WPF DataTemplate: How to create a tooltip just-in-time? - wpf

I am using DataTemplates to render items in an ItemsControl. I want to show a tooltip for each item. If I use a binding such as ToolTip="{Binding MyToolTip,Mode=OneWay}", WPF gets the tooltip once at the beginning and does not update the tooltip when it is opened.
My items implement INotifyPropertyChanged, so in principle I could generate change notifications for MyToolTip. The problem is, the tooltip is produced based on many pieces of information in the underlying model. These pieces of information change frequently and it would be both cumbersome and inefficient to generate change notifications for the MyToolTip property. Besides, I do not want tooltips for ALL items to be produced initially. Instead I would like to force a fresh tooltip to be generated when the tooltip is opened. How can I do it?

You will have to use a little code-behind, but it isn't that bad.
<object ToolTip="{Binding MyToolTip, Mode=OneWay}" ToolTipOpening="MyToolTip_Opening" />
In code-behind
private void MyToolTip_Opening(object sender, ToolTipEventArgs e)
{
DependencyObject depObj = sender as DependencyObject;
if (depObj == null) return;
BindingExpression be = BindingOperations.GetBindingExpression(depObj, FrameworkElement.ToolTipProperty);
if (be != null) be.UpdateTarget();
}

Related

WPF Bind child window context to parent

I have a static collection:
<CollectionViewSource Source="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current}, Path=MarketDataListeners}" x:Key="ficServerMarketDataView"></CollectionViewSource>
which is a collection of type MarketDataListener.
I have a ListView which is bound to this collection and a ContentControl which is bound to the selected item of this ListView. In the ContentControl I have a button that launches a child window (in code behind).
What Im doing is keeping track of the selected item in the main window like this:
private void ListView_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
_selectedItem = ((sender as ListView).SelectedValue as MarketDataContainer);
}
and then when the button in the control control is clicked i execute:
private void ShowComponentsButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var detailsWindow = new ComponentWindow(_selectedItem);
var button = sender as Button;
if (button == null) return;
detailsWindow.Show();
}
This is the binding of the ContentControl:
<ContentControl Name="Detail" Content="{Binding Source={StaticResource ficServerMarketDataView}}"
ContentTemplate="{StaticResource detailsFicTemplate}" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Foreground="Black" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" />
Is it possible to remove the code tracking the selected item just launch the child window without a parameter? The child window's Title should be a property 'Name' on the currently selected MarketDataListener. Ideally the child window would not update when the selected item changes.
Is it possible to remove the code tracking the selected item just launch the child window without a parameter?
I would strongly recommend you to show the details in the same window,
from user experience point of view it would be preferable.
you can use a page or contentControl to show the detailsWindow data.
in that case it would be easy to achieve what you are looking for, all you would have to do is bind the ContentControl.dataContext to listviewSelected item.
otherwise if you just have to by design create a new Window you could create a singelton ViewModel which would be bound to the ListViewSelected Item and each time you will open the DetailsWindow you would access this data.

