Related
I am trying to upgrade WinForms to Telerik Controls and when I am upgrading this
this.treeAccounting.AfterSelect += new System.Windows.Forms.TreeViewEventHandler(this.TreeAccountingAfterSelect);
To this new RadControl Statement:
this.treeAccounting.SelectedNode += new Telerik.WinControls.UI.RadTreeViewEventArgs(this.TreeAccountingAfterSelect);
I get an error about best overloaded method match having invalid arguments for the TreeAccountingAfterSelect. Also it says cannot convert from 'method group' to 'Telerik.WinControls.UI.RadTreeNode'. Here is the function event for TreeAccountingAfterSelect.
private void TreeAccountingAfterSelect(object sender, Telerik.WinControls.UI.RadTreeViewEventArgs e)
{
string strSelectedNode = treeAccounting.SelectedNode.Text;
// Since the user can select any node (root, branch, leaf) of a tree in any order -
// cannot presume that they will select a root, then a leaf - so handle accordingly.
if (treeRootNames[(int)TreeNodes.TrialBalance] == strSelectedNode)
{
// Configure the Generator for doing a Trial Balance (detail) report
CrntReport = ReportTypes.TrialBalance;
CrntLocation = Locations.UNKNOWN;
// Based on default settings in the Report Property dialog (from App.Config) initialize
// screen controls.
lblCurrency.Visible = rptProperties.TBShowCurrencyCodes;
cboxCurrencyCode.Visible = rptProperties.TBShowCurrencyCodes;
this.Refresh();
// Setup the selections for the various parameters in the TrialBalance
// Parameters group.
SetupTBControls();
}
return;
}
I'm new to Telerik and I have tried different events and tried changing the parameter passed through the function and for some reason it isn't letting me use it like the WinForms. Can someone tell me where I am not understanding the change in WinForms to Telerik.
Looking at their documentation it seems that there is no SelectedNode event for a RadTreeView.
Instead you have
SelectedNodeChanged Occurs when selected node has been changed.
SelectedNodeChanging Occurs when the selected node is changing
And you don't use the RadTreeViewEventArgs to bind the event handler but a RadTreeViewEventHandler
So perhaps you need to write
this.treeAccounting.SelectedNodeChanged +=
new RadTreeViewEventHandler(this.TreeAccountingAfterSelect);
The syntax for delegate will allow also
this.treeAccounting.SelectedNodeChanged += this.TreeAccountingAfterSelect;
See the next post. This original one question content has been removed, as doesn't have any sense. Briefly, I asked how to bind XML (which I generated by mistake while parsing DLL assembly) to TreeView using XmlDataProvider in MVVM way. But later I understood that this approach was wrong, and I switched to generation of data entity model (just write classes which represent all the entities I would like to expose in the tree) instead of XML.
So, the result in the next post. Currently from time to time I update this "article", so F5, and
Enjoy reading!
Introduction
The right way I had found reading this article
It's a long story, most of you just can skip it :) But those, who want to understand the problem and solution, must read this all !
I'm QA, and some time ago had become responsible for Automation of the product I clicks. Fortunately, this automaton takes place not in some Testing Tool, but in Visual Studio, so it is maximally close to development.
For our automation we use a framework which consist of MbUnit (Gallio as runner) and of MINT (addition to MbUnit, which is written by the customer we work with). MbUnit gives us Test Fixtures and Tests, and MINT adds additional smaller layer -- Actions inside tests. Example. Fixture is called 'FilteringFixture'. It consist of amount of tests like 'TestingFilteringById', or 'TestingFilteringWithSpecialChars', etc. Each test consist of actions, which are atomic unit of our test. Example of actions are - 'Open app (parameter)', 'OpenFilterDialog', etc.
We already have a lot of tests, which contain a lot of actions, it's a mess. They use internal API of the product we QA. Also, we start investigation a new Automation approach - UI automation via Microsoft UI Automation (sorry for tautology). So the necessity of some "exporter", or "reporter" tool became severe for managers.
Some time ago I have got a task to develop some application, which can parse a DLL (which contains all the fixtures, tests and actions), and export its structure in the human readable format (TXT, HTML, CSV, XML, any other). But, right after that, I went to vacation (2 weeks).
