Making an easy to use UserControl via Properties - silverlight

in my Silverlight 4 app, I try to create a simple UserControl, which will be consumed by my Application. To keep things simple, it shall have a "header" and a placeholder, where I want to place any kind of control.
<User Control ...>
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<TextBlock x:Name="TextBlockHeader" Text="{Binding Title}" />
<ContentPresenter x:Name="ContentPresenterObject" />
</Grid>
</UserControl>
In the code behind, I have created a property for the text of the TextBlock
public string Title
{
get { return (string)GetValue(TitleProperty); }
set { SetValue(TitleProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty TitleProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Title", typeof(string), typeof(MyAccordion), null);
This way, I can set the Title property, when I use the Control in my application.
<local:MyAccordion Title="Test"/>
But it seems, that the binding at the textblock Text="{Binding Title}" doesn't make the text "Test" to be displayed as the textblocks text.
My question is: How can I make the Property Title to be displayed as the textboxes text and how do I do this for the - any type of user control containable - contencontrol?
Thanks in advance,
Frank

Maybe DataContext of control or page was not set. - First of all you should read more about a Binding ("http://www.silverlight.net/learn/data-networking/binding/data-binding-to-controls-(silverlight-quickstart)"). If you are working on real project and will design a some arhitecture, you should read about MVVM pattern.

The answer is ElementPropertyBinding. I need to reference the User Control in the Binding or add the binding in the constructor.
Create the binding in XAML:
<User Control ... x:Name="userControl">
...
<TextBlock x:Name="TextBlockHeader" Text="{Binding Title, ElementName=userControl}" />
</UserControl>
Create the binding in the constructor (Code behind)
public MyUserControl()
{
// Required to initialize variables
InitializeComponent();
TextBlockHeader.SetBinding(TextBlock.TextProperty, new System.Windows.Data.Binding() { Source = this, Path = new PropertyPath("Title") });
}
I still need to find out how to add a child control, but that's another question.

Related

Mark as read only all controls WPF

OK this is an interesting one.
I have a wpf application with tabs. What I want to do is have a DB setting that turns off the ability to edit all textboxs. What I was thinking was to bring in the value, if the value is true then I would turn all the text boxes to read only.
I have seen this example:
private void DisableControls(Control con)
{
foreach (Control c in controls)
{
DisableControls(c);
}
con.Enabled = false;
}
However I get red squiggly line under controls and again under Enabled. I will preface this by saying I am new to WPF.
Does anyone have a solution to this (or even a better way) any pointing in the right way would help.
Create a view model that wraps your database models
public class MyViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public bool MakeReadOnly {get;set;}
}
Reference your view model in the View
<Window x:Class="Example.MainWindow"
...
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Example"
...>
<Window.Resources>
<local:MyViewModel x:Key="ViewModel"/>
</Window.Resources>
...
</Window>
Bind the boolean value to your textboxes IsReadOnly property
<TextBox x:Name="FirstName" IsReadOnly="{Binding MakeReadOnly">
The user may not modify the contents of this TextBox if marked as readonly
</TextBox>
<TextBox x:Name="LastName" IsReadOnly="{Binding MakeReadOnly">
The user may not modify the contents of this TextBox if marked as readonly
</TextBox>
More on View Models here
Hope this helps!