How to pass the selectedItem of a listbox to the View Model

This is a running question that I have updated to hopefully be a little more clear.
In short what I am trying to accomplish is pass a property from a listbox selected item to the viewmodel so that this property can be used within a new query. In the code below the Listbox inherits databinding from the parent object. The listbox contains data templates (user controls) used to render out detailed results.
The issue I am having is that within the user control I have an expander which when clicked calls a command from the ViewModel. From what I can see the Listbox object is loosing it's data context so in order for the command to be called when the expander is expanded I have to explicitly set the datacontext of the expander. Doing this seems to instantiate a new view model which resets my bound property (SelectedItemsID) to null.
Is there a way to pass the selected item from the view to the viewmodel and prevent the value from being reset to null when a button calls a command from within the templated listbox item?
I realize that both Prism and MVVMLite have workarounds for this but I am not familiar with either framework so I don't know the level of complexity in cutting either of these into my project.
Can this be accomplished outside of Prism or MVVMLite?
original post follows:
Within my project I have a listbox usercontrol which contains a custom data template.
<ListBox x:Name="ResultListBox"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
Background="{x:Null}"
BorderThickness="0"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
ItemsSource="{Binding SearchResults[0].Results,
Mode=TwoWay}"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled"
SelectionChanged="ResultListBox_SelectionChanged">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<dts:TypeTemplateSelector Content="{Binding}" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch">
<!-- CFS Template -->
<dts:TypeTemplateSelector.CFSTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<qr:srchCFS />
</DataTemplate>
</dts:TypeTemplateSelector.CFSTemplate>
<!-- Person Template -->
<dts:TypeTemplateSelector.PersonTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<qr:srchPerson />
</DataTemplate>
</dts:TypeTemplateSelector.PersonTemplate>
<!-- removed for brevity -->
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
SelectionChanged calls the following method from the code behind
private void ResultListBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem != null)
_ViewModel.SelectedItemID = (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem as QueryResult).ID.ToString();
this.NotifyPropertyChanged(_ViewModel.SelectedItemID);//binds to VM
}
Within the ViewModel I have the following property
public string SelectedItemID
{
get
{
return this._SelectedItemID;
}
set
{
if (this._SelectedItemID == value)
return;
this._SelectedItemID = value;
}
}
the listbox template contains a custom layout with an expander control. The expander control is used to display more details related to the selected item. These details (collection) are created by making a new call to my proxy. To do this with an expander control I used the Expressions InvokeCommandAction
<toolkit:Expander Height="auto"
Margin="0,0,-2,0"
Foreground="#FFFFC21C"
Header="View Details"
IsExpanded="False"
DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SearchViewModelDataSource}}"
Style="{StaticResource DetailExpander}">
<i:Interaction.Triggers>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="Expanded">
<i:InvokeCommandAction Command="{Binding GetCfsResultCommand}" />
</i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>
Within the ViewModel the delegate command GetCFSResultCommandExecute which is called is fairly straight forward
private void GetCfsResultCommandExecute(object parameter)
{
long IdResult;
if (long.TryParse(SelectedItemID, out IdResult))
{
this.CallForServiceResults = this._DataModel.GetCFSResults(IdResult);}
The issue I am experiencing is when selecting a listbox Item the selectionchanged event fires and the property SelectedItemID is updated with the correct id from the selected item. When I click on the expander the Command is fired but the property SelectedItemID is set to null. I have traced this with Silverlight-Spy and the events are consistent with what you would expect when the expander is clicked the listbox item loses focus, the expander (toggle) gets focus and there is a LeftMouseDownEvent but I cannot see anything happening that explains why the property is being set to null. I added the same code used in the selection changed event to a LostFocus event on the listboxt item and still received the same result.
I'd appreciate any help with understanding why the public property SelectedItemID is being set to null when the expander button which is part of the listbox control is being set to null. And of course I would REALLY appreciate any help in learning how prevent the property from being set to null and retaining the bound ID.
Update
I have attempted to remove the datacontext reference from the Expander as this was suggested to be the issue. From what I have since this is a data template item it "steps" out of the visual tree and looses reference to the datacontext of the control which is inherited from the parent object. If I attempt to set the datacontext in code for the control all bindings to properties are lost.
My next attempt was to set the datacontext for the expander control within the constructor as
private SearchViewModel _ViewModel;
public srchCFS()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.cfsExpander.DataContext = this._ViewModel;
}
This approach does not seem to work as InvokeCommandAction is never fired. This command only seems to trigger if data context is set on the expander.
thanks in advance
With this line you create a new SearchViewModelDataSource using its default constructor.
DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SearchViewModelDataSource}}"
I guess this is why you find null because this is the default value for reference type.
You can resolve the issue by setting DataContext to the same instance used to the main controll (you can do it by code after all components are initialized).
Hope this help!
Edit
I don't think that binding may be lost after setting datacontext from code. I do it every time I need to share something between two or more model.
In relation to the code you've written :
private SearchViewModel _ViewModel;
public srchCFS()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.cfsExpander.DataContext = this._ViewModel;
}
Instead of using this.cfsExpander you can try to use the FindName method. Maybe this will return you the correct instance.
object item = this.FindName("expander_name");
if ((item!=null)&&(item is Expander))
{
Expander exp = item as Expander;
exp.DataContext = this._ViewModel;
}
Try if its work for you.
Of course, this._ViewModel has to expose a property of type ICommand named GetCfsResultCommand but I think this has been already done.
While this was a hacky approach I found an intermediate solution to get the listbox item value to the view model. I ended up using the selection changed event and passing the value directly to a public property wihtin my view model. Not the best approach but it resolved the issue short term
private void ResultListBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem != null)
_ViewModel.SelectedItemID = (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem as QueryResult).ID.ToString();
MySelectedValue = (((ListBox)sender).SelectedItem as QueryResult).ID.ToString();
this.NotifyPropertyChanged(_ViewModel.SelectedItemID);
}
For this to fire I did have to also setup a property changed handler within the view to push the change to the VM. You can disregard the MySelectedValue line as it is secondary code I have in place for testing.
For those intereted the generic property changed handler
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string info)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
{
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
}
}