It happens so, that my girlfriend went to her family until vacation (she also got it), and I remained at home so alone. Thinking what me to do all this time (2 weeks), I remember about that "write exporter tool task" and how long I have been planning to start learning WPF. So, I decided to make my task during vacation, and also dress a application to WPF. At that time I heard something about MVVM, and I decided to implement it using pure MVVM.
DLL which can parse DLL with fixrtures etc had been written rather fast (~1-2 days). After that I had started with WPF, and this article will show you how it ended.
I have spent a major part of my vacation (almost 8 days!), trying to sorted it out in my head and code, and finally, it is done (almost). My girlfriend would not believe what I was doing all this time, but I have a proof!
Sharing my solution step by step in pseudo code, to help others avoid similar problems. This answer is more looks like tutorial =) (Really?). If you are interested what were the most complicated things while learning WPF from scratch, I would say -- make it all really MVVM and f*g TreeView binding!
If you want an archived file with solution, I can give it a bit later, just when I have made a decision, that it is worth of that. One limitation, I'm not sure I may share the MINT.dll, which brings Actions, as it has been developed by the customer of our company. But I can just remove it, and share the application, which can display information about Fixtures and Tests only, but not about actions.
Boastful words. With just a little C# / WinForms / HTML background and no practice I have been able to implement this version of the application in almost 1 week (and write this article). So, impossible is possible! Just take a vacation like me, and spend it to WPF learning!
Step by step tutorial (w/o attached files yet)
Short repetition of the task:
Some time ago I have got a task to develop an application, which can parse a DLL (which contains test fixtures, test methods and actions - units of our unit testing based automation framework), and export its structure in the human readable format (TXT, HTML, CSV, XML, any other). I decided to implement it using WPF and pure MVVM (both were absolutely new things for me). The 2 most difficult problems for me became MVVM approach itself, and then MVVM binding to TreeView control. I skip the part about MVVM division, it's a theme for separate article. The steps below are about binding to TreeView in MVVM way.
Not so important: Create DLL which can open DLL with unit tests and finds fixtures, test methods and actions (more smaller level of unit test, written in our company) using reflection. If you are interested in how it had been done, look here: Parsing function / method content using Reflection
DLL: Separated classes are created for both fixtures, tests and actions (data model, entity model?).We'll use them for binding. You should think by yourself, what will be an entity model for your tree. Main idea - each level of tree should be exposed by appropriate class, with those properties, which help you to represent the model in the tree (and, ideally, will take right place in your MVVM, as model or part of the model). In my case, I was interested in entity name, list of children and ordinal number. Ordinal number is a number, which represents order of an entity in the code inside DLL. It helps me show ordinal number in the TreeView, still not sure it's right approach, but it works!
public class MintFixutre : IMintEntity
{
private readonly string _name;
private readonly int _ordinalNumber;
private readonly List<MintTest> _tests = new List<MintTest>();
public MintFixutre(string fixtureName, int ordinalNumber)
{
_name = fixtureName;
if (ordinalNumber <= 0)
throw new ArgumentException("Ordinal number must begin from 1");
_ordinalNumber = ordinalNumber;
}
public List<MintTest> Tests
{
get { return _tests; }
}
public string Name { get { return _name; }}
public bool IsParent { get { return true; } }
public int OrdinalNumber { get { return _ordinalNumber; } }
}
public class MintTest : IMintEntity
{
private readonly string _name;
private readonly int _ordinalNumber;
private readonly List<MintAction> _actions = new List<MintAction>();
public MintTest(string testName, int ordinalNumber)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(testName))
throw new ArgumentException("Test name cannot be null or space filled");
_name = testName;
if (ordinalNumber <= 0)
throw new ArgumentException("OrdinalNumber must begin from 1");
_ordinalNumber = ordinalNumber;
}
public List<MintAction> Actions
{
get { return _actions; }
}
public string Name { get { return _name; } }
public bool IsParent { get { return true; } }
public int OrdinalNumber { get { return _ordinalNumber; } }
}
public class MintAction : IMintEntity
{
private readonly string _name;
private readonly int _ordinalNumber;
public MintAction(string actionName, int ordinalNumber)
{
_name = actionName;
if (ordinalNumber <= 0)
throw new ArgumentException("Ordinal numbers must begins from 1");
_ordinalNumber = ordinalNumber;
}
public string Name { get { return _name; } }
public bool IsParent { get { return false; } }
public int OrdinalNumber { get { return _ordinalNumber; } }
}
BTW, I also created an interface below, which implement all the entities. Such interface can help you in the future. Still not sure, should I was also add there Childrens property of List<IMintEntity> type, or something like that?
