I have a very simple button binded to a command
<Button Content="Add" Margin="10,10,10,0" Command="{Binding SaveCommand}" ></Button>
My command code
public ICommand SaveCommand
{
get;
internal set;
}
private bool CanExecuteSaveCommand()
{
return DateTime.Now.Second % 2 == 0;
}
private void CreateSaveCommand()
{
SaveCommand = new DelegateCommand(param => this.SaveExecute(), param => CanExecuteSaveCommand());
}
public void SaveExecute()
{
PharmacyItem newItem = new PharmacyItem();
newItem.Name = ItemToAdd.Name;
newItem.IsleNumber = ItemToAdd.IsleNumber;
newItem.ExpDate = ItemToAdd.ExpDate;
PI.Add(newItem);
}
The code effectively blocks the command from running based on CanExecuteSaveCommand but the button is never disabled, is there a way to achieve this?
ICommand.CanExecute() is called automatically by WPF whenever it thinks the command availability may have changed. This generally tends to be on user activity, eg keyboard events, focus events etc.
Since your command availability changes purely based on time, WPF has no way of guessing that it has changed. Instead you need to give it a hint by calling CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();
Since your command availability changes every second, you would need to set up a timer to call this function at least every second.
Note that although InvalidateRequerySuggested() is the easiest solution, it will cause WPF to re-evaluate ALL command availabilities. If this is a performance problem, you can raise the CanExecuteChanged event on your ICommand instance instead.
Related
Maybe the longest question title of all time! Because this is a two part question.
(1) I do not understand how setting NotifyOnValidationError="True" can trigger updates to my CanExecute. There is a bit of magic involved here that I need to understand. Someone(thing) subscribes to the CanExecuteChanged event of my ICommand but the call stack points to External code, so I can not figure out what is going on.
(2) Maybe the most important follow up questions is: Why does it not work in MVVM Light RelayCommand! The CanExecute is only called once at initialization and then never again. Looking at the source code for RelayCommand in MVVM Light does not reveal any chocking differences compared to my own implementation. I should mention that Prism's DelegateCommand does not seem to work either.
(Bonus) Maybee I am approaching this problem the wrong way? I just basically want to enable/disable buttons based on Validation failiures.
XAML (snippet):
<TextBox Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0">
<Binding Path="X" UpdateSourceTrigger="PropertyChanged" NotifyOnValidationError="True">
<Binding.ValidationRules>
<ExceptionValidationRule></ExceptionValidationRule>
</Binding.ValidationRules>
</Binding>
</TextBox>
<Button Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="3" Command="{Binding CalculateCommand}">
Calculate
</Button>
RelayCommand:
public class MyRelayCommand : ICommand
{
readonly Action<object> Execute_;
readonly Predicate<object> CanExecute_;
public MyRelayCommand(Action<object> Execute, Predicate<object> CanExecute)
{
if (Execute == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("No action to execute for this command.");
Execute_ = Execute;
CanExecute_ = CanExecute;
}
public bool CanExecute(object parameter)
{
return (CanExecute_ == null) ? true : CanExecute_(parameter);
}
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
{
add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
}
public void Execute(object parameter)
{
Execute_(parameter);
}
}
ViewModel:
private DelegateCommand _calculateCommmand;
public DelegateCommand CalculateCommand
{
get
{
return _calculateCommmand ?? (_calculateCommmand = new DelegateCommand(
() =>
{
Sum = X + X;
},
() =>
{
try
{
Convert.ChangeType(X, TypeCode.Byte);
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}));
}
}
PS: If you wanna buy my X + X program when it is done email me at sales#xplusx.com
(2) I figured this one out myself. You can choose to include RelayCommand from two different namespaces, make sure you use
using GalaSoft.MvvmLight.CommandWpf;
I am still looking for a good answer to (1), how the plumbing works that raises CanExecutetChanged based on validation error.