WPF expand TreeView on single mouse click

I have a WPF TreeView with a HierarchicalDataTemplate.
Currently I have to double click an item to expand/collapse it.
I would like to change this behaviour to a single click, without loosing other functionality. So it should expand and collapse on click.
What is the recommended way to do this?
Thanks!
You could use a re-templated checkbox as your node (containing whatever template you are currently using) with its IsChecked property bound to the IsExpanded property of the TreeViewItem.
Here is a template I've just test that seems to do the job:
<HierarchicalDataTemplate ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">
<CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TreeViewItem}, Path=IsExpanded}">
<CheckBox.Template>
<ControlTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}"></TextBlock>
</ControlTemplate>
</CheckBox.Template>
</CheckBox>
</HierarchicalDataTemplate>
Just replace the ControlTemplate contents with whatever you need.
If you are using a standard TreeViewItem, then you can capture the click event:
private void OnTreeViewMouseUp( object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e )
{
var tv = sender as TreeView;
var item = tv.SelectedItem as TreeViewItem;
if( item != null )
item.IsExpanded = !item.IsExpanded;
e.Handled = true;
}
private void OnTreeViewPreviewMouseDoubleClick( object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e )
{
e.Handled = true;
}
Most likely in your case, you'll need to do something with your binding and ViewModel. Here's a good article from CodePlex: Simplifying the WPF TreeView by Using the ViewModel Pattern.
Just use selected item changed event and use the following,
private void treeview_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
{
TreeViewItem item = (TreeViewItem)treeview.SelectedItem;
item.IsExpanded = true;
}
where treeview is the name of your TreeView, you could include an if to close/open based on its current state.
I have very little experience working with WPF to this point, so I am not 100% certain here. However, you might check out the .HitTest method of both the Treeview and TreeView Item (the WPF Treeview is essentially the Windows.Controls.Treeview, yes? Or a derivation thereof?).
THe HIt Test method does not always automatically appear in the Intellisense menu for a standard Windows.Forms.Treeview (I am using VS 2008) until you type most of the method name. But it should be there. You may have to experimnt.
You can use the .HitTest Method to handle the MouseDown event and return a reference to the selected treeview item. You must test for a null return, however, in case the use clicks in an area of the control which contains no Tree Items. Once you have a reference to a specific item, you should be able to set its .expanded property to the inverse of whatever it is currently. again, some experimentation may be necessary here.
As I said, I have not actually used WPF yet, so I could have this Wrong . . .
The answer of Metro Smurf (thanks to which I got where I wanted to be) suggests the right approach . You could simply hook up to the SelectedItemChanged event of the Treeview. Then cast the e.NewValue passed in the eventhandler as TreeViewItem, and access its IsExpanded property to set it to true.
void MyFavoritesTreeView_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
{
((TreeViewItem)e.NewValue).IsExpanded = true;
}
Then for the final touch, you can also hook up the items in your Treeview by casting them as TreeViewItem as suggested, and then you can hook up to the various manipulation events, like:
var item = tv.SelectedItem as TreeViewItem;
item.Expanded += item_Expanded;
And then do whatever you need to do in the eventhandler
void item_Expanded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// handle your stuff
}

