Attach to Event of Sibling Control in Custom WPF Control Initialization - wpf

Question

I am trying to create a WPF custom slider control that acts as a scrollbar for a Listview. I'm doing this by putting the name of the listview in the Tag attribute of my custom slider and then using the slider's OnValueChange event to scroll the listview. This works great, however, when I scroll in the listview with my mousewheel the slider doesn't move. What I need is a way to attach a method to the listview's MouseWheel event when my custom slider initializes. Here is what I've tried:
Custom slider class:
public class LabeledScrollbar : Slider
{
public override void EndInit()
{
var listbox = (ListBox)this.FindName(this.Tag.ToString());
if (listbox != null)
{
listbox.MouseWheel += new MouseWheelEventHandler(this.OnMouseWheel);
}
base.EndInit();
}
protected void OnMouseWheel(object sender, MouseWheelEventArgs e)
{
this.Value += 5;
}
protected override void OnValueChanged(double oldValue, double newValue)
{
var listBox = (ListBox)this.FindName(this.Tag.ToString());
var collection = (CollectionView)CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(listBox.ItemsSource);
if (newValue == this.Maximum)
{
if (VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(listBox) > 0)
{
var chrome = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(listBox, 0);
var scrollView = (ScrollViewer)VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(chrome, 0);
scrollView.ScrollToTop();
}
}
else
{
var index = (collection.Count - 1) - (int)Math.Floor(newValue);
var selectedItem = collection.GetItemAt(index);
listBox.ScrollIntoView(selectedItem);
}
}
}
XAML:
<ListView x:Name="listViewCategories">
...
</ListView>
<local:LabeledScrollbar x:Name="categoryScrollbar" Orientation="Vertical" TickPlacement="BottomRight" Tag="listViewCategories"></local:LabeledScrollbar>
While it seems like OnMouseWheel should fire when the I scroll in the listview, it's not happening and I haven't been able to find anything else to try. Is there a way to do what I want in WPF? I know I could put a method in the code behind of my view to make the MouseScroll event of the listview move the slider, but I was hoping to encapsulate as much of the logic for the slider in the slider class as possible.

Answer 1

So it seems that the trick was to use PreviewMouseWheel instead of MouseWheel. For future reference here is my current class:
/// <summary>
/// This class creates a custom control that can be used as a scrollbar for a listbox that displays the current
/// group visible in the listbox on a small label next to the slider thumb.
///
/// To use it, set the Tag value to the name of the listbox the scollbar will be controlling.
/// </summary>
public class LabeledScrollbar : Slider
{
//Tracks control initialization to ensure it only gets loaded once
private bool initialized = false;
//The listview this slider will control
private ListView listView;
public LabeledScrollbar(): base()
{
this.Loaded += LabeledScrollbar_Loaded;
}
void LabeledScrollbar_Loaded(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
{
//The tag must be set to the name of a listbox
listView = (ListView)this.FindName(this.Tag.ToString());
if (listView != null && !this.initialized)
{
//Make sure that the mouse wheel event in the linked listbox is handled
listView.PreviewMouseWheel += (s, ev) =>
{
if (ev.Delta > 0)
this.Value += 3;
else
this.Value -= 3;
};
//Move scrollbar and list to the top if the collection changes
((INotifyCollectionChanged)listView.Items).CollectionChanged += (s, ev) =>
{
this.Maximum = ((ItemCollection)listView.Items).Count - 1;
this.Value = this.Maximum;
};
//Get the max value of the slider by checking the tag value and looking up the associated listbox
this.Maximum = ((ItemCollection)listView.Items).Count - 1;
this.Value = this.Maximum;
this.initialized = true;
}
}
protected override void OnValueChanged(double oldValue, double newValue)
{
//Refresh the tickbar so that it will render for a new value
InvalidateTickbar();
//Scroll the list box to the correct location
ScrollToIndex(newValue);
}
private void ScrollToIndex(double newValue)
{
if (newValue == this.Maximum)
{
//ScrollIntoView method does not scroll to the top so
//we need to access the scrollview to move the slider to the top
if (VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(listView) > 0)
{
var chrome = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(listView, 0);
var scrollView = (ScrollViewer)VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(chrome, 0);
scrollView.ScrollToTop();
}
}
else
{
var collection = (CollectionView)CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(listView.ItemsSource);
var index = (collection.Count - 1) - (int)Math.Floor(newValue);
var selectedItem = collection.GetItemAt(index);
listView.ScrollIntoView(selectedItem);
}
}
private void InvalidateTickbar()
{
//update the tickbar for the new position
if (VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(this) > 0)
{
var firstChild = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(this, 0);
if (VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(firstChild) > 0)
{
var secondChild = (CustomTickBar)VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(firstChild, 0);
secondChild.InvalidateVisual();
}
}
}
}