Develop Reference

ObservableCollection not returning the new data after it is set

When populating an observable collection, I can see that the "return" is not being called when I "set" the new data in the collection. It does work if I set the data from a different location in the program so I must be not understanding some nuance of the way it works. The part that works is when I take out the commented code under "This works", "ChooseFile()" does not. In the debugger I can see the OptionsToChoose has data in both cases. When it works the XAML is updated correctly.
class ScripterViewModel : BindableBase
{
public ScripterViewModel()
{
ScripterModel scripterModel = new ScripterModel();
ObservableCollection<string> tabsChoice = new ObservableCollection<string>();
tabsChoice.Add("Tabs");
tabsChoice.Add("Buttons");
Tabs = tabsChoice;
this.OpenFileBtn = new DelegateCommand(chooseFile, canChooseFile).ObservesProperty(() => OpenFile);
this.SaveFileBtn = new DelegateCommand(saveFile, canSaveFile).ObservesProperty(() => SaveFile);
//This works
//var myJSONDoc = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JSONclass>(File.ReadAllText(#"C:\Users\mike\Documents\Haas\Scripter\settings.json"));
//OptionsToChoose = new ObservableCollection<Tabbed>(myJSONDoc.TabbedBtns);
}
public void chooseFile()
{
var myJSONDoc = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JSONclass>(File.ReadAllText(#"C:\Users\mike\Documents\Haas\Scripter\settings.json"));
OptionsToChoose = new ObservableCollection<Tabbed>(myJSONDoc.TabbedBtns);
}
public ObservableCollection<Tabbed> _optionsToChoose = new ObservableCollection<Tabbed>();
public ObservableCollection<Tabbed> OptionsToChoose
{
get
{
return _optionsToChoose;
}
set
{
_optionsToChoose = value;
}
}
}

When you are creating the OptionsToChoose in the constructor it will be initialized when the viewmodel is used by the view.
In the example that is not working, you are just replacing the ObservableCollection with a new one instead clearing it and adding the items. Therefore you need to notify that the property has been changed like V.Leon pointed out in his answer.
Or just clear the existing collection and populate it with the values from the json.
var myJSONDoc = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JSONclass>(File.ReadAllText(#"C:\Users\mike\Documents\Haas\Scripter\settings.json"));
OptionsToChoose.Clear();
foreach (var item in myJSONDoc.TabbedBtns)
{
OptionsToChoose.Add(item);
}

You are not raising PropertyChanged event in the setter of OptionsToChoose. You already extend BindableBase, so raising PropertyChanged event can be done by replacing your current OptionsToChoose property implementation with the following:
public ObservableCollection<Tabbed> OptionsToChoose
{
get
{
return _optionsToChoose;
}
set
{
SetProperty(ref _optionsToChoose, value);
}
}
See BindableBase.SetProperty Method

Ideally, you should not change the whole reference of ObservableCollection after it is binded. Instead clear items in it and then add new items in it.
public ObservableCollection<Tabbed> _optionsToChoose = new ObservableCollection<Tabbed>();
public ObservableCollection<Tabbed> OptionsToChoose
{
get
{
return _optionsToChoose;
}
}
OptionsToChoose.Clear();
OptionsToChoose.Add(foo);

As has already been brought up, given your code you would need to make the property for your collection raise PropertyChanged if you were resetting the collection. That said ObservableCollection is really not an ideal collection type to use. What I would recommend is including MvvmHelpers in your project and using the ObservableRangeCollection
public class MyPageViewModel : BindableBase
{
public MyPageViewModel()
{
OptionsToChoose = new ObservableRangeCollection<Tabbed>();
SomeCommand = new DelegateCommand(OnSomeCommandExecuted);
}
public DelegateCommand SomeCommand { get; }
public ObservableRangeCollection<Tabbed> OptionsToChoose { get; }
private void OnSomeCommandExecuted()
{
// get some updated data
IEnumerable<Tabbed> foo = DoFoo();
OptionsToChoose.ReplaceRange(foo);
}
}
You get a couple of benefits there. One you're not allocating and deallocating your collection. Also the ObservableRangeCollection updates the full list before raising PropertyChanged or CollectionChanged events this results in few UI notifications and better app performance.