Synchronizing scroll positions for 2 WPF DataGrids

I am trying to synchronize the horizontal scroll position of 2 WPF DataGrid controls.
I am subscribing to the ScrollChanged event of the first DataGrid:
<toolkit:DataGrid x:Name="SourceGrid" ScrollViewer.ScrollChanged="SourceGrid_ScrollChanged">
I have a second DataGrid:
<toolkit:DataGrid x:Name="TargetGrid">
In the event handler I was attempting to use the IScrollInfo.SetHorizontalOffset, but alas, DataGrid doesn't expose IScrollInfo:
private void SourceGrid_ScrollChanged(object sender, ScrollChangedEventArgs e)
{
((IScrollInfo)TargetGrid).SetHorizontalOffset(e.HorizontalOffset);
// cast to IScrollInfo fails
}
Is there another way to accomplish this? Or is there another element on TargetGrid that exposes the necessary IScrollInfo to achieve the synchronization of the scroll positions?
BTW, I am using frozen columns, so I cannot wrap both DataGrid controls with ScrollViewers.
There is great piece of code to do this:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/ScrollSynchronization.aspx
According to the Microsoft product group, traversing the visual tree to find the ScrollViewer is the recommended method, as explained in their answer on Codeplex.
We had this same problem when using the Infragistics grid because it didn't (still doesn't) support frozen columns. So we had two grids side-by-side that were made to look as one. The grid on the left didn't scroll horizontally but the grid on the right did. Poor man's frozen columns.
Anyway, we ended up just reaching into the visual tree and pulling out the ScrollViewer ourselves. Afterall, we knew it was there - it just wasn't exposed by the object model. You could use a similar approach if the WPF grid does not expose the ScrollViewer. Or you could subclass the grid and add the functionality you require to make this work.
Interested in hearing why you need to do this.
This is a great solution. Worked fine for me in WPF.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/39244/Scroll-Synchronization
I just made a reference to ScrollSynchronizer dll, added a xml import:
xmlns:scroll="clr-namespace:ScrollSynchronizer"
then just added this to both my datagrids and bobs your uncle:
<DataGrid.Resources>
<Style TargetType="ScrollViewer">
<Setter Property="scroll:ScrollSynchronizer.ScrollGroup" Value="Group1" />
</Style>
</DataGrid.Resources>
You can trick the datagrid to expose its ScrollViewer as public property for each grid, when for example innerGridControl_ScrollChanged() handler called during initialisation of the usercontrol.
To expose it you can make your grid in an xaml View file, and then compose two of them in another xaml View.
Below code is on the innerGrid.xaml.cs for example:
public ScrollViewer Scroller { get; set; } // exposed ScrollViewer from the grid
private bool _isFirstTimeLoaded = true;
private void innerGridControl_ScrollChanged(object sender, ScrollChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (_isFirstTimeLoaded) // just to save the code from casting and assignment after 1st time loaded
{
var scroller = (e.OriginalSource) as ScrollViewer;
Scroller = scroller;
_isFirstTimeLoaded = false;
}
}
on OuterGridView.xaml put an attached event handler definition:
<Views:innerGridView Grid.Row="1" Margin="2,0,2,2" DataContext="{Binding someCollection}"
x:Name="grid1Control"
ScrollViewer.ScrollChanged="Grid1Attached_ScrollChanged"
></Views:innerGridView>
<Views:innerGridView Grid.Row="3" Margin="2,0,2,2" DataContext="{Binding someCollection}"
x:Name="grid2Control"
ScrollViewer.ScrollChanged="Grid2Attached_ScrollChanged"
></Views:innerGridView>
then access that public ScrollViewer.SetHorizontalOffset(e.HorizontalOffset) method when another scrolling event occur.
Below code is in the OuterGridView.xaml.cs on one of the handler definition (
private void Grid1Attached_ScrollChanged(object sender, ScrollChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (e != null && !e.Handled)
{
if (e.HorizontalChange != 0.0)
{
grid2Control.Scroller.ScrollToHorizontalOffset(e.HorizontalOffset);
}
e.Handled = true;
}
}
private void Grid2Attached_ScrollChanged(object sender, ScrollChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (e != null && !e.Handled)
{
if (e.HorizontalChange != 0.0)
{
grid1Control.Scroller.ScrollToHorizontalOffset(e.HorizontalOffset);
}
e.Handled = true;
}
}
Also make sure any other scroll_changed event inside the inner grid (if any, for example if you define a TextBox with default scroller in one of the column data template) has its e.Handled set to true to prevent outer grid's handler processing it (this happened due to default bubbling behaviour of routedevents). Alternatively you can put additional if check on e.OriginalSource or e.Source to filter the scroll event you're intended to process.