public interface IMintEntity
{
string Name { get; }
bool IsParent { get; }
int OrdinalNumber { get; }
}
DLL - building data model: DLL has a method which opens DLL with unit tests and enumerating data. During enumeration, it builds a data model like below. Real method example is given, reflection core + Mono.Reflection.dll are used, don't be confused with complexity. All that you need - look how the method fills _fixtures list with entities.
private void ParseDllToEntityModel()
{
_fixutres = new List<MintFixutre>();
// enumerating Fixtures
int f = 1;
foreach (Type fixture in AssemblyTests.GetTypes().Where(t => t.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestFixtureAttribute), false).Length > 0))
{
var tempFixture = new MintFixutre(fixture.Name, f);
// enumerating Test Methods
int t = 1;
foreach (var testMethod in fixture.GetMethods().Where(m => m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestAttribute), false).Length > 0))
{
// filtering Actions
var instructions = testMethod.GetInstructions().Where(
i => i.OpCode.Name.Equals("newobj") && ((ConstructorInfo)i.Operand).DeclaringType.IsSubclassOf(typeof(BaseAction))).ToList();
var tempTest = new MintTest(testMethod.Name, t);
// enumerating Actions
for ( int a = 1; a <= instructions.Count; a++ )
{
Instruction action = instructions[a-1];
string actionName = (action.Operand as ConstructorInfo).DeclaringType.Name;
var tempAction = new MintAction(actionName, a);
tempTest.Actions.Add(tempAction);
}
tempFixture.Tests.Add(tempTest);
t++;
}
_fixutres.Add(tempFixture);
f++;
}
}
DLL: Public property Fixtures of the List<MintFixutre> type is created to return just created data model ( List of Fixtures, which contain lists of tests, which contains lists of Actions ). This will be our binding source for TreeView.
public List<MintFixutre> Fixtures
{
get { return _fixtures; }
}
ViewModel of MainWindow (with TreeView inside): Contains object / class from DLL which can parse unit tests DLLs. Also exposes Fixtures public property from the DLL of List<MintFixutre> type. We will bind to it from XAML of MainWindow. Something like that (simplified):
var _exporter = MySuperDllReaderExporterClass ();
// public property of ViewModel for TreeView, which returns property from #4
public List<MintFixture> Fixtures { get { return _exporter.Fixtures; }}
// Initializing exporter class, ParseDllToEntityModel() is called inside getter
// (from step #3). Cool, we have entity model for binding.
_exporter.PathToDll = #"open file dialog can help";
// Notifying all those how are bound to the Fixtures property, there are work for them, TreeView, are u listening?
// will be faced later in this article, anticipating events
OnPropertyChanged("Fixtures");
XAML of MainWindow - Setup data templates: Inside a Grid, which contains TreeView, we create <Grid.Resources> section, which contains a set of templates for our TreeViewItems. HierarchicalDataTemplate (Fixtures and Tests) is used for those who have child items, and DataTemplate is used for "leaf" items (Actions). For each template, we specify which its Content (text, TreeViewItem image, etc.), ItemsSource (in case of this item has children, e.g. for Fixtures it is {Binding Path=Tests}), and ItemTemplate (again, only in case this item has children, here we set linkage between templates - FixtureTemplate uses TestTemplate for its children, TestTemplate uses ActionTemplate for its children, Action template does not use anything, it is a leaf!). IMPORTANT: Don't forget, that in order to "link" "one" template to "another", the "another" template must be defined in XAML above the "one"! (just enumerating my own blunders :) )
XAML - TreeView linkage: We setup TreeView with: linking with data model from ViewModel (remember public property?) and with just prepared templates, which represent content, appearance, data sources and nesting of tree items! One more important note. Don't define your ViewModel as "static" resource inside XAML, like <Window.Resources><MyViewModel x:Key="DontUseMeForThat" /></Window.Resources>. If you do so, then you won't be able to notify it on property changed. Why? Static resource is static resource, it initializes ones, and after that remains immutable. I might be wrong here, but it was one of my blunders. So for TreeView use ItemsSource="{Binding Fixtures}" instead of ItemsSource="{StaticResource myStaticViewModel}"
ViewModel - ViewModelBase - Property Changed: Almost all. Stop! When user opens an application, then initially TreeView is empty of course, as user hasn't opened any DLL yet! We must wait until user opens a DLL, and only then perform binding. It is done via OnPropertyChanged event. To make life easier, all my ViewModels are inherited from ViewModelBase, which right exposes this functionality to all my ViewModel.