Understanding dependancy objects

I'm totally lost with dependancy objects and binding. I often get things working without understanding why and how, this question is about knowing what should be happening.
I have a tiny user control with the following XAML
<Grid>
<Image Source="{Binding Icon}"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}"></TextBlock>
</Grid>
My code behind has the following
public static readonly DependencyProperty IconProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("Icon", typeof(Image), typeof(MenuItem));
public Image Icon
{
get { return (Image)GetValue(IconProperty); }
set { SetValue(IconProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty TitleProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("Title", typeof(String), typeof(MenuItem));
public string Title
{
get { return (string)GetValue(IconProperty); }
set { SetValue(IconProperty, value); }
}
My MainWindow is empty, other than a reference to this control and to the ResourceDictionary. In the MainWindow code behind, I set the DataContext in the constructor.
<Window x:Class="AppUi.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:loc="clr-namespace:AppUi.Control"
Title="">
//set up to Resource Dictionary - all binding and styling works fine :)
<loc:MenuItem Icon="{Binding MailIcon}" Title="{Binding MailTitle}"></loc:MenuItem>
In the ModelView for the MainWindow, I have the following 2 properties
private Image_mailIcon;
public Image MailIcon{
//inotifyproperty implementation
}
private string _mailTitle;
public string MailTitle{
//inotifyproperty implementation
}
My question is, in the UserControl, how do I do the binding? Since it's a user control within a MainWindow, and the MainWindow already has a datacontext, I think the UserControl will inherit the DataContext from the parent (From what I have read).
So, in my UserControl XAML, should I be binding to the MainWindow's Code Behind properties OR to the ViewModel properties?
In other words, should my UserControl be
<Grid>
<Image Source="{Binding MailIcon}"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding MailTitle}"></TextBlock>
</Grid>
OR
<Grid>
<Image Source="{Binding Icon}"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}"></TextBlock>
</Grid>
Or, because I'm using a DataContext and the UserControl inherits, do I even need the Dependancy Properties at all?
You normally don't want to overwrite DataContext passed through visual tree so you can use either ElementName or RelativeSource binding inside UserControl to change binding context. The easiest way to achive this is give UserControl some name and use it ElementName binding
<UserControl ... x:Name="myUserControl">
<!-- ... -->
<Grid>
<Image Source="{Binding Icon, ElementName=myUserControl}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title, ElementName=myUserControl}"/>
</Grid>
<!-- ... -->
</UserControl>
This way binding is DataContext independent. You can also create UserControl with assumption it will always work with only specific type of DataContext and then you just use Path from that view model type but then DataContext of that UserControl must always be of the view model it's designed for (mostly inherited through visual tree)
<UserControl ...>
<!-- ... -->
<Grid>
<Image Source="{Binding MailIcon}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding MailTitle}"/>
</Grid>
<!-- ... -->
</UserControl>
I would also change type of Icon property from Image to ImageSource for example. You already have Image control inside your UserControl and you just want to bind its Source
in the UserControl, how do I do the binding? ... the UserControl will inherit the DataContext from the parent
That is correct, the UserControl will inherit the DataContext from the parent Window. Therefore you can data bind from the UserControl directly to the parent Window.DataContext. Please note that you would bind to whatever object has been set as the DataContext, regardless of whether that was the code behind or a separate view model class.
However, you don't have to data bind to the parent's DataContext object in this situation... you have other options. You could data bind to your own UserControl DependencyPropertys using a RelativeSource Binding like this:
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title, RelativeSource={RelativeSource
AncestorType={x:Type YourPrefix:YourUserControl}}}" />
You could also name your UserControl and reference its properties like this:
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Title, ElementName=YourUserControlName}" />
While this example seems to be more concise, don't overlook the first example, as RelativeSource is a useful and powerful friend to have.
should I be binding to the MainWindow's Code Behind properties OR to the ViewModel properties?
That's your choice... what do you want or need to data bind to? you just need to know that a direct data binding will use the auto set DataContext value, so if you don't want to use that, then you can just specify a different data source for the Binding as shown above.
Finally, regarding the need to use DependencyPropertys... you only need to declare them if you are developing a UserControl that needs to provide data binding abilities.