I don't think it depends on the ICommand implementation. In yours, I see a public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged, where you tell the CommandManager to handle the invocation of your command's CanExecute() method. Without the CommandManager, you would have to handle this yourself, e.g. by providing your ICommand implementation with a public void RaiseCanExecuteChanged() method that your ViewModel has to call for every command it considers to be needed to recalculated, e.g. inside the ViewModel's OnPropertyChanged. Example: https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/124361/mvvm-am-i-doing-it-right
So the CommandManager does the magic for you. As soon as you invoke your ViewModel's PropertyChanged event, the "external code" handles the affected commands and asks them for a fresh CanExecute() value.
(1) I think it goes like this.
When we bind a RelayCommand : ICommand to Button.Command, the binding process will also attach an eventhandler to the ICommand.CanExecuteChanged. This is default behavior.
The eventhandler passed to CanExecutedChanged will be passed along and attached to the static event CommandManager.RequerySuggested.
When a validation error occurs and the NotifyOnValidationError is set an external force, or a jedi, will raise the RequerySuggested event which will broadcast to ALL active commands.
The Button recieves the event and consequently calls CanExecute to know if it shold disable/enable the button.
I would like to know more about the third bullet point above, so I will keep the question open for a little longer to give the experts a chance to chime in.
I am a little confused on how to implement an event as a command in my particular situation. I want to honour MVVM, but don't get how in this case.
I have a WPF 'view' - viewCustomerSearch. This has some text boxes on it, and when the user clicks 'Search' the results are populated in ListView. viewCustomerSearch is bound to viewmodelCustomerSearch, and it works great.
viewCustomerSearch is hosted on viewCustomer.
I want to know have viewCustomerSearch expose a custom command - CustomerSelectedCommand - that is 'fired' whenever the ListView in viesCustomerSearch is double clicked, and then handled by the viewmodel behind viewCustomer (which is viewmodelCustomer). This seems the theoretical MVVM pattern implemented correctly.
I have broken down the main problem into three smaller problems, but hopefully you can see they are all components of the same challenge.
FIRST PROBLEM: in order to have viewCustomerSearch expose a custom command I seem to have to put this code in viewCustomerSearch - which seems to 'break' MVVM (no code in the view code behind).
public readonly DependencyProperty CustomerSelectedCommandProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("CustomerSelectedCommand", typeof(ICommand), typeof(viewCustomerSearch));
public ICommand CustomerSelectedCommand
{
get { return (ICommand)GetValue(CustomerSelectedCommandProperty); }
set { SetValue(CustomerSelectedCommandProperty, value); }
}
SECOND PROBLEM (and this is the one that is really getting to me): Best explained by showing what I would do which breaks MVVM. I would have an event handler in the view:
private void lstResults_MouseDoubleClick(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
if (CustomerSelectedCommand != null) CustomerSelectedCommand.Execute(((ViewModels.viewmodelCustomerSearchResult)this.lstResults.SelectedItem).CustomerId);
}
Well ... I know that you shouldn't put this event handler here; rather it should have a Command to handle it in the viewmodelCustomerSearch. The two problems here are
because the 'CustomerSelectedCommand' ICommand is implemented in
viewCustomerSearch, viewmodelCustomerSearch can't see it to fire it.
I cannot see how to bind the MouseDoubleClick event to a command, instead of an event handler in the view code behind. I am reading about Attached Properties, but cannot see how they are to be applied here.
(Please note: I am using the common 'RelayCommand' elsewhere in the application; does this come into play here??)
THIRD PROBLEM: When I do use the non-MVVM way of firing the command in the code behind event handler, you can see that I am passing in the Selected Customer Id as an arguement into the command. How do I see that argument in the Command handler in viewCustomer? I create a new RelayCommand to handle it, but it seems the Execute method does not take arguments?
Given all of the above, I have to say that I do NOT personally subscribe to the 'MVVM means NO CODE IN THE VIEW'. That seems crazy to me; code that is entirely to do with the view, and the view only, should not - IMHO - go in the viewmodel. That said, though, this does seem like logic-y stuff (not view stuff).
Many thanks for some insight. Sorry for the long post; trying to balance enough information for you to help me with 'War and Peace'.
