Enable a disabled textbox in wpf - wpf

Question

Is it possible to have a TextBox that is disabled by default, but becomes enabled when a user double-clicks it?

Answer 1

you can place your TextBox inside StackPanel like this:
<StackPanel MouseLeftButtonDown="StackPanel_MouseDown">
<TextBox Name="textBox1"/>
</StackPanel>
Then in StackPanel event handler:
private void StackPanel_MouseDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ClickCount >= 2)
{
textBox1.IsEnabled = true; //only hit here on DoubleClick
}
}
you can also simulate StackPanel DoubleClick as described on this question:
WPF StackPanel with Click AND DoubleClick

Answer 2

That's very unusual, also when a control is disabled it is not expected to get input. Users seeing a disabled control normally would not even try to click/double click on it.
Maybe you can add a check box to enable it (or the function belonging to it), or show a message box when double clicking it when it is not allowed/meant to. In this case you also can clearly add a reason why it cannot be double clicked.
What I have seen before is a checkbox without text right before the control. When you click the checkbox it enables the control (text box in your case) after it. You can even use a tooltip for the check box to provide help information what the checkbox is doing.

Answer 3

I would try attaching to the PreviewMouseDown event and enable/disable there.
Otherwise you will have to do the old VB6 trick of having a transparent control above the textbox to receive the click event.

Answer 4

This question is old, but maybe I can help someone that finds a solution for this.
In a recent project I've needed to simulate two states: view and edit. I've do this using a textbox. In view state, value is displayed but you cannot got focus clicking on the control. To enable editing mode you need to double click the control. To avoid the control getting focus by clicking on it and also the disadvantages of disable it, I've used two preview events for control the behaviour of the textbox and adapt it's responses to application needs and state. One of the events is PreviewMouseDown:
private void tbxVariable_PreviewMouseDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
if(!tbxVariable.IsFocused && e.ChangedButton == MouseButton.Left)
e.Handled = true;
}
In this event we will block the mouse down button if our textbox isn't focused yet. This prevents textbox to get focus. So it will behave like a label. When the control is focused, this event isn't blocked and is propagated towards the control. Note that maybe you need to change the cursor because editing cursor is used when the mouse is over the control. Note also, that we are blocking only the left button.
The second event looks like:
private void tbxVariable_PreviewMouseDoubleClick(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ChangedButton == MouseButton.Left && !tbxVariable.IsFocused)
tbxVariable.Focus();
}
In the second event we will bring the focus to the control on double left click if it isn't focused yet. If control has focus so we will let the event propagate and the control will behave normally.
In my case I've created a special style for the textbox leaving borders, backgrounds, and all style behaviours. This is the XAML code:
<Style x:Key="InlineEditorTextBox" TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
<Setter Property="SnapsToDevicePixels" Value="True" />
<Setter Property="OverridesDefaultStyle" Value="True" />
<Setter Property="KeyboardNavigation.TabNavigation" Value="None" />
<Setter Property="FocusVisualStyle" Value="{x:Null}" />
<Setter Property="MinWidth" Value="5" />
<Setter Property="MaxHeight" Value="16" />
<Setter Property="AllowDrop" Value="false" />
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type TextBoxBase}">
<ScrollViewer Margin="0" x:Name="PART_ContentHost" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled" />
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>