WPF tab control and MVVM selection

I have a TabControl in an MVVM WPF application. It is defined as follows.
<TabControl Style="{StaticResource PortfolioSelectionTabControl}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedParameterTab}" >
<TabItem Header="Trades" Style="{StaticResource PortfolioSelectionTabItem}">
<ContentControl Margin="0,10,0,5" Name="NSDetailTradeRegion" cal:RegionManager.RegionName="NSDetailTradeRegion" />
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Ccy Rates" Style="{StaticResource PortfolioSelectionTabItem}">
<ContentControl Margin="0,10,0,5" Name="NSDetailCcyRegion" cal:RegionManager.RegionName="NSDetailCcyRegion" />
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Correlations / Shocks" Style="{StaticResource PortfolioSelectionTabItem}">
<ContentControl Name="NSDetailCorrelationRegion" cal:RegionManager.RegionName="NSDetailCorrelationRegion" />
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Facility Overrides" Style="{StaticResource PortfolioSelectionTabItem}" IsEnabled="False">
<ContentControl Name="NSDetailFacilityOverrides" cal:RegionManager.RegionName="NSDetailFacilityOverrides" />
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
So each tab item content has its own view associated with it. Each of those views has the MEF [Export] attribute and is associated with the relevant region through view discovery, so the above code is all I need to have the tab control load and switch between them. They all reference the same shared ViewModel object behind them and so all interact seamlessly.
My problem is that when the user navigates to the parent window, I want the tab control to default to the second tab item. That is easy enough to do when the window is first loaded, by specifying in XAML IsSelected="True" in TabItem number 2. It is less easy to do when the user navigates away from the screen and then comes back to it.
I thought about having a SelectedItem={Binding SelectedTabItem} property on the tab control, so I could programmatically set the selected tab in the ViewModel, but the problem is I have no knowledge of the TabItem objects in the ViewModel as they are declared above in the XAML only, so I have no TabItem object to pass to the setter property.
One idea I had was to make the child Views (that form the content of each of the tab items above) have a style on the UserControl level of their XAML, something along the following.
<Style TargetType={x:Type UserControl}>
<Style.Triggers>
<DataTrigger Property="IsSelected" Value="True">
<Setter Property="{ElementName={FindAncestor, Parent, typeof(TabItem)}, Path=IsSelected", Value="True" />
</DataTrigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
I know the findancestor bit isn't correct; I've just put it there to specify my intent, but I am not sure of the exact syntax. Basically for each UserControl to have a trigger that listens to a property on the ViewModel (not sure how I would distinguish each different UserControl as obviously they can't all listen to the same property or they would all select simultaneously when the property is set to True, but having a property for each usercontrol seems ugly) and then finds its parent TabItem container and sets the IsSelected value to true.
Am I on the right track with a solution here? Is it possible to do what I am pondering? Is there a tidier solution?
If you look at the TabControl Class page on MSDN, you'll find a property called SelectedIndex which is an int. Therefore, simply add an int property into your view model and Bind it to the TabControl.SelectedIndex property and then you can select whichever tab you like at any time from the view model:
<TabControl SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedIndex}">
...
</TabControl>
UPDATE >>>
Setting a 'startup' tab is even easier using this method:
In view model:
private int selectedIndex = 2; // Set the field to whichever tab you want to start on
public int SelectedIndex { get; set; } // Implement INotifyPropertyChanged here
Just FYI,
I gone through the same issue where I add tabs dynamically using ObservableCollection source but last added Tab do not get selected.
I have done same changes what Sheridan said to select Tab as per SelectedIndex. Now last added Tab gets selected but it was not getting focused.
So to focus the Tab we have to add set Binding IsAsync property True.
<TabControl ItemsSource="{Binding Workspaces}" Margin="5" SelectedIndex="{Binding TabIndex, Mode=OneWay,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged, IsAsync=True}">
The below code sample will create a dynamic tab using MVVM.
XAML
<TabControl Margin="20" x:Name="tabCategory"
ItemsSource="{Binding tabCategory}"
SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedCategory}">
<TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<HeaderedContentControl Header="{Binding TabHeader}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<TabControl.ContentTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<ContentControl Content="{Binding TabContent}" />
