Develop Reference

How to bind different properties to SelectedItem and SelectedIValue of ComboBox?

I have a thread that updates the current Mode property every second. I also want an option to be able to set a mode within the same cell in datagrid. So, in not editing mode I just show the mode. In editing mode, I show a populated ComboBox.
Now,
to be able to show the selected item in ComboBox, when I enter the editing mode, I bind the SelectedItem to Mode.
to be able to get the changes back to the ViewModel I bind SelectedValue to a different property. ( I need to bind to a different property since 'Mode' is updated every second and will overwrite the selected value).
The problem is that though SelectedItem is bound with Mode=OneTime it still triggers SelectedValue property. I want the SelectedValue to be triggered only when user select a value.
I hope it's clear what I'm trying to do. So, how I can achieve this? Other approaches are welcome (even if I need to use a different control).
<DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Mode">
<DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Mode}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
<DataGridTemplateColumn.CellEditingTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource Modes}}"
SelectedItem="{Binding Mode, Mode=OneTime}"
SelectedValue="{Binding ModeToSet, Mode=OneWayToSource}"
/>
</DataTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn.CellEditingTemplate>
</DataGridTemplateColumn>

The premise of what needs to be done is not attainable due to the way the combobox works and how Mode is constantly changing in the background.
Why?
The problem is that though SelectedItem is bound with Mode=OneTime it
still triggers SelectedValue property.
As it should. OneTime as per the docs (BindingMode Enumeration) states:
"Updates the binding target when the application starts or when the data context changes."
The data context as per your design is always changing once a second. If one reads farther into the description it states
"This type of binding is appropriate if you are using data where either a snapshot of the current state is appropriate to use or the data is truly static. ... This is essentially a simpler form of OneWay binding..."
And if one reads up on OneWay bindings
"Updates the binding target (target) property when the binding source (source) changes. This type of binding is appropriate if the control being bound is implicitly read-only."
A combo box is ultimately designed to change both SelectedItem and to get the value off of SelectedItem into SelectedValue
I want the SelectedValue to be triggered only when user select a value.
The problem is not going out of the control, it is what is coming in....
Create a test project and the combobox behaves the way you specify, selected value is only triggered when a user selects a value. Comboboxes only sets the SelectedX properties when a choice is made or an outside value has changed one so it changes the other.
Since Mode is constantly changing it is pushing the change into the selection, not visa versa.
Suggestion To Fix
I suggest you take a snapshot of mode and place that into a ModeOnEdit variable and bind that. When the user makes the selection, capture the event and change the actual Mode.
Test Project
Bind to your own data source, mine was Ships. Ships is a list with and Name as a property on that object. ToString on the ship object returns Name.
Here is the result, there are two textboxes which show the state of the selected item/value. A button to set the selected value and the combobox itself.
<Label Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1">SelectedItem</Label>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2" Text="{Binding SelectedItem, ElementName=cbMain}"/>
<Label Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="2">SelectedValue</Label>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="2" Text="{Binding SelectedValue, ElementName=cbMain}"/>
<Button Grid.Row="5" Grid.Column="1" Click="ChangeSelectedValue">Set Selected Value</Button>
<ComboBox Name="cbMain"
Grid.Row="5"
Grid.Column="2"
ItemsSource="{Binding Ships}"
SelectedValuePath="Name"/>
-- Code behind
private void ChangeSelectedValue(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
cbMain.SelectedValue = "Pacific Silver";
}

WPF Combobox issue

I have a combo box in a wpf c# application. In the xaml i am trying to do the following.
The ItemsSource comes from one variable.
SelectedItem sets a value on another variable
But i want the text displayed to come from a new variable.
How do i stop making the selected itemssource appear as the main text?
<ComboBox x:Name="ComboPlay" FontSize="14" MinHeight="20" Margin="0,2,4,4" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="3" MinWidth="160"
ItemsSource="{Binding ComboBoxList}"
SelectedItem="{Binding OutputChannel.Value, Converter={StaticResource ResourceKey=ValueToStringConverter}}" Grid.ColumnSpan="1"
IsEnabled="{Binding IsDriveChoiceEnabled}"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalContentAlignment="Center"/>

If you mean changing the display of the item currently selected (the portion of the control shown when the dropdown is closed), take a look at Can I use a different Template for the selected item in a WPF ComboBox than for the items in the dropdown part?
Honestly, a quick search dug up that one and many similar ones. Probably the simplest way, like the linked answer, is to figure out if your item is wrapped in a ComboBoxItem and display it differently then. Or you could re-template the ComboBox. Or you could derive from it (and re-template it) and provide a separate dependency property for the template of the selected item, if you expect to reuse it in different contexts. The sky's the limit.

Why does my comboBox not allow me to add values to it?

I have this WinRT XAML:
<ComboBox x:Name="comboxGroupName" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Margin="4" Width="200" Height="36" HorizontalAlignment="Left" ></ComboBox>
When I click in it to enter a new value, though, it seems to convert itself into a readonly textbox (it loses its down arrow and disallows any typing into it). What do I need to do to allow adding values into the comboBox? Or do I need to use a separate TextBox to do that (I reckon so, but I'd like to avoid that if reasonably possible)?

It looks like your only option will be to use a seperate TextBox. There is an IsEditable property, but it states:
Gets a value that indicates whether the user can edit text in the text box portion of the ComboBox. This property always returns false.
and the ComboBox Page states:
You populate the ComboBox by adding objects directly to the Items collection or by binding the ItemsSource property to a data source. Items added to the ComboBox are wrapped in ComboBoxItem containers.

selected value combo box binding not working

I have a window control in which I am loading a wpf user control. The wpf user control contains a combo box which is bound to a property in the view model. When I am debugging the code selected value property always has a value. When the control is loaded for the first time I am getting the selected value, but when I reload the control the combo box gets cleared. I tried everything; updating the source and other stuff, but it's still not working. I even set the datacontext in code behind, but am still not getting the expected output.
This is the XAML code:
<ComboBox x:Name="cmbType" Style="{StaticResource ComboBoxStyle}"
PreviewTextInput="cmbErrorType_PreviewTextInput" IsEditable="True"
MaxDropDownHeight="100" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=TypeList,Mode=OneWay}"
SelectedValue="{Binding Path=SelectedValue}" DisplayMemberPath="Id"
SelectedValuePath="Id" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="2"/>

Tabbing or Deselecting Cell not Committing Data

I am working with the the WPF Toolkit DataGrid and currently have a problem with committing data back to the source.
My grid is bound to a CLR object list and I have a converter with both the convert and convert back methods implemented.
The two way binding works fine if the user hits Enter in the cells but if they deselect or tab out of the cells the data that was typed is lost.
I have put a break on the CellEditEnding event and both events for Tab and Enter seem identical, but when it gets to the ConvertBack method on my converter the value is empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Try changing the UpdateSourceTrigger parameter of your control's Binding to PropertyChanged instead of the default LostFocus.
Eg
<TextBox
Width="75"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
Margin="10"
Text="{Binding
Source={StaticResource data},
Path=Age,
UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged,
ValidatesOnDataErrors=True,
ValidatesOnExceptions=True}"
Style="{StaticResource textBoxInError}" />