Frame navigation - DataContext not inherited - wpf

I have a XAML file representing the main window of a WPF application.
Now I want this window to display content that is specified by another XAML file.
This works, but the DataContext is lost in the C# code of my UserControl.
I think the <Frame Source=....> is breaking the logical tree of WPF in some way.
I'd like to have the same behavior as if <Frame Source=....> was simply substituted by the Content1.xaml file content, i.e. that the DataContext of the surrounding Window class is inherited to the UserControl.
Is there a simple way to overcome this issue?
All solutions that I found seem like overkill.
Pseudocode
MainWindow.xaml
<Window ....>
<Frame Source="Content1.xaml" />
</Window>
Content1.xaml
<UserControl ....>
<!-- Content goes here -->
</UserControl>

Joe White's solution here solves the problem.
Quoting from his answer:
In XAML:
<Frame Name="frame"
LoadCompleted="frame_LoadCompleted"
DataContextChanged="frame_DataContextChanged"/>
In codebehind:
private void frame_DataContextChanged(object sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
UpdateFrameDataContext(sender, e);
}
private void frame_LoadCompleted(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
{
UpdateFrameDataContext(sender, e);
}
private void UpdateFrameDataContext(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
{
var content = frame.Content as FrameworkElement;
if (content == null)
return;
content.DataContext = frame.DataContext;
}

Related

WPF not load a control

I write a very easy UserControl
here the Xaml code
<UserControl x:Name="Test1" x:Class="WpfAppXtesting.UserControl1"
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"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfAppXtesting"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="450" d:DesignWidth="800" Loaded="Test1_Loaded">
<Grid x:Name="GridRoot" Background="Aqua">
<TextBlock x:Name="status" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="137" Margin="100,137,0,0" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="TextBlock" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="483" FontSize="48"/>
</Grid>
and here the code behind
/// <summary>
/// Interaction logic for UserControl1.xaml
/// </summary>
public partial class UserControl1 : UserControl
{
public UserControl1()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.GridRoot.DataContext = this;
}
private void UserControl1_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
switch (e.PropertyName)
{
case "Connected":
status.Text = ((App)sender).Connected.ToString() ;
break;
}
}
private void Test1_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
(Application.Current as App).PropertyChanged += UserControl1_PropertyChanged;
}
}
the problem is , when import this control in a Window in same project The design mode gets this error.
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
if I run the project everything was good.
If I commented the line in Loaded method
the control was right shown in design mode.
Any Idea?
thanks
Do not assume that Application.Current is your application at design time. For example, when you are using Expression Blend, Current is Expression Blend. At design time, MainWindow is not your application's main window. Typically operations that cause a user/custome control to fail at design time include the following.
Casting Current to your custom subclass of App.
Casting MainWindow to your custom subclass of Window.
Here are two approaches to writing code for design time. The first approach is to write defensive code by checking the null condition. The second approach is to check whether design mode is active by calling the GetIsInDesignMode method. You can read about GetIsInDesignMode at here.
Solution 1:
private void Test1_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var app = Application.Current as App;
if( app != null)
{
app.PropertyChanged += UserControl1_PropertyChanged;
}
}
Solution 2 :
private void Test1_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (!DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode(this))
{
// Design-mode specific functionality
(Application.Current as App).PropertyChanged += UserControl1_PropertyChanged;
}
}

How to bind a CustomControl to a CustomCommand?

WPF .NET 4.6
In the below code, clicking on the menu item will activate the command and correctly display:
"InkAndGesture command executed"
It is my understanding that the RoutedUICommand will travel up and down the visual tree. So how can the ProgressNoteEditor (a custom control contained within the ItemsControl) listen and act upon the custom command? (There are many instantiations of the ProgressNoteEditor) ???
Note: I need ALL instances of ProgressNoteEditor to respond, not just one, so CommandTarget is no use. Do commands only bubble up?
TIA.
I have a CustomControl (ProgressNoteEditor) which is used from the MainWindow as:
<ItemsControl x:Name="ProgressNote" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" ItemsSource="{Binding WritingLayer.ProgressNote}" >
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<pn:ProgressNoteEditor LineCount="{Binding LineCount}"
Background="{Binding Background}"
Vocabulary="{Binding Vocabulary}"
/>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
From the Menu in the MainWindow, I have added a custom command as:
<MenuItem Header="Ink And Getsures" Command="pn:NotePadCommands.InkAndGesture"/>
The code-behind does:
private void NewProgressNoteView_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
CommandBindings.Add(
new CommandBinding(NotePadCommands.InkAndGesture, NotePadCommands.InkAndGesture_Executed, NotePadCommands.InkAndGesture_CanExecute));
}
For the moment, the CustomCommand is defined in its own class as:
namespace NotePad
{
public static class NotePadCommands
{
// Allow InkCanvas controls to use Gestures with Ink.
private static RoutedUICommand _InkAndGesture;
static NotePadCommands()
{
_InkAndGesture = new RoutedUICommand("Allow Gestures with Ink","InkAndGesture", typeof(NotePadCommands));
}
// Command: InkAndGesture
public static RoutedUICommand InkAndGesture
{
get { return _InkAndGesture; }
}
public static void InkAndGesture_Executed(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("InkAndGesture command executed");
}
public static void InkAndGesture_CanExecute(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e)
{
e.CanExecute = true;
}
}
}
Do commands only bubble up?
A RoutedCommand searches the visual tree from the focused element and up for an element that has a matching CommandBinding and then executes the Execute delegate for this particular CommandBinding.
So the CommandBinding of your ProgressNoteEditor element won't be found the MenuItem invokes the command, because it is not a visual ancestor of the MenuItem.