public class ViewModelBase : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(PropertyChangedEventArgs args)
{
var handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
handler(this, args);
}
}
XAML - OnPropertyChanged and commanding. User clicks a button to opens DLL which contains unit tests data. As we using MVVM, then click is handled via commanding. At the end of the OpenDllExecuted handler OnPropertyChanged("Fixtures") is executed, notifying the Tree, that the property, to which it is bind to has been changed, and that now is time to refresh itself. RelayCommand helper class can be taken for example from there). BTW, as I know, there are some helper libraries and toolkits exist Something like that happens in the XAML:
And ViewModel - Commanding
private ICommand _openDllCommand;
//...
public ICommand OpenDllCommand
{
get { return _openDllCommand ?? (_openDllCommand = new RelayCommand(OpenDllExecuted, OpenDllCanExecute)); }
}
//...
// decides, when the <OpenDll> button is enabled or not
private bool OpenDllCanExecute(object obj)
{
return true; // always true for Open DLL button
}
//...
// in fact, handler
private void OpenDllExecuted(object obj)
{
var openDlg = new OpenFileDialog { ... };
_pathToDll = openDlg.FileName;
_exporter.PathToDll = _pathToDll;
// Notifying TreeView via binding that the property <Fixtures> has been changed,
// thereby forcing the tree to refresh itself
OnPropertyChanged("Fixtures");
}
Final UI (but not final for me, a lot of things should be done!). Extended WPF toolkit was used somewhere: http://wpftoolkit.codeplex.com/
I 'm fairly new to Prism and I 'm currently re-writing one of our existing applications using Prism as a proof of concept project.
The application uses MVVM with a ViewModel first approach: our ViewModel is resolved by the container, and an IViewResolver service figures out what view it should be wired up to (using name conventions amongst other things).
The code (to add a view to a tab control) at the moment looks something like this:
var vm = (get ViewModel from somewhere)
IRegion reg = _regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"];
var vw = _viewResolver.FromViewModel(vm); // Spins up a view and sets its DataContext
reg.Add(vw);
reg.Activate(vw);
This all works fine, however I 'd really like to use the Prism navigation framework to do all this stuff for me so that I can do something like this:
_regionManager.RequestNavigate(
"MainRegion",
new Uri("NameOfMyViewModel", UriKind.Relative)
);
and have Prism spin up the ViewModel + View, set up the DataContext and insert the view into the region.
I 've had some success by creating DataTemplates referencing the ViewModel types, e.g.:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Module01">
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:TestViewModel}">
<local:TestView />
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
...and have the module add the relevant resource dictionary into the applications resources when the module is initialized, but that seems a bit rubbish.
Is there a way to effectively take over view creation from Prism, so that when RequestNavigate is called I can look at the supplied Uri and spin up the view / viewmodel based on that? There’s an overload of RegionManager.RegisterViewWithRegion that takes a delegate that allows you to supply a view yourself, and I guess I’m after something like that.
I think I might need to supply my own IRegionBehaviorFactory, but am unsure what's involved (or even if I am on the right path!).
Any help appreciated!
--
note: Originally posted over at the prism codeplex site
Sure you can do that. I 've found that Prism v4 is really extensible, if only you know where to plug in.
In this case, you want your own custom implementation of IRegionNavigationContentLoader.
Here's how to set things up in your bootstrapper (the example is from a subclass of UnityBootstrapper from one of my own projects):
protected override void ConfigureContainer()
{
// IMPORTANT: Due to the inner workings of UnityBootstrapper, accessing
// ServiceLocator.Current here will throw an exception!
