twice, then TestValue becomes true - it will not be unchecked. And if you do the same but initialize IsChecked=True in style setter - it will be unchecked.

Related

How to change a control's appearance based on whether its (dynamic) context menu has items, using a reusable Style?

I have a button with a dynamic context menu (i.e. fed from an ItemsSource). I would like to use its ContextMenu's .HasItems property as a trigger to disable it when the context menu is empty. The following does not seem to work, even though the debugger shows no issues with the binding:
<Style x:Key="ContextMenuButtonStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self},Path=ContextMenu.HasItems}" Value="False">
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
</DataTrigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
Used like this:
<Button Style="{StaticResource ContextMenuButtonStyle}" Content="Items" Click="ShowContext">
<Button.ContextMenu>
<ContextMenu ItemsSource="{Binding MyItems}" Placement="Top" VerticalOffset="-1" />
</Button.ContextMenu>
</Button>
This always just behaves as if there were no items, i.e. the button stays disabled. However, if I comment out that trigger I can immediately see that the context menu clearly contains items at that point.
Interestingly, I have a second, similar trigger, based on ContextMenu.IsOpen that is working fine:
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self},Path=ContextMenu.IsOpen}" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="White" />
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Black" />
</DataTrigger>
So maybe the issue isn't actually the binding in the trigger but the querying/updating of the ItemsSource that is somehow impacted by the disabled state? Any other ideas or hints on how to resolve this?
Update: I have by now found out that the Items collection is apparently not populated from ItemsSource until the context menu is actually shown, so that certainly explains why my HasItems approach doesn't work. So, is there maybe a way to have the trigger react to the contents of the referenced ItemsSource - but without explicitly referencing that source in the Style so that it could be reused for other buttons with different items sources?
OK, I just realised the obvious answer as I was posting my update to the question:
<Style x:Key="ContextMenuButtonStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self},Path=ContextMenu.ItemsSource.Count}" Value="0">
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
</DataTrigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
Have you thought about doing this instead?
<Style x:Key="ContextMenuButtonStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=MyItems.Count}" Value="0">
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
</DataTrigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>

Bind DataGridCell style directly to its contents

I have a StatusCell style for DataGridCell that I would like to use in several place in my application. I would like to externalize the Style tag so that I can reuse it easily without having to duplicate the code in my XAML everywhere.
Every other source I've found has required me to bind the trigger off the property from my ViewModel. But across the application, the column might be bound to MyStatusProperty or SubObject.MyStatusProperty, etc, so I want to do this to allow me to have one style that will apply to all of these without having to specify where it's binding from.
I am able to do this with a TextBlock with the following style. This lets me bind the TextBlock to whatever I want and the style binding doesn't matter where it's coming from.
<Style x:Key="StatusLabel" TargetType="TextBlock">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="Text" Value="Completed">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Green"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
and when I create a textblock that I want to use this styling, all I have to do is
<TextBlock Style="{StaticResource StatusLabel}" Text="{Binding Whatever}" />
But with a DataGridCell it doesn't let me do this
<Style x:Key="StatusCell" TargetType="DataGridCell">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="Content" Value="Completed">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Green"/>
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
<DataGridTextColumn Header="Status" Binding="{Binding MyStatusProperty}"
CellStyle="{StaticResource StatusCell}" />
I also tried setting up the trigger like this:
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Content, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" Value="Reviewed">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Green"/>
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White" />
</DataTrigger>
But neither of these work. I have also tried swapping out "Content" in the last example for "Binding" and "Text"
Is there another property I can bind to in the DataGridCell that will let bind the style trigger to the contents of the cell without knowing the binding path?
As usual, I found a workaround shortly after asking. Since it's working with TextBlocks, I just have to use TemplateColumns instead of TextColumns, although I'd still prefer to be able to use TextColumns since they'd use 6 less lines of XAML.
<DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Status">
<DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding MyProperty}" Style="{StaticResource StatusCellTextBlock}" />
</DataTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn>
Using the style:
<Style x:Key="StatusCellTextBlock" TargetType="TextBlock">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="Text" Value="Completed">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Green"/>
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>

Trigger based on text property not working

Here is the xaml that I am working on:
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center">
<TextBlock.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="Text" Value="">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="0" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</TextBlock.Resources>
</TextBlock>
When text = "" I want to clear up the margin. But somehow it does not work.
You must move Margin="10,0,0,0" from TextBlock to setter of Style:
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="10,0,0,0" />
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="Text" Value="">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="0" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
Because local value has higher precedence order over style setters and triggers:
Property system coercion.
Active animations, or animations with a Hold behavior.
3. Local value.
TemplatedParent template properties.
Implicit style.
6. Style triggers.
Template triggers.
8. Style setters.
...
For more information, please see:
MSDN: Dependency Property Value Precedence

TextBox trigger to clear Text using a style

First, let me say I've been working with WPF for about a week. I want to style a TextBox so that when it is disable, it is cleared. This article explained how to do it, however I'm confused on how to set the generic style as a resource so that every TextBox can bind to a different property without repeating the style for each TextBox.
<Window.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}" x:Key="style1">
<Setter Property="Text" Value="{What do I really put here?}" />
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
<Setter Property="Text" Value="{x:Null}" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
....
<TextBox Style="{StaticResource style1}" Text="{Binding SomeProperty}"/>
Thanks!
You won't be able to use the Text property like that. Setting the Text property explicitly on any TextBox that has that style will override the Text setter in the trigger (like you noticed).
If you only need the TextBox to be cleared and not the property it is binding to, then a workaround is to use an attached property (or Tag) for the text which you bind Text to in the Style.
Example..
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}" x:Key="style1">
<Setter Property="Text" Value="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self},
Path=Tag}"/>
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
<Setter Property="Text" Value="{x:Null}" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
Then a TextBox can use this Style like
<TextBox Style="{StaticResource style1}" Tag="{Binding SomeProperty}" />

WPF DataTrigger on ViewModel Property Change

I'm trying to fire a trigger when a property in my ViewModel changes. I can't seem to get the trigger to fire no matter what I try. My XAML looks like this:
<TreeView.ItemContainerStyle>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TreeViewItem}">
<Setter Property="IsExpanded" Value="{Binding IsExpanded, Mode=TwoWay}" />
<Setter Property="IsSelected" Value="{Binding IsSelected, Mode=TwoWay}" />
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="0 1" />
<Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Normal" />
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Binding="{Binding IsExpanding}" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Control.Template" Value="{StaticResource ResourceKey=loadingTreeViewItem}" />
</DataTrigger >
<Trigger Property="IsSelected" Value="True">
<Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Bold" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
The IsExpanded and IsSelected bindings are working fine, however I can't get the DataTrigger to fire when IsExpanding is true. These properties are in the same ViewModel. I have tried adding different variations for RelativeSource but am not having any luck. Any feedback is appreciated.
Turns out the trigger was working. The problem was that the IsExpanding property and the call to get the data for the TreeView were both happening on the UI thread. I threaded the call to get the data and everything is working as expected

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