WPF Databind Before Saving

In my WPF application, I have a number of databound TextBoxes. The UpdateSourceTrigger for these bindings is LostFocus. The object is saved using the File menu. The problem I have is that it is possible to enter a new value into a TextBox, select Save from the File menu, and never persist the new value (the one visible in the TextBox) because accessing the menu does not remove focus from the TextBox. How can I fix this? Is there some way to force all the controls in a page to databind?
#palehorse: Good point. Unfortunately, I need to use LostFocus as my UpdateSourceTrigger in order to support the type of validation I want.
#dmo: I had thought of that. It seems, however, like a really inelegant solution for a relatively simple problem. Also, it requires that there be some control on the page which is is always visible to receive the focus. My application is tabbed, however, so no such control readily presents itself.
#Nidonocu: The fact that using the menu did not move focus from the TextBox confused me as well. That is, however, the behavior I am seeing. The following simple example demonstrates my problem:
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication2.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Window.Resources>
<ObjectDataProvider x:Key="MyItemProvider" />
</Window.Resources>
<DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
<Menu DockPanel.Dock="Top">
<MenuItem Header="File">
<MenuItem Header="Save" Click="MenuItem_Click" />
</MenuItem>
</Menu>
<StackPanel DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource MyItemProvider}}">
<Label Content="Enter some text and then File > Save:" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueA}" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueB}" />
</StackPanel>
</DockPanel>
</Window>
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Data;
namespace WpfApplication2
{
public partial class Window1 : Window
{
public MyItem Item
{
get { return (FindResource("MyItemProvider") as ObjectDataProvider).ObjectInstance as MyItem; }
set { (FindResource("MyItemProvider") as ObjectDataProvider).ObjectInstance = value; }
}
public Window1()
{
InitializeComponent();
Item = new MyItem();
}
private void MenuItem_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("At the time of saving, the values in the TextBoxes are:\n'{0}'\nand\n'{1}'", Item.ValueA, Item.ValueB));
}
}
public class MyItem
{
public string ValueA { get; set; }
public string ValueB { get; set; }
}
}
I found that removing the menu items that are scope depended from the FocusScope of the menu causes the textbox to lose focus correctly. I wouldn't think this applies to ALL items in Menu, but certainly for a save or validate action.
<Menu FocusManager.IsFocusScope="False" >
Assuming that there is more than one control in the tab sequence, the following solution appears to be complete and general (just cut-and-paste)...
Control currentControl = System.Windows.Input.Keyboard.FocusedElement as Control;
if (currentControl != null)
{
// Force focus away from the current control to update its binding source.
currentControl.MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
currentControl.Focus();
}
This is a UGLY hack but should also work
TextBox focusedTextBox = Keyboard.FocusedElement as TextBox;
if (focusedTextBox != null)
{
focusedTextBox.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
}
This code checks if a TextBox has focus... If 1 is found... update the binding source!
Suppose you have a TextBox in a window, and a ToolBar with a Save button in it. Assume the TextBox’s Text property is bound to a property on a business object, and the binding’s UpdateSourceTrigger property is set to the default value of LostFocus, meaning that the bound value is pushed back to the business object property when the TextBox loses input focus. Also, assume that the ToolBar’s Save button has its Command property set to ApplicationCommands.Save command.
In that situation, if you edit the TextBox and click the Save button with the mouse, there is a problem. When clicking on a Button in a ToolBar, the TextBox does not lose focus. Since the TextBox’s LostFocus event does not fire, the Text property binding does not update the source property of the business object.
Obviously you should not validate and save an object if the most recently edited value in the UI has not yet been pushed into the object. This is the exact problem Karl had worked around, by writing code in his window that manually looked for a TextBox with focus and updated the source of the data binding. His solution worked fine, but it got me thinking about a generic solution that would also be useful outside of this particular scenario. Enter CommandGroup…