// If you want access to IServiceLocator, resolve it from the container directly.
base.ConfigureContainer();
// Set up our own content loader, passing it a reference to the service locator
// (it will need this to resolve ViewModels from the container automatically)
this.Container.RegisterInstance<IRegionNavigationContentLoader>(
new ViewModelContentLoader(this.Container.Resolve<IServiceLocator>()));
}
The ViewModelContentLoader itself derives from RegionNavigationContentLoader to reuse code, and will look something like this:
public class ViewModelContentLoader : RegionNavigationContentLoader
{
private readonly IServiceLocator serviceLocator;
public ViewModelContentLoader(IServiceLocator serviceLocator)
: base(serviceLocator)
{
this.serviceLocator = serviceLocator;
}
// THIS IS CALLED WHEN A NEW VIEW NEEDS TO BE CREATED
// TO SATISFY A NAVIGATION REQUEST
protected override object CreateNewRegionItem(string candidateTargetContract)
{
// candidateTargetContract is e.g. "NameOfMyViewModel"
// Just a suggestion, plug in your own resolution code as you see fit
var viewModelType = this.GetTypeFromName(candidateTargetContract);
var viewModel = this.serviceLocator.GetInstance(viewModelType);
// get ref to viewResolver somehow -- perhaps from the container?
var view = _viewResolver.FromViewModel(vm);
return view;
}
// THIS IS CALLED TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS ANY EXISTING VIEW
// THAT CAN SATISFY A NAVIGATION REQUEST
protected override IEnumerable<object>
GetCandidatesFromRegion(IRegion region, string candidateNavigationContract)
{
if (region == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("region");
}
// Just a suggestion, plug in your own resolution code as you see fit
var viewModelType = this.GetTypeFromName(candidateNavigationContract);
return region.Views.Where(v =>
ViewHasDataContract((FrameworkElement)v, viewModelType) ||
string.Equals(v.GetType().Name, candidateNavigationContract, StringComparison.Ordinal) ||
string.Equals(v.GetType().FullName, candidateNavigationContract, StringComparison.Ordinal));
}
// USED IN MY IMPLEMENTATION OF GetCandidatesFromRegion
private static bool
ViewHasDataContract(FrameworkElement view, Type viewModelType)
{
var dataContextType = view.DataContext.GetType();
return viewModelType.IsInterface
? dataContextType.Implements(viewModelType)
: dataContextType == viewModelType
|| dataContextType.GetAncestors().Any(t => t == viewModelType);
}
// USED TO MAP STRINGS OF VIEWMODEL TYPE NAMES TO ACTUAL TYPES
private Type GetTypeFromName(string typeName)
{
// here you need to map the string type to a Type object, e.g.
// "NameOfMyViewModel" => typeof(NameOfMyViewModel)
return typeof(NameOfMyViewModel); // hardcoded for simplicity
}
}
To stop some confusion about "ViewModel first approach":
You use more a "controller approach", but no "ViewModel first approach". A "ViewModel first approach" is, when you inject your View in your ViewModel, but you wire up both, your ViewModel and View, through a third party component (a controller), what by the way is the (I dont want to say "best", but) most loosely coupled approach.
But to answer your Question:
A possible solution is to write an Extension for the Prism RegionManager that does exactly what you have described above:
public static class RegionManagerExtensions
{
public static void AddToRegion<TViewModel>(
this IRegionManager regionManager, string region)
{
var viewModel = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<TViewModel>();
FrameworkElement view;
// Get View depending on your conventions
if (view == null) throw new NullReferenceException("View not found.");
view.DataContext = viewModel;
regionManager.AddToRegion(region, view);
regionManager.Regions[region].Activate(view);
}
}
then you can call this method like this:
regionManager.AddToRegion<IMyViewModel>("MyRegion");
In MVVM it is normal to connect View to the ViewModel with data binding.
Therefore if the name of a properties changes on one of the Model objects that is databound to there is no compiler error.
When the compiler will not stop a bug, the next thing I think of is “UnitTest”, However
How do you unit test this without
spending forever writing a GUI test?
Is there a system that will check that all the properties that are bound to is valid, (without having to run the UI) that I can call in a unit test?
I am looking for something that will take the view, and then loop over all WPF controls, for each WPF control it will look at all the binding and check if they are valid.