DS
In your view you can add a "Command" property in xaml and bind it to your ViewModel's command
Command="{Binding CustomerSelectedCommand}"
Parameters can be passed in multiple ways. Most of the time, I just have other items bound to my ViewModel and I can just use them directly. However there is also a property called CommandParameter, here's an example of specifying it in XAML.
CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=txtPassword}"
then in my ViewModel the definition of my Command looks like this
private void UserLogonCommandExecute(object parameter)
{
...
var password_box = parameter as PasswordBox;
...
}
It sounds like you already know how to set up a RelayCommand in your ViewModel so I won't go into that. I found How Do I: Build Data-driven WPF Application using the MVVM pattern helpful when I was getting started.
Per Comment Request Command Property Example
I'm just going to grab some working code, here's how you add a Command property to a button in XAML.
<Button Command="{Binding ConnectCommand}">
//Your button content and closing </Button> here
This assume you have set your DataContext to a ViewModel that has a Command called ConnectCommand. Here's an example for ConnectCommand. You'll need to replace the contents of ConnectCommandCanExecute and ConnectCommandExecute with whatever work you want done.
public ICommand ConnectCommand
{
get
{
if (_connectCommand == null)
{
_connectCommand = new RelayCommand(param => ConnectCommandExecute(),
param => ConnectCommandCanExecute);
}
return _connectCommand;
}
}
private bool ConnectCommandCanExecute
{
get { return !_instrumentModel.IsConnected; }
}
private void ConnectCommandExecute()
{
if (TcpSettingsChanged()) SaveTcpSettings();
_instrumentModel.Connect(_tcpData);
}
RelayClass
One part of making this simple is the RelayClass I have in one of my core library .dlls. I probably got this from one of the videos I watched. This can be cut and pasted in it's entirety, there is nothing here you need to customize, except you'll probably want to change the namespace this is in.
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Windows.Input;
namespace Syncor.MvvmLib
{
public class RelayCommand : ICommand
{
private readonly Action<object> _execute;
private readonly Predicate<object> _canExecute;
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
{
add
{
CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value;
}
remove
{
CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value;
}
}
public RelayCommand(Action<object> execute)
: this(execute, (Predicate<object>) null)
{
this._execute = execute;
}
public RelayCommand(Action<object> execute, Predicate<object> canExecute)
{
if (execute == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("execute");
this._execute = execute;
this._canExecute = canExecute;
}
[DebuggerStepThrough]
public bool CanExecute(object parameter)
{
if (this._canExecute != null)
return this._canExecute(parameter);
else
return true;
}
public void Execute(object parameter)
{
this._execute(parameter);
}
}
}
Why don't you name it "DoubleClickCommand" that way you don't put business logic in your control. And then bind this command to your viewmodel, Like Tod explained.
Regarding your code behind, there is a pure xaml solution, to be more precise it involves attached behaviors, but does not need to override a WPF class(which i like to avoid), search for "fire command on event" for example this.
One final thing: Code Behind does NOT break MVVM in any way, i wonder where this myth came from. Code behind is perfectly fine! MVVM is to separate view and logic, not telling you where to put your code. Design principles should help, not hinder you.
I have something like it will pop to the user for getting confirmation of changes. If he clicks no I am setting the selectedValue in view model to the previous selection. But its not getting displayed correctly in view. Please help.
Very simple solution for .NET 4.5.1+:
<ComboBox SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Delay=10}" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" />
It's works for me in all cases.
Just fire NotifyPropertyChanged without value assignment to rollback.
If the user clicks no and you try to revert the value and then call OnPropertyChanged, WPF will swallow the event since it is already responding to that event. One way to get around this is to use the dispatcher and call the event outside of the current event context.
System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => { OnPropertyChanged("ComSelectedValue"); }), null);
WPF seems to validate that the bound property has changed before updating the UI. So simply invoking an NotifyPropertyChanged()/OnPropertyChanged() doesn't do the trick.