Taken from Josh Smith’s CodeProject article about CommandGroup
Simple solution is update the Xaml code as shown below
<StackPanel DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource MyItemProvider}}">
<Label Content="Enter some text and then File > Save:" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueA, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding ValueB, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
</StackPanel>
I've run into this issue and the best solution I've found was to change the focusable value of the button (or any other component such as MenuItem) to true:
<Button Focusable="True" Command="{Binding CustomSaveCommand}"/>
The reason it works, is because it forces the button to get focused before it invokes the command and therefore makes the TextBox or any other UIElement for that matter to loose their focus and raise lost focus event which invokes the binding to be changed.
In case you are using bounded command (as I was pointing to in my example), John Smith's great solution won't fit very well since you can't bind StaticExtension into bounded property (nor DP).
Have you tried setting the UpdateSourceTrigger to PropertyChanged? Alternatively, you could call the UpdateSOurce() method, but that seems like a bit overkill and defeats the purpose of TwoWay databinding.
Could you set the focus somewhere else just before saving?
You can do this by calling focus() on a UI element.
You could focus on whatever element invokes the "save". If your trigger is LostFocus then you have to move the focus somewhere. Save has the advantage that it isn't modified and would make sense to the user.
Since I noticed this issue is still a pain in the ass to solve on a very generic way, I tried various solutions.
Eventually one that worked out for me:
Whenever the need is there that UI changes must be validated and updated to its sources (Check for changes upon closeing a window, performing Save operations, ...), I call a validation function which does various things:
- make sure a focused element (like textbox, combobox, ...) loses its focus which will trigger default updatesource behavior
- validate any controls within the tree of the DependencyObject which is given to the validation function
- set focus back to the original focused element
The function itself returns true if everything is in order (validation is succesful) -> your original action (closeing with optional asking confirmation, saveing, ...) can continue. Otherwise the function will return false and your action cannot continue because there are validation errors on one or more elements (with the help of a generic ErrorTemplate on the elements).
The code (validation functionality is based on the article Detecting WPF Validation Errors):
public static class Validator
{
private static Dictionary<String, List<DependencyProperty>> gdicCachedDependencyProperties = new Dictionary<String, List<DependencyProperty>>();
public static Boolean IsValid(DependencyObject Parent)
{
// Move focus and reset it to update bindings which or otherwise not processed until losefocus
IInputElement lfocusedElement = Keyboard.FocusedElement;
if (lfocusedElement != null && lfocusedElement is UIElement)
{
// Move to previous AND to next InputElement (if your next InputElement is a menu, focus will not be lost -> therefor move in both directions)
(lfocusedElement as UIElement).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Previous));
(lfocusedElement as UIElement).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
Keyboard.ClearFocus();
}
if (Parent as UIElement == null || (Parent as UIElement).Visibility != Visibility.Visible)
return true;
// Validate all the bindings on the parent
Boolean lblnIsValid = true;
foreach (DependencyProperty aDependencyProperty in GetAllDependencyProperties(Parent))
{
if (BindingOperations.IsDataBound(Parent, aDependencyProperty))
{
// Get the binding expression base. This way all kinds of bindings (MultiBinding, PropertyBinding, ...) can be updated
BindingExpressionBase lbindingExpressionBase = BindingOperations.GetBindingExpressionBase(Parent, aDependencyProperty);
if (lbindingExpressionBase != null)
{
lbindingExpressionBase.ValidateWithoutUpdate();
if (lbindingExpressionBase.HasError)
lblnIsValid = false;
}
}
}
if (Parent is Visual || Parent is Visual3D)
{