By the way there have been a few good questions about how to make OnPropertyChanged safe, and/or how to test it (But done of these get down to the level of a WPF view.)
How to make Databinding type safe and support refactoring
Automatically INotifyPropertyChanged
workarounds for nameof() operator in C#: typesafe databinding
A Fluent Interface For Testing INotifyPropertyChanged
Automatic Class Tester will test all simple proptites and INotifyPropertyChanged
I have put a bounty on this question, as someone must have thought hard about the problem and come up with soltions.
I think I've come up with something that may work using simple reflection, and adapting some code I've used in the past (the code for the FindBindingsRecursively method was written by Martin Bennedik's as part of his Enterprise WPF Validation Control):
[TestMethod]
public void CheckWpfBindingsAreValid()
{
// instansiate the xaml view and set DataContext
var yourView = new YourView();
yourView.DataContext = YourViewModel;
FindBindingsRecursively(yourView,
delegate(FrameworkElement element, Binding binding, DependencyProperty dp)
{
var type = yourView.DataContext.GetType();
// check that each part of binding valid via reflection
foreach (string prop in binding.Path.Path.Split('.'))
{
PropertyInfo info = type.GetProperty(prop);
Assert.IsNotNull(info);
type = info.PropertyType;
}
});
}
private delegate void FoundBindingCallbackDelegate(FrameworkElement element, Binding binding, DependencyProperty dp);
private void FindBindingsRecursively(DependencyObject element, FoundBindingCallbackDelegate callbackDelegate)
{
// See if we should display the errors on this element
MemberInfo[] members = element.GetType().GetMembers(BindingFlags.Static |
BindingFlags.Public |
BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy);
foreach (MemberInfo member in members)
{
DependencyProperty dp = null;
// Check to see if the field or property we were given is a dependency property
if (member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field)
{
FieldInfo field = (FieldInfo)member;
if (typeof(DependencyProperty).IsAssignableFrom(field.FieldType))
{
dp = (DependencyProperty)field.GetValue(element);
}
}
else if (member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Property)
{
PropertyInfo prop = (PropertyInfo)member;
if (typeof(DependencyProperty).IsAssignableFrom(prop.PropertyType))
{
dp = (DependencyProperty)prop.GetValue(element, null);
}
}
if (dp != null)
{
// Awesome, we have a dependency property. does it have a binding? If yes, is it bound to the property we're interested in?
Binding bb = BindingOperations.GetBinding(element, dp);
if (bb != null)
{
// This element has a DependencyProperty that we know of that is bound to the property we're interested in.
// Now we just tell the callback and the caller will handle it.
if (element is FrameworkElement)
{
callbackDelegate((FrameworkElement)element, bb, dp);
}
}
}
}
// Now, recurse through any child elements
if (element is FrameworkElement || element is FrameworkContentElement)
{
foreach (object childElement in LogicalTreeHelper.GetChildren(element))
{
if (childElement is DependencyObject)
{
FindBindingsRecursively((DependencyObject)childElement, callbackDelegate);
}
}
}
}
Really good question. Voted it up. I would like to know the answer too.
One of the best practices I know (suggested by Josh Smith, thanks Gishu for pointing to this) is having base view model class to check in the OnPropertyChanged() method whether property really exists. E.g.:
abstract class ViewModelBase
{
[Conditional("DEBUG")]
public void VerifyPropertyName(string propertyName)
{
// Verify that the property name matches a real,
// public, instance property on this object.
if (TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(this)[propertyName] == null)
{
if (this.ThrowOnInvalidPropertyName)
throw new ArgumentException(propertyName);
string msg = "Invalid property name: " + propertyName;
Debug.Fail(msg);
}
}
protected void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
VerifyPropertyName(propertyName);
PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = this.PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
{
var e = new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName);
handler(this, e);
}
}
}
But this wouldn't help you to find spelling problems in XAML. Hmm... I don't know any existing solution for this. Maybe guys from WPF Disciples could suggest something. I think I would go with PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource and add to his Listners collection instance of TextWriterTraceListener and then monitor output. As soon as we get an error or warning on our radar we should fail a test.
Found good example: WPF Snippet - Detecting Binding Errors
Hope this helps. At least a bit :).
Cheers, Anvaka.
I know that this is not the direct answer to your question.
