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/
Related
On my view I have different Controls. Mostly Buttons, TextBoxes and ComboBoxes. The Buttons are enabled/disabled via CommandBinding (ICommand), but the other controls must be enabled/disabled "manually". I can think of many ways to achieve this:
Adding a bool-Property to the ViewModel is one way and using DataTriggers is an other. (Or maybe I could bind the Property directly and use a IValueConverter.)
Is there a particular solution in MVVM that I am leaving out or missing?
Yes, you can bind a public boolean property on your view model to the IsEnabled property of the control. There is no need for a value converter.
I have a View with a dataGrid. This datagrid bind a property in the ViewModel that is an ObservableCollection.
I edit some data in the dataGrid, and a field is updated by code, because it depends on some operations. Well, if I check the item in the observable collection, I can see that all the data is correct, but the info in the dataGrid is no refresh.
I want to force the refresh because I know that the observableCollection only raise the change property event when I add o remove items, but not if I edit one of them.
Because I am use Entity Framework 4.1, really the ItemsSource of the dataGrid is the local of the DbSet, so I don't know how to implement the notifyPorpertyChanged in the classes of the model edmx, and I am looking for an alternative, like to force refresh the dataGrid.
Because the property of the ViewModel that I use to bing the ItemsSource of the dataGrid is a reference to the local, I mean that to set the property I do myProperty = myContext.MyTable.Local and that raise the event PropertyChanged that I implement in my ViewModel, I try to do myProperty = myContext.MyTable.Local again to try to raise the event and force the refresh of the dataGrid, but it does not work.
What alternatives do I have?
Make sure that you have the Binding Mode set to TwoWay. Implement in the set portion of your property OnPropertyChanged and the rest should take care of itself.
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'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.
Kind of an odd question- if I'm thinking of this the wrong way please let me know. I am using an infragistics dock manager, which manages tabs as well. So I can create a TabGroupPane, and then add multiple ContentPanes, each of which has its own tab.
In each content pane, I set my viewmodel:
<ContentPane>
<viewmodels:MyViewModelForTab1 />
</ContentPane>
So here's the problem- while using a mediator pattern for communication, my viewmodels have no idea if they are on the visible tab or not, so they are always working even if hidden. The TabGroupPane does have a SelectedTab property, as well as each ContentPane having an IsActive property.
So the question is how do I set that information in my ViewModel? Making my VM a dependency object seems like a bad idea since I already implement INotifyPropertyChanged. Using a CLR prop in my VM also doesnt work, since you cannot bind to it.
How can I get my VM to know if it is the datacontext of an active tab?
Thanks!
I would put an IsSelected property on my ViewModel and bind it to the TabItem's IsSelected dependency property.
This should allow you to hook into when it is updated and perform whatever you need. You don't need a mediator pattern here since you are communicatining from the View to the ViewModel.
Make sure your ViewModel is bound to the DataContext property of the view (specifically, that the Tab's DataContext is the ViewModel). The way you have it now, your ViewModel is the content of the element, not bound to the DataContext, as it should be:
<Tab.Resources>
<viewmodels:MyViewModelForTab1 x:Key="Tab1ViewModel" />
</Tab.Resources>
<ContentPane DataContext="{StaticResource Tab1ViewModel}" />
Or something like that...
I don't know the Infragistics model, so my apologies if this is inapposite, but here's how I implement this with regular items controls - tab control, list box, whatever.
Create a container view model class that includes an observable collection of items and exposes a SelectedItem property. Make the container class the data context of the items control. Bind the items control's SelectedItem property to the container class's.
Hook the item objects up to the PropertyChanged event of the container. So now when the selected item in the UI changes, the container view model notifies all of the items that SelectedItem has changed. Each item object's event handler can determine for itself whether or not it's now the selected item.
The item objects thus don't know any implementation details of the UI - you can unit test your classes outside of a UI and the logic will still work correctly.