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ContentTemplate>
</TabControl>
Modal Class
TabCategoryItem represents each tab item. On two properties, TabHeader will display a tab caption and TabContent contains the content/control to fill in each tab.
Public Class TabCategoryItem
Public Property TabHeader As String
Public Property TabContent As UIElement
End Class
VM Class
Public Class vmClass
Public Property tabCategory As ObjectModel.ObservableCollection(Of TabCategoryItem)
Public Property SelectedCategory As TabCategoryItem
End Class
The below code will fill and bind the content. I am creating two tabs, tab1 and tab2. Both tabs will contain text boxes. You can use any UIelement instead of text boxes.
Dim vm As New vmClass
vm.tabCategory = New ObjectModel.ObservableCollection(Of TabCategoryItem)
'VM.tabCategory colection will create all tabs
vm.tabCategory.Add(New TabCategoryItem() With {.TabHeader = "Tab1", .TabContent = new TextBlock().Text = "My first Tab control1"})
vm.tabCategory.Add(New TabCategoryItem() With {.TabHeader = "Tab2", .TabContent = new TextBlock().Text = "My first Tab control2"})
mywindow.DataContent = vm
The accepted answer is not working with DependencyObject on your ViewModel .
I'm using MVVM with DependencyObject and Just setting the TabControl didn't work for me.The problem I had was the the property was not getting update on the View when I was setting the tab selectedIndex from the ViewModel.
I did set the Mode to be two ways but nothing was working.
<TabControl SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedTab,Mode=TwoWay}" >
...
</TabControl>
The ViewModel property "SelectedTab" was getting updated all the time when I navigated between tabs. This was confirming my binding was working properly. Each time I would navigate the tabs both the Get and Set would get called in my ViewModel. But if I try to set the SelectedIndex in the ViewModel it would not update the view.
ie: SelectedTab=0 or SelectedTab=1 etc...
When doing the set from the ViewModel the SelectedTab 'set' method would be called, but the view would never do the 'get'.
All I could find online was example using INotifyPropertyChanged but I do not wish to use that with my ViewModel.
I found the solutions in this page: http://blog.lexique-du-net.com/index.php?post/2010/02/24/DependencyProperties-or-INotifyPropertyChanged
With DependencyObject, you need to register the DependencyProperties. Not for all properties but I guess for a tabcontrol property you need to.
Below my code:
view.xaml
//Not sure below if I need to mention the TwoWay mode
<TabControl SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedTab,Mode=TwoWay}" >
...
</TabControl>
ViewModel.cs
public class ViewModel : DependencyObject
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedTabDP = DependencyProperty.Register("SelectedTab", typeof(int), typeof(ViewModel));
public int SelectedTab
{
get { return (int)GetValue(SelectedTabDP); }
set { SetValue(SelectedTabDP, value); }
}
}
Basically all I had to do was to actually register the dependency property (DependencyProperty) as you can see above.
What made this hard to figure out was that I have a bunch of other Properties on that view and I didn't need to register them like that to make it work two ways. For some reason on the TabControl I had to register the property like I did above.
Hope this help someone else.
Turns out my problem were because my components have names:
x:Name="xxxxxxxx"
Giving names to components at the same time of biding them with DependencyObject seems to be the main cause of all my issues.
In order to improve semantic of my viewmodel and to not work with an int when using code to check for the selected tab, I made some additions to the accepted answer so to use an Enum instead of an int.
These are the steps:
Define an Enum representing the different tabs:
public enum RulesVisibilityMode {
Active,
History
}
Expose the SelectedTab as a property using the enum instead of the int:
public RulesVisibilityMode SelectedTab { get; set; }
Create a converter to convert from an int to your enum (I don't need the ConvertBack because I never select the active tab from the code, but you can add it too):
internal class RulesVisibilityModeConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException("Conversion from visibility mode to selected index has not been implemented");
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
int selectedTabIndex;
if (int.TryParse(value.ToString(), out selectedTabIndex))
{
return (RulesVisibilityMode)selectedTabIndex;
}
return null;
}
}
Bind the tabcontrol to the SelectedTab property through the converter:
<TabControl SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedTab, Mode=OneWayToSource, Converter={StaticResource RulesVisibilityModeConverter}}" ...
Now every time you need to check for the selected tab in the code you deal with a readable enum:
if (this.SelectedTab != RulesVisibilityMode.Active) ...