If you know the name of the control element, that you expect to be bound against you can do something like the test below (using nunit). This is the rough version. But here you use expressions and explicitly test that the property is in a binding
[Test]
public void TestBindings()
{
TestBinding<IndividualSolutionViewModel, string>(x => x.Name, "Name", TextBlock.TextProperty);
}
private void TestBinding<TViewModel,TResult>(Expression<Func<TViewModel, TResult>> property, string elementName,
DependencyProperty dependencyProperty)
{
string memberName = ExpressionHelper.GetPropertyName(property); // f.ex v => v.Name will return Name
TestBinding(memberName, elementName, dependencyProperty);
}
private void TestBinding(string memberName, string elementInControlName, DependencyProperty dependencyProperty)
{
//object viewModel = new IndividualSolutionViewModel();
var view = new IndividualSolutionView();
//Assert.That(view.DataContext, Is.EqualTo(viewModel));
var element = view.FindName(elementInControlName);
Assert.That(element, Is.Not.Null, string.Format("Unable to find the element {0} in view {1}", elementInControlName, view.Name));
Assert.That(element, Is.InstanceOf(typeof(DependencyObject)));
var binding = BindingOperations.GetBinding(element as DependencyObject, dependencyProperty);
Assert.That(binding, Is.Not.Null, string.Format("Could not find a binding for the control {0}", elementInControlName));
Assert.That(binding.Path.Path, Is.EqualTo(memberName));
}
Ps. You have to add this to the app.config
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name="NUnit">
<section type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"
name="TestRunner"></section>
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<NUnit>
<TestRunner>
<add value="STA" key="ApartmentState"></add>
</TestRunner>
</NUnit>
There is also this possibility, that might give you some ideas. THe gist of the idea is property names that you would be binding to are exposed as static string properties. If a binding property name changed you would get a compilation error.
I have not had the opportunity to actually test this technique myself - but it does look interesting:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/42036/Project-Metadata-Generation-using-T4
As Anvaka points out, using a base class for your view model that checks property names can help avoid this particular problem (though it won't tell you when your VM class does its own property-change notification and ignores the method in the base class, not that I've ever seen anything like that happen in my code).
And you can (and should) instrument your code so that things that aren't working fail in a way that's visible to you. The thing that's kind of paradoxical about this is that if you know what things may fail and you watch them, they won't, because the fact that you're watching them will keep you from making the mistakes that lead them to fail (like writing a template selector that doesn't always return a template).
But fundamentally, the view is the UI, so I would be pretty surprised to find methods of testing it that weren't also methods for testing the UI.
I am trying to unit test my WPF databindings using the test suit provided by Microsoft Team System. I would like to be able to test the bindings without showing the window because most of my tests will be for user controls and not actually on a window. Is this possible or is there a better way to do it? The code below works if I show the window, but if I don't, the bindings don't update.
Window1_Accessor target = new Window1_Accessor();
UnitTestingWPF.Window1_Accessor.Person p = new UnitTestingWPF.Window1_Accessor.Person() { FirstName = "Shane" };
Window1 window = (target.Target as Window1);
window.DataContext = p;
//window.Show(); //Only Works when I actually show the window
//Is it possible to manually update the binding here, maybe? Is there a better way?
Assert.AreEqual("Shane", target.textBoxFirstName.Text); //Fails if I don't Show() the window because the bindings aren't updated
While looking for a solution to convert WPF binding errors into exception, I figured out that it can also be used in a unit test project.
The technique is very simple:
Derive a TraceListener that throws instead of logging
Add that listener to PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource
Please see the complete solution on GitHub, it includes a unit test project.
Shane, if what you're really worried about is a binding breaking silently, you should look at redirecting the binding traces to somewhere you can examine. I'd start here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehillberg/archive/2006/09/14/WpfTraceSources.aspx
Other than that, I agree with Gishu that bindings aren't good candidates for unit testing, mainly due to the automagic going on that Gishu mentioned in the "Epilogue". Instead focus on making sure the underlying class behaves correctly.
Note, too, that you can get even more robust traces using the PresentationTraceSources class:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.presentationtracesources.aspx
Hope that helps!
Eyeball it.
