UserControl as Content for HeaderedContentControl.HeaderTemplate - wpf

I have a UserControl that I have successfully been using as a header for presentations that involve a list which can be headered, using the xaml below:
<DockPanel >
<uc:ListSubjectHeader Subject="{Binding DisplayName}"
AddNewItemCommand="{Binding AddCommand}"
ImageSource="..." />
<!-- other controls -->
</DockPanel>
I would like to use this same control in another presentation where it would be the content for the header in a HeaderedContentControl, and came up with this xaml to do that:
<HeaderedContentControl Content="{Binding Path=DetailViewDepartment}" >
<HeaderedContentControl.HeaderTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:DepartmentSelectionViewModel}">
<uc:ListSubjectHeader Subject="{Binding DisplayName}" ... />
</DataTemplate>
</HeaderedContentControl.HeaderTemplate>
</HeaderedContentControl>
The visual elements show up the way I want them to, but data does not. I should note that I am using the same view model (vm:DepartmentSelectionViewModel) in a different control's DataTemplate in the same presentation, which I asked as a different question here. If you know the answer to this one you likely know the answer to that one too.
How can I fix this?
Cheers,
Berryl

The HeaderTemplate applies to the object in the Header property, not Content. Content uses the ContentTemplate, just like in the normal ContentControl.

Related

WPF listbox OO data template

This is a basic question but I'm just coming back to WPF after a long break and can't remember how to do this. I've tried looking around but can't find exactly the answer I'm looking for.
I have a Listbox control that I want to bind to a List<TradeViewModel> collection. I want the ListBoxItems to pick up that the items are of type TradeViewModel and based on that, to use a custom data template including a checkbox that is bound to TradeViewModel.IsChecked and for the text of the row to be TradeViewModel.TradeId.
I have created the ViewModel class with exposed dependency properties and INotifyPropertyChanged but it's how to hook up the XAML and data templates that I can't quite remember how to do.
Can someone please help me with a quick example?
Thanks!
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding YourList}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid> <!-- Or whatever -->
<CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding IsChecked}"/>
<!-- Other UI Elements here -->
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

How to change from binding ObervableCollection to a TabControl to a ContentControl

I'm very new to WPF and am writing an application using this example as a starting point
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx#id0090025
I will only have one workspace visible at any one time, so I want to get rid of the TabControl and use something simple instead - probably a ContentControl, I'm really not sure but all it needs to do is have content in and be closable. So I am trying to replace this:
<DataTemplate x:Key="WorkspacesTemplate"><TabControl
IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True"
ItemsSource="{Binding}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource ClosableTabItemTemplate}"
Margin="4"
/>
with:
<DataTemplate x:Key="WorkspacesTemplate">
<ContentControl Content="{Binding ??}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource ClosableTabItemTemplate}"/>
</DataTemplate>
but I don't know what to bind to. The code in the example seems to use CollectionViewSource to set the active workspace - it's the active workspace that I am interested in but I don't understand what TabControl is doing except that it's something to do with IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True"
The template is invoked from here (Workspaces is the ObservableCollection of ViewModels):
<HeaderedContentControl Content="{Binding Path=Workspaces}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource WorkspacesTemplate}" Header="Workspaces" Style="{StaticResource MainHCCStyle}"/>
and here is the ClosableItem template:
<DataTemplate x:Key="ClosableTabItemTemplate">
<DockPanel Width="120">
<Button
Command="{Binding Path=CloseCommand}"
Content="X"
Cursor="Hand"
DockPanel.Dock="Right"
Focusable="False"
FontFamily="Courier"
FontSize="9"
FontWeight="Bold"
Margin="0,1,0,0"
Padding="0"
VerticalContentAlignment="Bottom"
Width="16" Height="16"
/>
<ContentPresenter
Content="{Binding Path=DisplayName}"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
/>
</DockPanel>
</DataTemplate>
Please can someone explain what I need to do? Thanks
The WorkspacesTemplate is telling WPF how to display the Workspaces property, which, as you say is an ObservableCollection of ViewModels.
So, the WorkspacesTemplate says, display all these ViewModels in a tab control, and for each ViewModel, use the ClosableTabItemTemplate to display the ViewModel in a tab.
Since you only want one workspace visible at a time, you don't need to expose a collection of workspaces from your ViewModel, and you don't need a tab control to display them. You simply expose the one current workspace from your ViewModel and provide some XAML to display it.
If you still want to use a template to wrap the ViewModel, then yes, you can just use a ContentControl to invoke the template:
<DataTemplate x:Key="MySingleWorkspaceTemplate">
<TextBlock Text={Binding Blah} />
<!-- etc -->
</DataTemplate>
and to invoke the template
<ContentControl Content="{Binding CurrentWorkspace}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MySingleWorkspaceTemplate}"/>
However, if this is the only place that the XAML is going to be used, you might as well forget the template and just declare the XAML directly. Eg, (instead of ContentControl)
<TextBlock Text={Binding CurrentWorkspace.Blah} />
<!-- etc -->
EDITED TO ADD:
I think you might be getting confused because currently the ViewModel has no concept of the "Selected Workspace", it just exposes a collection. For completeness (but don't worry about all this), the selection is introduced by the TabControl which indirectly uses the default CollectionView for the Workspaces collection, and CollectionView has the concept of a selected item. This is all in the view.
I wouldn't worry about any of this now, just expose the one workspace yourself from your ViewModel.
EDIT2:
Your close button is appearing because you are explicitly setting a ContentTemplate on your HeaderedContentControl. This template will appear regardless of Content.
To make a template only appear when there is data in Content, make the template implicit instead. If you add a DataType to your template definition (and remove the key), you tell WPF to always use this template to display an object of that data type.
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:WorkspaceViewModel}">
<!-- Blah -->
</DataTemplate>
Then you can remove the explicit template from your HeaderedContentControl. Simply setting the Content will be enough to invoke the template, and if there is no Content, there is no template.
<HeaderedContentControl Content="{Binding Path=CurrentWorkspace}" />
(ps. If you're not using the header of HeaderedContentControl, you might as well just use a bog standard ContentControl)