Bind user control dependency properties in MVVM style Windows Phone app

I'm having some issues with binding some custom controls in a Windows Phone app right now. Usually this is never an issue but apparently my mind can't comprehend this today.
So I'm doing an MVVM style setup which is good. I have my page with a view and also a viewmodel. Now on a WebClient callback I assign the dataContext of my view to the list of models in my ViewModel, nice and simple thus far...now in my view I created a ListBox with a custom control in the datatemplate which is basically a cell in the list. I once again set my user controls dataContext to binding, and binding all the models values to the regular UI elements works no problem.
Here's a sample:
<Grid Grid.Column="0">
<Image Source="{Binding SmallPath}" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
</Grid>
<Grid Grid.Column="1">
<StackPanel Margin="12,0,0,0">
<TextBlock x:Name="MemberId_TextBlock" Text="{Binding MemberId}" FontSize="28"
Margin="0,-8,0,0"
Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"/>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Margin="0,-11,0,0">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding DaysReported}" FontSize="42"
Margin="0,0,0,0"
Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneAccentBrush}"/>
<TextBlock Text="days" FontSize="24"
Margin="3,19,0,0"
Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneSubtleBrush}"/>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
That's in my user control, and here's the the view where the usercontrol is housed:
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
<ListBox Name="TopSpotter_ListBox" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel>
<!--<TextBlock Text="{Binding MemberId}"/>-->
<controls:TopSpotterItemControl DataContext="{Binding}"/>
<Grid Height="18"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
</Grid>
Now this is good enough but what I want to do in my view is set data from my model like Booleans that determine whether or not I should show certain Grids etc. So if I try to set a dependency property explicitly in my control it fires and will run logic in the Getter/Setters for instance. HOWEVER if I try to set these custom objects from a binding source it won't actually set.
Here's what works:
<controls:TopSpotterItemControl ChampVisibility="True">
This way will trigger the ChampVisibility property and then in the code behind of the user control I can set visibilities.
Here's what fails but I want to work:
<controls:TopSpotterItemControl ChampVisibility="{Binding IsChamp">
In addition I can still set the DataContext to {Binding} and the result will be unchanged.
In this scenario IsChamp is part of my model that I would like to bind to this user control which I guess comes from the dataContext being set on the view from the viewModel. I'm not sure what I can do to get this so the bindings work etc. without having to set custom properties.
Finally, here's my user control:
public partial class TopSpotterItemControl : UserControl
{
public string MemberId
{
get
{
return this.MemberId_TextBlock.Text;
}
set
{
this.MemberId_TextBlock.Text = value;
}
}
public bool ChampVisibility {
set
{
if (value)
{
this.Champ_Grid.Visibility = System.Windows.Visibility.Visible;
}
}
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty MemberNameProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("MemberId", typeof(string), typeof(TopSpotterItemControl), new PropertyMetadata(null));
public static readonly DependencyProperty ChampVisibilityProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("ChampVisibility", typeof(bool), typeof(TopSpotterItemControl), new PropertyMetadata(null));
public TopSpotterItemControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
}
Bit long winded and I hope I made things on the issue clear. My one major hang up so far, and I'd like to abstract as much control as I can to the user control via dependency properties explicitly set in xaml, rather than setting up binding in its xaml that depend on the knowledge of a model. Thanks!
Your DependencyProperty is badly formed. (I also don't see Champ_Grid defined in your class or XAML, but I assume that is an ommission)
Setting ChampVisibility = true in code works because it is unrelated to the DependencyProperty.
You can tell easily because the default value for your DP is invalid. It will compile, but the instance constructor will through an exception if it is ever invoked.
new PropertyMetadata(null)
bool = null = exception
If you call GetValue(TopSpotterItemControl.ChampVisibilityProperty) from somewhere you can confirm all of the above.
You should make changes to instance fields in the property changed handler and declare the property like the following, it will work:
Note that the property has to change (not just be set) for the event to be raised.
public bool ChampVisibility
{
get { return (bool)GetValue(ChampVisibilityProperty); }
set { SetValue(ChampVisibilityProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty ChampVisibilityProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("ChampVisibility ", typeof(bool), typeof(TopSpotterItemControl), new PropertyMetadata(true, (s, e) =>
{
TopSpotterItemControl instance = s as TopSpotterItemControl;
instance.Champ_Grid.Visibility = instance.ChampVisibility ? System.Windows.Visibility.Visible : System.Windows.Visibility.Collapsed;
}));
Incidentally, your MemberId DependencyProperty is also completely wrong and cannot work.
Note:
The Binding on your TextBox works, because it is binding to the DataContext (your model), so it probably shows the right value.
The Dependency property in your UserControl will never be set though.
Use the propdp code-snippet in Visual Studio so you dont have to concern yourself with the complexities of Dependency Property declaration.
Also check this out for more info about Dependency Properties