This kind of declarative markup rarely breaks.. unless someone goes in manual and screws it up. Even then, you can fix it within minutes. IMHO the cost of writing such tests far outweigh the benefits.
Update[Dec3,08]: Alrighty then.
The test is just testing that the textbox has the value "FirstName" as the Path property of the binding. If I change/refactor FirstName to JustName in the actual data source object, the test would still pass since it is testing against an anonymous type. (Green test when code broken - TDD Antipattern: The Liar)
If your aim is to verify that FirstName has been specified in XAML,
Assert.AreEqual("FirstName", txtBoxToProbe.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).ParentBinding.Path.Path);
If you really must catch broken bindings via unit tests (and don't want to show the UI), use the real data source... struggled for a while and came up with this.
[Test]
public void TestTextBoxBinding()
{
MyWindow w = new MyWindow();
TextBox txtBoxToProbe = w.TextBox1;
Object obDataSource = w; // use 'real' data source
BindingExpression bindingExpr = BindingOperations.GetBindingExpression(txtBoxToProbe, TextBox.TextProperty);
Binding newBind = new Binding(bindingExpr.ParentBinding.Path.Path);
newBind.Source = obDataSource;
txtBoxToProbe.SetBinding(TextBox.TextProperty, newBind);
Assert.AreEqual("Go ahead. Change my value.", txtBoxToProbe.Text);
}
Epilogue:
There's some real covert stuff happening in the call to Window.Show(). It somehow magically sets up the DataItem property after which data binding starts working.
// before show
bindingExpr.DataItem => null
bindingExpr.Status => BindingStatus.Unattached
// after show
bindingExpr.DataItem => {Actual Data Source}
bindingExpr.Status => BindingStatus.Active
Once the Binding is Active, I guess you can force textbox updates via code like this..
txtBoxToProbe.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateTarget();
Once again, I voice my reluctance against this approach. Getting NUnit to run in STA was a pain..
Combining advice I came across in a number of SO posts I wrote the following class which works very well to test WPF bindings.
public static class WpfBindingTester
{
/// <summary>load a view in a hidden window and monitor it for binding errors</summary>
/// <param name="view">a data-bound view to load and monitor for binding errors</param>
public static void AssertBindings(object view)
{
using (InternalTraceListener listener = new InternalTraceListener())
{
ManualResetEventSlim mre = new ManualResetEventSlim(false);
Window window = new Window
{
Width = 0,
Height = 0,
WindowStyle = WindowStyle.None,
ShowInTaskbar = false,
ShowActivated = false,
Content = view
};
window.Loaded += (_, __) => mre.Set();
window.Show();
mre.Wait();
window.Close();
Assert.That(listener.ErrorMessages, Is.Empty, listener.ErrorMessages);
}
}
/// <summary>Is the test running in an interactive session. Use with Assume.That(WpfBindingTester.IsAvailable) to make sure tests only run where they're able to</summary>
public static bool IsAvailable { get { return Environment.UserInteractive && Process.GetCurrentProcess().SessionId != 0; } }
private class InternalTraceListener : TraceListener
{
private readonly StringBuilder _errors = new StringBuilder();
private readonly SourceLevels _originalLevel;
public string ErrorMessages { get { return _errors.ToString(); } }
static InternalTraceListener() { PresentationTraceSources.Refresh(); }
public InternalTraceListener()
{
_originalLevel = PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource.Switch.Level;
PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource.Switch.Level = SourceLevels.Error;
PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource.Listeners.Add(this);
}
public override void Write(string message) {}
public override void WriteLine(string message) { _errors.AppendLine(message); }
protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource.Listeners.Remove(this);
PresentationTraceSources.DataBindingSource.Switch.Level = _originalLevel;
base.Dispose(disposing);
}
}
}
you can try Guia.
With it you can unit-test your UserControl and check if the data binding is correct. You have to show the window though.
Here is an example. It starts a new instance of your UserControl and sets its DataContext and then checks if the textbox is set to the right value.
[TestMethod]
public void SimpleTest()
{
var viewModel = new SimpleControlViewModel() {TextBoxText = "Some Text"};
customControl = CustomControl.Start<SimpleUserControl>((control) => control.DataContext = viewModel);
Assert.AreEqual("Some Text", customControl.Get<TextBox>("textbox1").Value);
customControl.Stop();
}