WPF Validation: Clearing all validation errors - wpf

Question

I have a WPF UserControl with many other controls inside of it.
TextBoxes are among these.
Every TextBox has its own validation:
<TextBox>
<TextBox.Text>
<Binding Path="MyPath" StringFormat="{}{0:N}" NotifyOnValidationError="True">
<Binding.ValidationRules>
<r:MyValidationRule ValidationType="decimal" />
</Binding.ValidationRules>
</Binding>
<TextBox.Text>
<TextBox>
a
Now suppose the user types some invalid characters into them. They will all become highlighted red.
Now I want to reset all the validation errors (from the incorrect input) and set the recent correct values coming from DataContext.
I set the DataContext in the constructor and I don't want to change it (DataContext = null won't help me then):
DataContext = _myDataContext = new MyDataContext(..);
What I've already found are these classes:
Validation.ClearInvalid(..)
BindingExpression.UpdateTarget();
I think these classes could help me, but they require the Binding of a concrete FrameworkElement and I want to do it globally for all of them.
Should I anyhow iterate through the Visual Tree (which is really what I don't like) or is there any better solution for this?

Answer 1

This is what a BindingGroup is for... You'd set a BindingGroup on a container of all the controls, e.g. the panel that contains them. This would cause the updates to the DataContext to be held until you call UpdateSources on the BindingGroup. If you want to reset the user's input, you'd call CancelEdit instead, and the BindingGroup would reset all controls inside the container to the (still unchanged) values of the DataContext.

Answer 2

I had the same problem. Multiple validated controls on a page. I found/made this solution to update (and clear all validation from) the descentents of a DependencyObject:
using System.Linq;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Media;
/// <summary>
/// Updates all binding targets where the data item is of the specified type.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="root">The root.</param>
/// <param name="depth">The depth.</param>
/// <param name="dataItemType">Type of the data item.</param>
/// <param name="clearInvalid">Clear validation errors from binding.</param>
public static void UpdateAllBindingTargets(this DependencyObject root, int depth, Type dataItemType, bool clearInvalid)
{
var bindingExpressions = EnumerateDescendentsBindingExpressions(root, depth);
foreach (BindingExpression be in bindingExpressions.Where(be => be.DataItem != null && be.DataItem.GetType() == dataItemType))
{
if (be != null)
{
be.UpdateTarget();
if (clearInvalid)
System.Windows.Controls.Validation.ClearInvalid(be);
}
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Enumerates all binding expressions on descendents.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="root">The root.</param>
/// <param name="depth">The depth.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static IEnumerable<BindingExpression> EnumerateDescendentsBindingExpressions(this DependencyObject root, int depth)
{
return root.EnumerateDescendents(depth).SelectMany(obj => obj.EnumerateBindingExpressions());
}
/// <summary>
/// Enumerates the descendents of the specified root to the specified depth.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="root">The root.</param>
/// <param name="depth">The depth.</param>
public static IEnumerable<DependencyObject> EnumerateDescendents(this DependencyObject root, int depth)
{
int count = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(root);
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(root, i);
yield return child;
if (depth > 0)
{
foreach (var descendent in EnumerateDescendents(child, --depth))
yield return descendent;
}
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Enumerates the binding expressions of a Dependency Object.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="element">The parent element.</param>
public static IEnumerable<BindingExpression> EnumerateBindingExpressions(this DependencyObject element)
{
if (element == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("element");
}
LocalValueEnumerator lve = element.GetLocalValueEnumerator();
while (lve.MoveNext())
{
LocalValueEntry entry = lve.Current;
if (BindingOperations.IsDataBound(element, entry.Property))
{
if (entry.Value is PriorityBindingExpression)
{
foreach (BindingExpression expr in ((PriorityBindingExpression)entry.Value).BindingExpressions)
yield return expr;
}
else if (entry.Value is MultiBindingExpression)
{
foreach (BindingExpression expr in ((MultiBindingExpression)entry.Value).BindingExpressions)
yield return expr;
}
else
yield return entry.Value as BindingExpression;
}
}
}

Answer 3

Why won't you just trigger NotifyPropertyChanged for all the properties of your data source? This will update binding and UI controls should get values from datacontext (which are valid, thus validation errors will be cleared)?

Answer 4

I'm not sure what you mean by
I set the DataContext in the constructor and I don't want to change it
(DataContext = null won't help me then)
Generally to reset all bindings on the form you do the following: (assuming a controller for views/viewmodel wiring, otherwise just use a code-behind on the view.)
var dataContext = view.DataContext;
view.DataContext = null;
view.DataContext = dataContext;
It doesn't change it to a new data context, it just drops the data context and reloads it. This kicks off all of the bindings to re-load.

Answer 5

Although hbarck gave a perfectly correct answer, I would just like to add that for many standard WPF controls, BindingGroups are created automatically. Therefore, in most cases, the following simple code is enough for clearing all validation errors inside some control (for example, DataGrid):
foreach (var bg in BindingOperations.GetSourceUpdatingBindingGroups(myDataGrid))
bg.CancelEdit();