// Fetch the visual children (in case of templated content, the LogicalTreeHelper will return no childs)
Int32 lintVisualChildCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(Parent);
for (Int32 lintVisualChildIndex = 0; lintVisualChildIndex < lintVisualChildCount; lintVisualChildIndex++)
if (!IsValid(VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(Parent, lintVisualChildIndex)))
lblnIsValid = false;
}
if (lfocusedElement != null)
lfocusedElement.Focus();
return lblnIsValid;
}
public static List<DependencyProperty> GetAllDependencyProperties(DependencyObject DependencyObject)
{
Type ltype = DependencyObject.GetType();
if (gdicCachedDependencyProperties.ContainsKey(ltype.FullName))
return gdicCachedDependencyProperties[ltype.FullName];
List<DependencyProperty> llstDependencyProperties = new List<DependencyProperty>();
List<FieldInfo> llstFieldInfos = ltype.GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Static).Where(Field => Field.FieldType == typeof(DependencyProperty)).ToList();
foreach (FieldInfo aFieldInfo in llstFieldInfos)
llstDependencyProperties.Add(aFieldInfo.GetValue(null) as DependencyProperty);
gdicCachedDependencyProperties.Add(ltype.FullName, llstDependencyProperties);
return llstDependencyProperties;
}
}
The easiest way is to set the focus somewhere.
You can set the focus back immediately, but setting the focus anywhere will trigger the LostFocus-Event on any type of control and make it update its stuff:
IInputElement x = System.Windows.Input.Keyboard.FocusedElement;
DummyField.Focus();
x.Focus();
Another way would be to get the focused element, get the binding element from the focused element, and trigger the update manually. An example for TextBox and ComboBox (you would need to add any control type you need to support):
TextBox t = Keyboard.FocusedElement as TextBox;
if ((t != null) && (t.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty) != null))
t.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
ComboBox c = Keyboard.FocusedElement as ComboBox;
if ((c != null) && (c.GetBindingExpression(ComboBox.TextProperty) != null))
c.GetBindingExpression(ComboBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
What do you think about this? I believe I've figured out a way to make it a bit more generic using reflection. I really didn't like the idea of maintaining a list like some of the other examples.
var currentControl = System.Windows.Input.Keyboard.FocusedElement;
if (currentControl != null)
{
Type type = currentControl.GetType();
if (type.GetMethod("MoveFocus") != null && type.GetMethod("Focus") != null)
{
try
{
type.GetMethod("MoveFocus").Invoke(currentControl, new object[] { new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next) });
type.GetMethod("Focus").Invoke(currentControl, null);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new Exception("Unable to handle unknown type: " + type.Name, ex);
}
}
}
See any problems with that?
Using BindingGroup will help to understand and mitigate this kind of problem.
Sometimes we consider to apply MVVM model against WPF data bindings.
For example, we consider about mail's subject property:
<TextBox x:Name="SubjectTextBox" Text="{Binding Subject}" />
TextBox SubjectTextBox is on side of View.
The bound property like ViewModel.Subject will belong to ViewModel.
The problem is that changes remain to View in this case.
When we close the WPF window, WPF TextBox won't loose focus on window close.
It means data binding won't perform writing back, and then changes are lost silently.
Introducing of BindingGroup helps to control whether we should apply changes: from View to ViewModel.
BindingGroup.CommitEdit(); will ensure apply changes of direction View → ViewModel
BindingGroup.CancelEdit(); will ensure to discard changes on View.
If you don't call neither, changes are lost silently!
In the following sample, we attach RibbonWindow_Closing event handler so that we can deal with this case of problem.
XAML:
<R:RibbonWindow Closing="RibbonWindow_Closing" ...>
<FrameworkElement.BindingGroup>
<BindingGroup />
</FrameworkElement.BindingGroup>
...
</R:RibbonWindow>
C#
private void RibbonWindow_Closing(object sender, CancelEventArgs e) {
e.Cancel = !NeedSave();
}
bool NeedSave() {
if (!BindingGroup.CommitEdit()) {
// There may be validation error.
return false; // changes this to true to allow closing.
}
// Insert your business code to check modifications.
// return true; if Saved/DontSave/NotChanged
// return false; if Cancel
}
It should work.

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