WPF command pattern - wpf

Question

I have an application wide flag that is an app setting.
MyApp.Properties.Settings.Default.SoundMuted
The flag is if my apps sound is muted. I have a number of windows where sounds are being played through .Net’s sound player. I was thinking the flag would be wired up to a toolbar button with a command. I was thinking for muting notification to have my classes that play sound wire up to a class (e.g. SoundManager) hanging off the app that implements NotifyPropertyChange. Then if the user clicks the toolbar button, I would set the Muted property in my SoundManager and have all the soundplayer classes get the PropertyChange and mute.
Is there a better pattern for this? Say I could wire all the soundplayers up to the command and that command would fire.
Also is there some slick way to just wire that app setting as a bindable property in xaml?

Answer 1

Although I've always done the same approach as in my other answer in knocking up that example I have realized that it is unnesssasary. You can bind to the Settings object directly, like this:
<Window x:Class="Test_WpfApplication2.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyApp"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
<local:Settings x:Key="SettingsRes"/>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<Menu>
<MenuItem Header="Audio">
<MenuItem Header="Mute" IsCheckable="True"
IsChecked="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsRes}}"/>
</MenuItem>
</Menu>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsRes}}" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="18,156,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="75" />
</Grid>
</Window>
Again, multiple instances of that resource still work well together, e.g. bind the TextBlock to a second resource:
<Window x:Class="Test_WpfApplication2.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyApp"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
<local:Settings x:Key="SettingsRes"/>
<local:Settings x:Key="SettingsRes2"/>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<Menu>
<MenuItem Header="Audio">
<MenuItem Header="Mute" IsCheckable="True" IsChecked="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsRes}}"/>
</MenuItem>
</Menu>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsRes2}}" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="18,156,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="75" />
</Grid>
</Window>

Answer 2

One way is to make a wrapper class to provide bindable access to the static Settings.Default.
I have since realized this is more work than is needed, please see my other answer
namespace MyApp
{
internal sealed class ResourceWrapper
{
public Settings Default
{
get
{
return Settings.Default;
}
}
}
}
Now, we need to add that as a resource somewhere, could be done in App.xaml, here I've done local to the window that is using it, don't forget the namespace:
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyApp"
<Window.Resources>
<local:ResourceWrapper x:Key="SettingsWrapper"/>
</Window.Resources>
Now we need to bind to that, this shows it's use in a MenuItem on that same window:
<Menu>
<MenuItem Header="Audio">
<MenuItem Header="Mute" IsCheckable="True"
IsChecked="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsWrapper}}"/>
</MenuItem>
</Menu>
Like I said, you can add the resource at the app level or you can create multiple of these ResourceWrappers in different windows/controls, they will all point to the same static underneith.
That full xaml for window with a test TextBlock:
<Window x:Class="Test_WpfApplication2.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyApp"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
<local:ResourceWrapper x:Key="SettingsWrapper"/>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<Menu>
<MenuItem Header="Audio">
<MenuItem Header="Mute" IsCheckable="True" IsChecked="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsWrapper}}"/>
</MenuItem>
</Menu>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Default.SoundMuted, Source={StaticResource ResourceKey=SettingsWrapper}}" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="18,156,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="75" />
</Grid>
</Window>