How do I stop binding properties from updating? - wpf

Question

I have a dialog that pops up over the main screen (it's actually a user control that appears on the page as per the application demo from Billy Hollis) in my application that has data from the main screen to be edited. The main screen is read only.
The problem I have is that when I change the data in the dialog, the data on the main screen updates as well. Clearly they are bound to the same object, but is there a way to stop the binding update until I click save in my dialog?

Answer 1

You could use a BindingGroup :
...
<StackPanel Name="panel">
<StackPanel.BindingGroup>
<BindingGroup Name="bindingGroup"/>
</StackPanel.BindingGroup>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Foo}"/>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Bar}"/>
<Button Name="btnSubmit" Content="Submit" OnClick="btnSubmit_Click"/>
<Button Name="btnCancel" Content="Cancel" OnClick="btnCancel_Click"/>
</StackPanel>
...
Code behind :
private void UserControl_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
panel.BindingGroup.BeginEdit();
}
private void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
panel.BindingGroup.CommitEdit();
panel.BindingGroup.BeginEdit();
}
private void btnCancel_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
panel.BindingGroup.CancelEdit();
panel.BindingGroup.BeginEdit();
}

Answer 2

Have a look at the Binding.UpdateSourceTrigger property.
You can set the Binding in your dialog like so
<TextBox Name="myTextBox"
Text={Binding Path=MyProperty, UpdateSourceTrigger=Explicit} />
And then call the UpdateSource method in your button save event
myTextBox.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource();
Once you've called UpdateSource the source object will be updated with the value from the TextBox

Answer 3

I also choose to use BindingGroup. But instead of BeginEdit() / CommitEdit() / CancelEdit() pattern I call UpdateSource() explicitly on all the bindings associated with BindingGroup. This approach allows me to add only one event handler instead of 3.
private void OkButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
CommitChanges();
DialogResult = true;
Close();
}
private void CommitChanges()
{
foreach (var bindingExpression in this.BindingGroup.BindingExpressions)
{
bindingExpression.UpdateSource();
}
}