Access the child control of a user control

I have created a user control that consists of a expander, listbox and checkboxes. I am not able to access the checkboxes (child control) and I want to generate the number of expanders based on the number of rows in a table dynamically. Can anyone suggest the possible solutions to
This is extremely vague. In most cases you would just expose some of the internal control's properties, e.g. if you want to create dynamic content you would expose the ItemsSource and ItemTemplate of an internal ListBox of whatever you use so it can be set from outside, e.g.
<UserControl x:Class="Test.UserControls.Bogus" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" Name="control">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="Lorem Ipsum:" />
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding ElementName=control, Path=ItemsSource}"
ItemTemplate="{Binding ElementName=control, Path=ItemTemplate}" />
</StackPanel>
</UserControl>
public partial class Bogus : UserControl
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty ItemsSourceProperty = ItemsControl.ItemsSourceProperty.AddOwner(typeof(Bogus));
public IEnumerable ItemsSource
{
get { return (IEnumerable)GetValue(ItemsSourceProperty); }
set { SetValue(ItemsSourceProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty ItemTemplateProperty = ItemsControl.ItemTemplateProperty.AddOwner(typeof(Bogus));
public DataTemplate ItemTemplate
{
get { return (DataTemplate)GetValue(ItemTemplateProperty); }
set { SetValue(ItemTemplateProperty, value); }
}
public Bogus()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
}
Usage:
<uc:Bogus ItemsSource="{Binding Data}">
<uc:Bogus.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" Foreground="Red" />
</DataTemplate>
</uc:Bogus.ItemTemplate>
</uc:Bogus>
You can of course also encapsulate a lot of logic which you do not need exposed.
Since you want a varying amount of expanders you might have an ItemsControl (unlike a ListBox it has no selection) which already defines an ItemTemplate which contains an expander. You probably can also create a partial template as shown in this answer of mine.
Sounds like you need to navigate the visual tree. The simplest way of doing this is via Linq-to-VisualTree. To find all the CheckBoxes that are a child of 'this', use the following query:
IEnumerable<CheckBox> checks = this.Descendants<CheckBox>().Cast<CheckBox>();
Your application is running in an Application instance. Access the usercontrol components with Application.usercontrol.ComponentName if it is not a UI update. If you make UI updates, you have to run the access in a separate dispatcher thread. In that case, use BackgroundWorker.
For example, I am running my main application class MainWindow and accessing it as,
MainWindow rootWindow = Application.Current.MainWindow as MainWindow;
Now access the usercontrol and properties of components as:
rootWindow.usercontrolX.ComponentY.PropertyZ
Define properties in the child's class for each of those controls. You will be able to access them from the Parent User Control, assuming you have added the Child User Control within the Parent User Control.
Parent User Control.. SingalData is the child User Contol
<my:C1TabItem Header="Signal">
<local:SignalData Width="1036" OnSignalNameChange="SignalInputTab_OnSignalNameChange" Loaded="SignalInputTab_Loaded" Height="353" VerticalAlignment="Top" MinHeight="353" HorizontalAlignment="Left"></local:SignalData>
In the Child User Contorl class, if you have a component named tabProductList you add a property -
public C1.WPF.C1TabControl TabProductList
{
get { return this.tabProductList; }
}
And finally, from your parent class you can reference it as -
C1TabItem tbItem = (C1TabItem)c1TabControl1.SelectedItem;
SignalData sigInp = (SignalData)tbItem.Content;
if (sigInp.TabProductList.SelectedIndex == 0)
{
....

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