The problem is that since the property hasn't changed, WPF doesn't think it needs to refresh the combo box.
here is the incredibly hackish way I handle it in my ViewModels;
private int _someProperty = -1;
public int SomeProperty
{
if (_someProperty != -1 && doYesNo() == Yes)
{
_someProperty = value;
}
else if (_someProperty != -1)
{
int oldValue = _someProperty;
_someProperty = -1; // Set to a different/invalid value so WPF sees a change
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => { SomeProperty = oldValue; }));
}
else
{
_someProperty = value;
}
NotifyPropertyChanged("SomeProperty");
}
Not pretty but it works reliably.
Assumptions:
- You show a dialog box (with a message and OKCancel buttons) when a user selects some value from ComboBox.
- If user presses OK, everything is OK. :)
- If user presses Cancel, you say vmPropSelectedValue=previousValue.
This won't work. Why?
Don't have exact answer, but I believe when you show the dialog the system has just changed the selected value and has just notified the Source (via binding infrastructure) about the changed value . If at this moment (when source has control) you now change the value of ViewModel property from your VM code, which you expect would trigger OnPropertyChanged of INotifyPropertyChanged, which you expect would ask the WPF to update the target with your requested value. However, the WPF has not yet completed the cycle - its still waiting for the Source to return the control back to it. So it simply rejects your request (otherwise it would go in infinite loop).
If this was confusing, try this:
Cycle starts:
1. User changes value on UI. WPF changes target.
2. binding infrastructure requests Source to update itself.
3. Source updates itself (VM property).
4. Source returns control back to binding infra.
Cycle End.
Experts: Can't find some documentation in this regard. Above is my belief how things work. Please rectify if incorrect.
Short Answer:
AFAIK, this can't be done via pure VM code alone. You will have to put some code-behind code.
Here's one way: http://www.amazedsaint.com/2008/06/wpf-combo-box-cancelling-selection.html
In most WPF applications you bind a view model to the user interface with a TwoWay mode and then you're set to go.
However this goes against the typical user experience, where when you edit something and you don't save, you don't see that editing reflected throughout your entire application, even if you don't save your changes to the Database.
The mechanism available in WPF is the UpdateSourceTrigger property of the Binding. With this property you can control when the User Interface updates the ViewModel that it is bound to. This allows you to update only when the user saves what he's editing or something similar.
An example of a XAML Binding with the UpdateSourceTrigger set to Explicit:
"{Binding Path=Privado, UpdateSourceTrigger=Explicit, Mode=TwoWay}"
And when you want to really save to the ViewModel you call:
UpdateSource();
What if you tried to raise the property changed event asynchronously? This is similar the examples from shaun and NebulaSleuth.
public int SomeProperty
{
get { return m_someProperty; }
set
{
if (value == m_someProperty)
return;
if (doYesNo() == No)
{
// Don't update m_someProperty but let the UI know it needs to retrieve the value again asynchronously.
Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action) (() => NotifyOfPropertyChange("SomeProperty")));
}
else
{
m_someProperty = value;
NotifyOfPropertyChange("SomeProperty");
}
}
}
Here is the general flow that I use:
I just let the change pass through the ViewModel and keep track of whatever's passed in before.
(If your business logic requires the selected item to not be in an invalid state, I suggest moving that to the Model side). This approach is also friendly to ListBoxes that are rendered using Radio Buttons as making the SelectedItem setter exit as soon as possible will not prevent radio buttons from being highlighted when a message box pops out.
I immediately call the OnPropertyChanged event regardless of the value passed in.