focus visual not showing when navigating focus programically

Whenever I try to move focus programmatically the focus visual (the dotted rectangle) does not display.
What can be done to force this visual to display?
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication2.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525" Loaded="OnLoaded">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock x:Name="a" Focusable="True">A</TextBlock>
<TextBlock Focusable="True">B</TextBlock>
<Button Focusable="False" Click="OnClick">Move Focus</Button>
</StackPanel>
</Window>
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void OnLoaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Keyboard.Focus(a);
}
private void OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var request = new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next);
var elementWithFocus = Keyboard.FocusedElement as UIElement;
if (elementWithFocus != null)
elementWithFocus.MoveFocus(request);
}
}
If you look (in reflector/ilspy) at the KeyboardNavigation's ShowFocusVisual you'll find that the framework will only show it if the last input was from the keyboard (or if an internal static property based on the KeyboardCues system parameter info is true). So I don't think there is a good way to do this short of using reflection to temporarily set that property or asynchronously focusing the element and forcing a keyboard action (maybe using the winforms SendKeys or keybd_event api) but I wouldn't recommend either.

Set the focus on a textbox in xaml wpf

Despite some posts on this forum and others i cannot find something that tells me how to set the focus on a TextBox.
I have a userControl with many labels and textBoxes. When the form is loaded I want the a particular textBox to have the focus.
I have set the tabIndex but that didn't seem to work.
Any suggestions?
You can use the FocusManager.FocusedElement attached property for this purpose. Here's a piece of code that set the focus to TxtB by default.
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=TxtB}">
<TextBox x:Name="TxtA" Text="A" />
<TextBox x:Name="TxtB" Text="B" />
</StackPanel>
You can also use TxtB.Focus() in your code-behind if you don't want to do this in XAML.
You can apply this property directly on the TextBox :
<TextBox Text="{Binding MyText}" FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}"/>
I am new to using WPF and reading through the above examples I had a similar experience trying set the focus to a textbox using the xaml code examples given, i.e. all the examples above didn't work.
What I found was I had to place the FocusManager.FocusElement in the page element. I assume this would probably work as well if you used a Window as the parent element. Anyway, here is the code that worked for me.
<Page x:Class="NameOfYourClass"
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"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="Title"
Height="720"
Width="915"
Background="white"
Loaded="pgLoaded"
FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=NameOfYourTextBox}">
<!-- Create child elements here. -->
</Page>
I have a TextBox inside a Grid inside a DataTemplate which I want to have keyboard focus when it becomes visible. I also found that
<DataTemplate x:Key="DistanceView" DataType="{x:Type vm:ROI}">
<Grid FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=tbDistance}">
<TextBox x:Name="tbDistance" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
did not work for me.
However when I call Focus() in the parent ContentControl
private void ContentControl_IsVisibleChanged(object sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
if ((sender as ContentControl).IsVisible)
{
(sender as ContentControl).Focus();
}
}
it starts to work and the caret is visible in the TextBox. I think the FocusScope has to be given focus for the FocusManager.FocusedElement property to have any effect.
Jerry
From experimenting around, the xaml solution
FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=yourElement}"
seems to work best when you place it in the highest element in the window hierarchy (usually Window, or the Grid you place everything else in)
Usage:
local:FocusManager.FocusOnLoad="True"
public class FocusManager
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty FocusOnLoad = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached(
"FocusOnLoad",
typeof(bool),
typeof(FocusManager),
new UIPropertyMetadata(false, new PropertyChangedCallback(OnValueChanged))
);
private static void OnValueChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (!(sender is Control control))
return;
if ((bool) e.NewValue == false)
return;
control.Loaded += (s, e) => control.Focus();
}
public static bool GetFocusOnLoad(DependencyObject d) => (bool) d.GetValue(FocusOnLoad);
public static void SetFocusOnLoad(DependencyObject d, bool value) => d.SetValue(FocusOnLoad, value);
}
FocusManager was not in intellisense and this confused me a bit. I just typed the entire attribute and it worked.
FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=MyTextBox}"
Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 version 14.0.23107.0/C#/WPF
For completeness, there is also a way to handle this from code behind (e.g. in the case of controls that, for whatever reason, are created dynamically and don't exist in XAML). Attach a handler to the window's Loaded event and then use the ".Focus()" method of the control you want. Bare-bones example below.
public class MyWindow
{
private VisualCollection controls;
private TextBox textBox;
// constructor
public MyWindow()
{
controls = new VisualCollection(this);
textBox = new TextBox();
controls.Add(textBox);
Loaded += window_Loaded;
}
private void window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
textBox.Focus();
}
}
bind the element you want to point the focus in as
FocusManager.FocusedElement= "{Binding ElementName= Comobox1}"
in grid or groupbox etc
Further to my comment on Feb 04 '22, I solved it this way:
In the UserControl definitionin the XAML add a Loaded event handler. (pressing tab after Loaded= will automatically add an event handler to the code behind)
Then edit the event handler in the code behind:
private void UserControl_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
expressionTextBox.Focus();
}
I'm hoping that WPF is clever enough to handle th unhooking of the evnt at some point, allowing the class to be garbage collected and not give rise to memory leaks, but I don't know. I'd be interested in any comments on that.