How can you enable auto-DataTemplate selection based on data type like you can with an items control?

We're writing a very specialized ItemsControl which actually has three ContentPresenter's per 'row', each bound to a different object (think poor-man's grid) instead of the more common one, like a ListBox.
Now with a ListBox if you don't explicitly specify either an ItemTemplate or an ItemTemplateSelector, there seems to be some internal selector that applies the template based purely on data type. However, our ContentPresenter's aren't picking them up. We've also tried switching them to ContentControl's instead, but that hasn't worked either.
Now I know I can simply write my own DataTypeTemplateSelector that does this, but I'm wondering if that functionality is already 'baked in' somewhere considered its used with so many ItemsControl's (ListBox, TreeView, ComboBox', DataGrid, etc.) and according to this MSDN article...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms742521.aspx
...it should work by default! But again, it doesn't.
Here's our (pseudo) code...
<UserControl.Resources>
<!-- These all work when the relevant items are in a ListBox,
but not with stand-alone ContentPresenters or ContentControls -->
<DataTemplate DataType="local:SomeTypeA">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Converter={c:DataTypeNameConverter}}" Foreground="Blue" />
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="local::SomeTypeB">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Converter={c:DataTypeNameConverter}}" Foreground="Purple" />
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="local::SomeTypeC">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Converter={c:DataTypeNameConverter}}" Foreground="Purple" />
</DataTemplate>
</UserControl.Resources>
<!-- These don't pick up the templates -->
<ContentControl Content="{Binding Field1}" />
<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding Field2}" />
<!-- This however does -->
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding AllItems}"
So... anyone want to take a stab at why not?
DataType, for whatever crazy reason, is of type Object, the DataTemplates hence have a string set in that property unless you use x:Type.
Edit: There is a very good reason for the property being an object, as always those who can (and do) read are clearly at an advantage:
If the template is intended for object data, this property contains the type name of the data object (as a string). To refer to the type name of the class, use the x:Type Markup Extension. If the template is intended for XML data, this property contains the XML element name. See the documentation remarks for details about specifying a non-default namespace for the XML element.

Is there something in WPF similar to Style.BasedOn for DataTemplate?