I put any undo logic in a handler and call that using SynchronizationContext.Post()
(BTW: SynchronizationContext.Post also works for Windows Store Apps. So if you have shared ViewModel code, this approach would still work).
public class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
public List<string> Items { get; set; }
private string _selectedItem;
private string _previouslySelectedItem;
public string SelectedItem
{
get
{
return _selectedItem;
}
set
{
_previouslySelectedItem = _selectedItem;
_selectedItem = value;
if (PropertyChanged != null)
{
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("SelectedItem"));
}
SynchronizationContext.Current.Post(selectionChanged, null);
}
}
private void selectionChanged(object state)
{
if (SelectedItem != Items[0])
{
MessageBox.Show("Cannot select that");
SelectedItem = Items[0];
}
}
public ViewModel()
{
Items = new List<string>();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
{
Items.Add(string.Format("Item {0}", i));
}
}
}
I realize this is an old post but it seems no one has done this the right way. I used System.Interactivity.Triggers and Prism to process the SelectionChanged event and manually trigger the SelectedItem. This will prevent undesired Selected Item Changes in both the UI and the View-Model.
My view:
<Window x:Class="Lind.WPFTextBlockTest.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:vm="clr-namespace:Lind.WPFTextBlockTest"
xmlns:i="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/interactivity"
xmlns:prism="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Interactivity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Interactivity"
Title="MainWindow" Height="649" Width="397">
<Window.DataContext>
<vm:MainWindowViewModel/>
</Window.DataContext>
<StackPanel>
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Data}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedData, Mode=OneWay}">
<i:Interaction.Triggers>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="SelectionChanged">
<prism:InvokeCommandAction Command="{Binding TryChangeSelectedData}"/>
</i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>
</ComboBox>
</StackPanel>
My View-Model (BindeableBase and DelegateCommand from Prism 5):
public class MainWindowViewModel : BindableBase
{
public ObservableCollection<string> Data { get; private set; }
private string selectedData;
public string SelectedData
{
get { return selectedData; }
set
{
SetProperty(ref selectedData, value);
}
}
public DelegateCommand<SelectionChangedEventArgs> TryChangeSelectedData { get; private set; }
public MainWindowViewModel()
{
Data = new ObservableCollection<string>() { "Foo", "Bar", "Dick", "Head" };
SelectedData = Data.First();
TryChangeSelectedData = new DelegateCommand<SelectionChangedEventArgs>(args =>
{
var newValue = args.AddedItems.Cast<string>().FirstOrDefault();
if (newValue == "Dick")
this.OnPropertyChanged(() => this.SelectedData);
else
SelectedData = newValue;
});
}
}
I have control in SL4. I want data validation on button click. Big problem is normally SL4 give validation using binding property.
like example given shown in this example
http://weblogs.asp.net/dwahlin/archive/2010/08/15/validating-data-in-silverlight-4-applications-idataerrorinfo.aspx
<TextBox Text="{Binding Name,Mode=TwoWay,ValidatesOnDataErrors=true}"
Height="23"
Width="120"
HorizontalAlignment="Left"
VerticalAlignment="Top" />
BUT I WANT TO SHOW ERROR MESSAGE LIKE THIS ....
using my own code like on button click i check
(textbox1.text == null ) then set this style of error to textbox1
One way of deferring validation is to set the property UpdateSourceTrigger=Explicit in the bindings. If you do this, the bindings won't update the source objects, and hence won't cause validation errors, until you explicitly tell the bindings to do so. When your button is clicked, you force an update on the bindings, using a line such as the following for each control:
someTextBox.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
You then have your property setters throwing exceptions for invalid data.
This approach can be a bit of a pain if there are quite a lot of controls to force binding updates on.
Also, forcing an update on the bindings has to be done in the code-behind of a control. If you're using a Command with the button as well then you might run in to an issue. Buttons can have both a Command and a Click event handler, and both will execute when the button is clicked on, but I don't know the order in which this happens or even if an order can be guaranteed. A quick experiment suggested that the event handler was executed before the command, but I don't know whether this is undefined behaviour. There is therefore the chance that the command will be fired before the bindings have been updated.
An approach to programmaticaly creating validation tooltips is to bind another property of the textbox and then deliberately cause an error with this binding.
'sapient' posted a complete solution, including code on the Silverlight forums (search for the post dated 07-08-2009 4:56 PM). In short, he/she creates a helper object with a property whose getter throws an exception, binds the Tag property of the textbox to this helper object and then forces an update on the binding.