Is there an MVVM-friendly way to use the WebBrowser control in WPF?

Thanks to this question (click me!), I have the Source property of my WebBrowser binding correctly to my ViewModel.
Now I'd like to achieve two more goals:
Get the IsEnabled property of my Back and Forward buttons to correctly bind to the CanGoBack and CanGoForward properties of the WebBrowser.
Figure out how to call the GoForward() and GoBack() methods without resorting to the code-behind and without the ViewModel having to know about the WebBrowser.
I have the following (non-working) XAML markup at the moment:
<WebBrowser
x:Name="_instructionsWebBrowser"
x:FieldModifier="private"
clwm:WebBrowserUtility.AttachedSource="{Binding InstructionsSource}" />
<Button
Style="{StaticResource Button_Style}"
Grid.Column="2"
IsEnabled="{Binding ElementName=_instructionsWebBrowser, Path=CanGoBack}"
Command="{Binding GoBackCommand}"
Content="< Back" />
<Button
Style="{StaticResource Button_Style}"
Grid.Column="4"
IsEnabled="{Binding ElementName=_instructionsWebBrowser, Path=CanGoForward}"
Command="{Binding GoForwardCommand}"
Content="Forward >" />
I'm pretty sure the problem is that CanGoBack and CanGoForward are not dependency properties (and don't implement INotifyChanged), but I'm not quite sure how to get around that.
Questions:
Is there any way to hook up attached properties (as I did with Source) or something similar to get the CanGoBack and CanGoForward bindings to work?
How do write the GoBackCommand and GoForwardCommand so they are independent of the code-behind and ViewModel and can be declared in markup?
For anyone who comes across this question and wants a complete solution, here it is. It combines all of the suggestions made in this thread and the linked threads (and others those link to).
XAML:
http://pastebin.com/aED9pvW8
C# class:
http://pastebin.com/n6cW9ZBB
Example XAML usage:
http://pastebin.com/JpuNrFq8
Note: The example assumes your view binds to a ViewModel that provides the source URL to the browser. A very rudimentary navigation bar with back, forward, and refresh buttons and address bar is provided just for demonstration.
Enjoy. I have set the expiration on those pastebin's to never, so they should be available for as long as pastebin exists.
I used this in my bindable webbrowser wrapper:
CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(NavigationCommands.BrowseBack, BrowseBack, CanBrowseBack));
CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(NavigationCommands.BrowseForward, BrowseForward, CanBrowseForward));
CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(NavigationCommands.BrowseHome, GoHome, TrueCanExecute));
CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(NavigationCommands.Refresh, Refresh, TrueCanExecute));
CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(NavigationCommands.BrowseStop, Stop, TrueCanExecute));
Note that I created my bindable webbrowser as FrameworkElement that exposes DependencyProperties and calls methods on the actual browser element, so i can set CommandBindings on it.
That way, you can use the default NavigationCommands in your View.
The used handlers are:
private void CanBrowseBack(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e) {
e.CanExecute = webBrowser.CanGoBack;
}
private void BrowseBack(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e) {
webBrowser.GoBack();
}
private void CanBrowseForward(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e) {
e.CanExecute = webBrowser.CanGoForward;
}
private void BrowseForward(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e) {
webBrowser.GoForward();
}
private void TrueCanExecute(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e) { e.CanExecute = true; }
private void Refresh(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e) {
try { webBrowser.Refresh(); }
catch (Exception ex) { PmsLog.LogException(ex, true); }
}
private void Stop(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e) {
mshtml.IHTMLDocument2 doc = WebBrowser.Document as mshtml.IHTMLDocument2;
if (doc != null)
doc.execCommand("Stop", true, null);
}
private void GoHome(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e) {
Source = new Uri(Home);
}
Your question seems to imply that in order to correctly implement an MVVM pattern you are not allowed to have any code-behind. But perhaps adding some code-behind to your view will make it much easier to hook it up with your view-model. You can add dependency properties to the view and let it listen for INotifyPropertyChanged events.

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