At the moment, I have two very large DataTemplate objects to display two sets of items in two ListBoxes. The DataTemplates are referenced in the ContentTemplate property in two Styles that are set in the ItemContainerStyle properties of the two ListBoxes. The items are of the same type and the DataTemplates are identical except for the following control:
From DataTemplate1
<TextBlock Style="{StaticResource TextStyle}" FontSize="20" Foreground="White"
HorizontalAlignment="Left" Panel.ZIndex="2" Text="{Binding RemainingTime.TotalHours,
Converter={StaticResource DoubleToIntegerConverter}, StringFormat={}{0:#00}}" />
From DataTemplate2
<TextBlock Style="{StaticResource TextStyle}" FontSize="20" Foreground="White"
HorizontalAlignment="Left" Panel.ZIndex="2" Text="{Binding ElapsedTime.TotalHours,
Converter={StaticResource DoubleToIntegerConverter}, StringFormat={}{0:#00}}" />
Is there some way to avoid duplicating the whole Dataemplate but still have this one difference in the text binding of this TextBlock in the second template?
No, there is no inheritance for DataTemplate. If you think about, how would you override a part of a DataTemplate?
Solution: Use another Style to capture the common properties between the two templates. You can scope it in the same Resources block if it only place you need it. It is much cleaner or more WPF way of doing things.
I've already asked this question here once and unfortunately there isn't.
but in this specific situation you can move the fontsize,foreground,horizontalalignment..etc to a style (lets say textstyle2) that based on your current textstyle.
I got an answer to this from another post (by Liz). Basically, you can put all common controls into one DataTemplate and then create two more DataTemplates that each use the first one as a ContentTemplate in a ContentPresenter. Then, you can add different controls into one or both of the latter DataTemplates. Liz provided a code example.
<DataTemplate x:Key="UserTemplate">
<!-- show all the properties of the user class here -->
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:User}">
<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource UserTemplate}"/>
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Author}">
<StackPanel>
<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource UserTemplate}"/>
<!-- show all the additional Author properties here -->
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
Thanks once again Liz.
Adding to what Dennis suggested, you can always create a custom control that you just stick inside your DataTemplate and re-style that control instead of the DataTemplate.

How to expose ItemTemplate and ContentTemplate from a UserControl

I have written a Well control, similar to the Visual Studio editor tabs so that a user can have multiple documents open and can see one or more at a time. It is derived from a UserControl and exposes an ObservableCollection of OpenDocuments that binds to the ViewModel. If I were to implement this as a simple TabControl, then this would be how it would look:
<TabControl
Grid.Row="1"
Grid.Column="1"
ItemsSource="{Binding OpenDocuments}"
SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedTab, Mode=TwoWay}">
<TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock
Text="{Binding Name}" />
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<TabControl.ContentTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<vw:DocumentView />
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ContentTemplate>
</TabControl>
This gives me Name in the tabitem header and the DocumentView (another user control in the Content area).
My control has a ContentTemplate but it is of course representing the whole of the control so all I get to see is the DocumentView. My control doesn't have an ItemTemplate.
How do I expose an ItemTemplate and ContentTemplate?
Andrew
EDIT -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the replies. It looks like this:
A user can have one or more document wells holding one or more tabs. All the consumer has access to is the list of visible tabs and the currently selected tabitem.
Notice that the tabs are all empty! I don't understand how to specify the ContentTemplate for the <vw:DocumentView> in the same way as the TabControl example above.
Andrew
I am a little confused on exactly what your control looks like but here is what I think you are after.
If your control can inherit from ItemsControl you will get the ItemTemplate property already defined for you. All you have to do in your control template is to Template bind the ItemsControl property to the correct place in the template.
The same applies for the ContentTemplate. If you have the a ContentTemplate property already defined for you control you just need to Template Bind it to the correct place in the control.
It would look something like this
Control Consumer
<MyControlNamespace:MyControl ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MyContentTemplate}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MyItemTemplate}" />
Implementation of "MyControl" from above (totally pseudo code)
<MyControl>
<ItemsPresenter ItemTemplate="{TemplateBinding ItemTemplate}" />
<ContentPresenter ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}" />
</MyControl>
Again, my example doesn't fully make sense but I am not sure what your control looks like and not entirely sure what you are asking, but hopefully this helps.

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