'sapient's code was written before Silverlight 4 was released. We'll 'upgrade' his/her code to Silverlight 4. The class ControlValidationHelper becomes the following:
public class ControlValidationHelper : IDataErrorInfo
{
public string Message { get; set; }
public object ValidationError { get; set; }
public string Error
{
get { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
public string this[string columnName]
{
get { return Message; }
}
}
It's easy enough to knock up a quick demo application to try this out. I created the following three controls:
<TextBox x:Name="tbx" Text="{Binding Path=Text, ValidatesOnDataErrors=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True, Mode=TwoWay}" />
<Button Click="ForceError_Click">Force error</Button>
<Button Click="ClearError_Click">Clear error</Button>
The Text property and the event handlers for the two buttons live in the code-behind and are as follows:
public string Text { get; set; }
private void ForceError_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var helper = new ControlValidationHelper() { Message = "oh no!" };
tbx.SetBinding(Control.TagProperty, new Binding("ValidationError")
{
Mode = BindingMode.TwoWay,
NotifyOnValidationError = true,
ValidatesOnDataErrors = true,
UpdateSourceTrigger = UpdateSourceTrigger.Explicit,
Source = helper
});
tbx.GetBindingExpression(Control.TagProperty).UpdateSource();
}
private void ClearError_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
BindingExpression b = tbx.GetBindingExpression(Control.TagProperty);
if (b != null)
{
((ControlValidationHelper)b.DataItem).Message = null;
b.UpdateSource();
}
}
The 'Force error' button should make a validation error appear on the textbox, and the 'Clear error' button should make it go away.
One potential downside of this approach occurs if you are using a ValidationSummary. The ValidationSummary will list all validation errors against ValidationError instead of against the name of each property.
Although my answer wasn't regarded as preferable, I'm still sure that the MVVM pattern is the best choice to perform validation.
In my code you should use the model validator from this post about validation and any mvvm framework, for example MVVM Light.
It is much easier to add validation rules using the view model and model validator classes:
public class PersonViewModel : ViewModelBase, INotifyDataErrorInfo
{
private ModelValidator _validator = new ModelValidator();
public PersonViewModel()
{
this._validator.AddValidationFor(() => this.Age)
.Must(() => this.Age > 0)
.Show("Age must be greater than zero");
}
}
And you can validate the model if and only if a user explicitly clicks a button:
#region INotifyDataErrorInfo
public IEnumerable GetErrors(string propertyName)
{
return this._validator.GetErrors(propertyName);
}
public bool HasErrors
{
get { return this._validator.ErrorMessages.Count > 0; }
}
public event EventHandler<DataErrorsChangedEventArgs> ErrorsChanged = delegate { };
protected void OnErrorsChanged(string propertyName)
{
ErrorsChanged(this, new DataErrorsChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
this.RaisePropertyChanged("HasErrors");
}
#endregion
public bool Validate()
{
var result = this._validator.ValidateAll();
this._validator.PropertyNames.ForEach(OnErrorsChanged);
return result;
}
As everyone can see, there is nothing difficult here, just 20-30 lines of code.
Moreover, the MVVM approach is much more flexible and you can reuse some common validation scenaries among several view models.
i'm just starting with the mvvm model in Silverlight.
In step 1 i got a listbox bound to my viewmodel, but now i want to propagate a click in a button and a selecteditemchanged of the listbox back to the viewmodel.
I guess i have to bind the click event of the button and the selecteditemchanged of the listbox to 2 methods in my viewmodel somehow?
For the selecteditemchanged of the listbox i think there must also be a 'return call' possible when the viewmodel tries to set the selecteditem to another value?
i come from a asp.net (mvc) background, but can't figure out how to do it in silverlight.
Roboblob provides excellent step-by-step solution for Silverlight 4. It strictly follows MVVM paradigm.
I would not bind or tie the VM in any way directly to the events of controls within the View. Instead, have a separate event that is raised by the View in response to the button click.
[disclaimer: this code is all done straight from my head, not copy & pasted from VS - treat it as an example!!]
