ICommand help to replace button events - wpf

Question

I am just after some information regarding ICommands,
On my WPF application, I have onClick events that adds to a ObservableCollection. So (ObservableCollection.Add()
However, I have 2 similar events to add to a collection also. So I hear I could use the ICommand interface to "execute" for adding/Editing/Removing etc, so I don't need these separate events.
Can someone provide me a example of how I can do this in MVVM. (All adds are in my ViewModel)
Thanks

Answer 1

You might want to look into the "RelayCommand" - it's a common implementation of an ICommand that will simplify your view-model code, allowing you to specify delegates for the ICommand's "Execute" and "CanExecute" methods. You'll find plenty of implementations on the web, but this is the one I use:
public class RelayCommand : ICommand
{
private readonly Action<object> _execute;
private readonly Predicate<object> _canExecute;
public RelayCommand(Action<object> execute, Predicate<object> canExecute = null)
{
if (execute == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("execute");
}
this._execute = execute;
this._canExecute = canExecute;
}
public virtual bool CanExecute(object parameter)
{
return this._canExecute == null || this._canExecute(parameter);
}
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
{
add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
}
public virtual void Execute(object parameter)
{
this._execute(parameter);
}
}
In your VM, expose a command like this:-
public ICommand FooCommand
{
get
{
if (_fooCommand == null)
{
_fooCommand = new RelayCommand(ExecuteFooCommand, CanDoFooCommand);
}
return _fooCommand;
}
}
private void ExecuteFooCommand(object commandParameter)
{
// Code to execute the command.
}
private bool CanDoFooCommand()
{
// Code that indicates whether the command can be executed.
// This will manifest itself in the view by enabling/disabling the button.
}
As the RelayCommand ctr parameters are delegates, you can of course do stuff like this:-
new RelayCommand(o => { // do something }, o => true);
Finally, bind your command to your view button:-
<Button Content="Click me" Command="{Binding FooCommand}" ... />
You can also pass parameters to the command delegate:-
<Button Content="Click me" Command="{Binding FooCommand}" CommandParamter="123" />
(Written out from memory so may not be 100% syntactically correct!)
Going one step further...
To simplify things even more, I use a dynamic property to expose VM commands to the view. In my VM base class I have the following property:-
public dynamic Commands
{
get
{
return _commands;
}
}
Then in a VM's constructor I can create all of its commands like this:-
Commands.FooCommand = new RelayCommand(.....
Commands.BarCommand = ..etc..
In my XAML I bind commands like this:- Command={Binding Commands.FooCommand}.
It's a timesaver as it just means I can hang as many commands off of a single property as I want, rather than expose each one as a separate property as in my earlier example.