I've got a WPF app who's menu is using the commanding capabilities. Everything is wired up just fine and when I click the buttons in the menu, the commands run. However I'm having trouble getting the button's IsEnabled status to respect the CanExecute part of my commands.
One challenge is the commands need to see what you're doing in the UI. For instance, one command should only be available when certain items in a ListBox are selected so I need to get a reference to the ListBox... but since the command is exposed in my view model (MVVM pattern), it doesn't have access to the UI (BTW, the menu is in one user control [parent=mainwindow] while the ListBox is in another user control [parent=mainwindow]).
In addition, even when I hard code the command's CanExecute method to return false, the Enabled property of the button doesn't change... the command won't fire, but it won't change... frustrating. I assume I need to modify/raise the CanExecuteChanged event, but I'm not sure when I should be doing that (can't find a good sample).
Feedback?
Try the Messenger class from MVVMLight. It helps in communicating between ViewModels.
And give this a try:
Have a SelectedItem property in your ListBox's ViewModel. Broadcast messages while the property changes. Register for this message in the menu's ViewModel. Use the SelectedItem property in your CanExecute method for your logic.
Normally, you would bind the Command Property of the MenuItem/Button whatever - that means you still have the CommandParameter to work with - this can then be bound to some other control. However, when the two views do not know each-other, you need som kind of mediator between them (ie. a viewmodel that both views can access - have the listbox SelectedItem/SelectedItems bound to a property two-ways - and let the CommandParameter bind to the same property one-way).
As for when to fire the CanExecuteChanged event - you should fire that whenever there is a change in the logic contained in the CanExecute-method. If it is always false, you should never fire the event, as it will read the initalvalue when the Command-parameter is set. '
If your button is behaving oddly - check to see if the IsEnabled property is influenced by Styles or set directly.
Hope this helps.
Related
I have a user control UC_A that contains a user control UC_B. Each has a different view model as its data context, VM_A and VM_B respectively, both derived from INotifyPropertyChanged.
A command from VM_A changes stuff that affects a property in VM_B. UC_B has a binding to that property. How can I cause the binding to update? I tried OnPropertyChanged in VM_A but it does not do the job.
Any help would be appreciated.
If VM B changes, then the notification must be raised from there to notify UC B.
To add on what #flq said already,
I don't see what's the problem, if you implemented OnPropertyChanged properly it should just work.
i.e. when your View-model-A changes something in the view-model-B - then whatever property is changed in the VM-B should fire off the OnPropertyChanged - from the VM-B - and that'd 'land' into the UC-B lap, as it should.
I've got a simple View with a single textbox that gets databound to a simple ViewModel with a single string property.
I need to catch the TextChanged event of that textbox so that I can do a little validation magic.
The problem that I am running into is that the TextChanged event fires for that textbox when the DataContext is set for the View.
Is there a standard mechanism that I can use to determine if the event is firing because of the DataContext being set versus when the user is making changes?
Thanks!
As far as I know there is no such mechanism. What you should do instead is to do your validation magic using standard means of WPF. Please see the following link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752347.aspx#data_validation.
Anyway, as long as you use MVVM you can always detect that text has changed in the setter of the bound property in your view model.
I have a command that I would like to be enabled only when a certain control has focus. I can do this with a routed command and command binding, but I'd like to keep the implementation in my ViewModel.
Is a command binding and an event handler in the code behind the only way?
To handle this within the ViewModel, you will need to add the concept of the 'certain control' having focus into your view model, enabling the command when this focus state changes.You could do this by adding a boolean IsCertainControlFocussed property to your view model.
To update this state you have two options, either handle the GotFocus and LostFocus events in the code behind of you view and set this boolean property on your view model. Or use one of the MVVM framework absraction mechanisms. For example the MVVM Light framework has an EventToCommand behaviour which allows you to wire an event to a command exposed by your view model, which could set this property.
http://geekswithblogs.net/lbugnion/archive/2009/11/05/mvvm-light-toolkit-v3-alpha-2-eventtocommand-behavior.aspx
Which technique you use depends on how important it is to you to have no code-behind. Personally I do not follow this religiously, as long as the View Model has the right responsibilities, and is testable, a little it of code behind does no harm!
i've a contentcontrol in my Wpf-App (MVVM) which is bound to an object and displays the objects properties in textboxes, so the user can edit the values of the properties.
I want to implement undo/redo functionality with the command pattern of the GoF.
For this i need a point where i can create the command and set it into my undomanager.
My idea was to add a submitbutton. When the button is pressed, i update the sources of the textboxes (my properties) and create my command object to make the changes undoable (saving the old state of the object and the new state).
But:
- For using a submit button i need to set UpdateSourceTrigger of the textboxes to Explicit. If i want to update my sources i need to reference the controls in my view, which is bad as far as i've learned. How can i do that?
With MVVM i have to create a Command (WPF Command, not my undo redo command) for the SubmitButton but i don't see how to apply the changes to the properties from that command without referencing the textboxes (further hey are generated via datatemplates).
Thanks Walter
I assume your TextBox controls are bound to the properties in the ViewModel class. If you bind your submit button to a ViewModel Command which in turn can add appropriate command to you Command Pattern Collection and also changes some of ViewModel properties, the values in the Textbox controls will also be updated. Now, for a Textbox to update it's value when the value of a property it is bound to changes, the ViewModel class needs to implement INotifyPropertyChanged interface and raise the PropertyChanged event from the property setter with that's property's name as an argument.
I'm working in the MVVM design pattern with WPF. I have a ContextMenu with several items in it on a ListView. Based on the number of items selected in the ListView, I want to enable/disable certain MenuItems. Is there a way to route the SelectionChanged event along with the number of selected items in the ListView directly to the view model. If so, I can define a dependency property in the VM for IsEnabled quite easily. I'm just trying to avoid code-behind to handle this.
Kelly
You can use an attached behavior to route the SelectionChanged event to your VM. Basically, you create an attached property of type bool. When this property is set to true, you register an event handler for the SelectionChanged event of the target Menu.
Then an attached property can contains the command to execute (databound to a RelayCommand-like command in your VM).
Check those posts for more details:
http://www.japf.fr/2008/12/how-to-attach-commands-to-any-uielement/
http://marlongrech.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/attachedcommandbehavior-v2-aka-acb/