So in pseudo code, the View will look like this:
private void MyView_Loaded(...)
{
MyButton.Click += new EventHandler(MyButton_Click);
}
private void MyButton_Click(...)
{
//Raise my event:
OnUserPressedGo();
}
private void OnUserPressedGo()
{
if (UserPressedTheGoButton != null)
this.UserPressedTheGoButton(this, EventArgs.Empty);
}
public EventHandler UserPressedTheGoButton;
and the VM would have a line like this:
MyView.UserPressedTheGoButton += new EventHandler(myHandler);
this may seem a little long-winded, why not do it a bit more directly? The main reason for this is you do not want to tie your VM too tightly (if at all) to the contents of the View, otherwise it becomes difficult to change the View. Having one UI agnostic event like this means the button can change at any time without affecting the VM - you could change it from a button to a hyperlink or that kool kat designer you hire may change it to something totally weird and funky, it doesn't matter.
Now, let's talk about the SelectedItemChanged event of the listbox. Chances are you want to intercept an event for this so that you can modify the data bound to another control in the View. If this is a correct assumption, then read on - if i'm wrong then stop reading and reuse the example from above :)
The odds are that you may be able to get away with not needing a handler for that event. If you bind the SelectedItem of the listbox to a property in the VM:
<ListBox ItemSource={Binding SomeList} SelectedItem={Binding MyListSelectedItem} />
and then in the MyListSelectedItem property of the VM:
public object MyListSelectedItem
{
get { return _myListSelectedItem; }
set
{
bool changed = _myListSelectedItem != value;
if (changed)
{
_myListSelectedItem = value;
OnPropertyChanged("MyListSelectedItem");
}
}
}
private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
if (this.NotifyPropertyChanged != null)
this.NotifyPropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
To get that NotifyPropertyChanged event, just implement the INotifyPropertyChanged interface on your VM (which you should have done already). That is the basic stuff out of the way... what you then follow this up with is a NotifyPropertyChanged event handler on the VM itself:
private void ViewModel_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
switch (e.PropertyName)
{
case "MyListSelectedItem":
//at this point i know the value of MyListSelectedItem has changed, so
//i can now retrieve its value and use it to modify a secondary
//piece of data:
MySecondaryList = AllAvailableItemsForSecondaryList.Select(p => p.Id == MyListSelectedItem.Id);
break;
}
}
All you need now is for MySecondaryList to also notify that its value has changed:
public List<someObject> MySecondaryList
{
get { return _mySecondaryList; }
set
{
bool changed = .......;
if (changed)
{
... etc ...
OnNotifyPropertyChanged("MySecondaryList");
}
}
}
and anything bound to it will automatically be updated. Once again, it may seem that this is the long way to do things, but it means you have avoided having any handlers for UI events from the View, you have kept the abstraction between the View and the ViewModel.
I hope this has made some sense to you. With my code, i try to have the ViewModel knowing absolutely zero about the View, and the View only knowing the bare minimum about the ViewModel (the View recieves the ViewModel as an interface, so it can only know what the interface has specified).
Regarding binding the button click event I can recommend Laurent Bugnion's MVVM Light Toolkit (http://www.galasoft.ch/mvvm/getstarted/) as a way of dealing with this, I'll provide a little example, but Laurent's documentation is most likely a better way of understanding his framework.
Reference a couple of assemblies in your xaml page
xmlns:command="clr-namespace:GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Command;assembly=GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras"
xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity"
add a blend behaviour to the button
<Button Content="Press Me">
<i:Interaction.Triggers>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="Click">
<command:EventToCommand Command="{Binding ViewModelEventName}"/>
</i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>
</Button>
and create the event within your viewmodel which will be called when the button is clicked
public RelayCommand ViewModelEventName { get; protected set; }
...
public PageViewModel()
{
ViewModelEventName = new RelayCommand(
() => DoWork()
);
}
This supports passing parameters, checking whether execution is allowed etc also.
Although I haven't used it myself, I think the Prism framework also allows you to do something similar.