View model Property setter not hit when dependency property updated

I have a user control with a dependency property:
public ObservableCollection<Exclusion> SelectedExclusions
{
get
{
return (ObservableCollection<Exclusion>)GetValue(SelectedExclusionsProperty);
}
set
{
SetValue(SelectedExclusionsProperty, value);
}
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedExclusionsProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register(nameof(TimeSeriesChart.SelectedExclusions),
typeof(ObservableCollection<Exclusion>),
typeof(TimeSeriesChart),
new PropertyMetadata(default(ObservableCollection<Exclusion>)));
I am adding a selected exclusion to this collection on key down:
protected override void OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e)
{
if(e.Key == Key.Delete)
{
this.SelectedExclusions.Add(this.ExclusionProviders[0].Exclusions[this.hitTestInfo.DataSeriesIndex]);
}
}
In the view model I have this property & backing variable:
private ObservableCollection<TimeSeriesLibraryInterop.Exclusion> selectedExclusionsToDelete = new ObservableCollection<TimeSeriesLibraryInterop.Exclusion>();
public ObservableCollection<TimeSeriesLibraryInterop.Exclusion> SelectedExclusionsToDelete
{
get
{
return this.selectedExclusionsToDelete;
}
set
{
this.selectedExclusionsToDelete = value;
this.RaisePropertyChanged();
}
}
Finally the binding in the view:
<userControl1 SelectedExclusions="{Binding SelectedExclusionsToDelete, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"/>
The dependency property collection is initialised and populated however the view model property setter is never hit when the dependency property collection changes (Add). I have no binding errors in the output window. Is there something I'm missing here?

Looks like you're adding an item to the collection rather than replacing the collection. You won't hit the vm collection property's setter that way.
If you want to your viewmodel to respond to items being added to the SelectedExclusionsToDelete collection, the viewmodel will need to handle the SelectedExclusionsToDelete.CollectionChanged event. "Properly" handling that event (remove, add, move, clear, etc.) is a real hassle, but if it's not a giant collection you can often get away with something quick and dirty: Treat any change as a whole new collection. I think that's exactly the case you've got, too.
Alternatively, for an even quicker and dirtier approach, I think you could make it a two-way binding by default and have the control assign a new ObservableCollection to this.SelectedExclusions in OnKeyDown. The binding will pass it back to the viewmodel and hit the setter.

Set SelectedItem of ComboBox from object

I'm building an MVVM Light WPF app in Visual Studio 2015 with Entity Framework 6 (EF) providing the data. I have a ComboBox that displays the reasons why someone needs to take a drug test and it looks like this:
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding ReasonsForTest}"
SelectedItem="{Binding Path=ReasonsForTestVm,
UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
DisplayMemberPath="Description" />
The ReasonsForTest is of type ReasonForTestViewModel class:
public class ReasonForTestViewModel: ViewModelBase
{
private int _ReasonForTestId;
private string _ReasonForTestAbbr;
private string _description;
public int ReasonForTestId
{
get { return _ReasonForTestId; }
set
{
if (value == _ReasonForTestId) return;
_ReasonForTestId = value;
RaisePropertyChanged();
}
}
public string ReasonForTestAbbr
{
get { return _ReasonForTestAbbr; }
set
{
if (value == _ReasonForTestAbbr) return;
_ReasonForTestAbbr = value;
RaisePropertyChanged();
}
}
public string Description
{
get { return _description; }
set
{
if (value == _description) return;
_description = value;
RaisePropertyChanged();
}
}
}
I have a data service class that contains the following code to fetch the data for the valid values of the ComboBox:
public async Task<ObservableCollection<ReasonForTestViewModel>> GetReasonsForTest()
{
using (var context = new MyEntities())
{
var query = new ObservableCollection<ReasonForTestViewModel>
(from rt in context.ReasonForTests
orderby rt.description
select new ReasonForTestViewModel
{
ReasonForTestId = rt.ReasonForTestID,
ReasonForTestAbbr = rt.ReasonForTestAbbr,
Description = rt.description,
});
return await Task.Run(() => query);
}
}
The view model populates the ComboBox using this:
var dataService = new TestDataService();
ReasonsForTest = await dataService.GetReasonsForTest();
The ComboBox has the correct data; however, it's not selecting the correct value when the app starts -- it's showing blank on load. The SelectedItem (ReasonsForTestVm) is also of that class type ReasonForTestViewModel and gets populated from the database with the one item for this person. I've stepped through the code to ensure ReasonsForTestVm has the correct data, and it does.
Here's the property for ReasonsForTestVm:
public ReasonForTestViewModel ReasonForTestVm
{
get
{
return _reasonForTestVm;
}
set
{
if (Equals(value, _reasonForTestVm)) return;
_reasonForTestVm = value;
RaisePropertyChanged();
}
}
What am I doing wrong here? I'm about to lose my mind!
Update: Sorry for the confusing name in the property above. Fixed.

Any WPF items control that extends Selector (such as ComboBox and ListBox) has two properties that are often used in conjunction: ItemsSource and SelectedItem.
When you bind a collection to ItemsSource, a representation of those items are shown in the UI. Each one of the representations is bound to an instance found within the collection bound to ItemsSource. If, for an example, you're using a DataTemplate to create that representation, you'll find within each that the DataContext will be one of those instances from the collection.
When you select one of these representations, the SelectedItemproperty now holds the instance from the collection that was bound to that representation.
This works perfectly through user interaction with the UI. However, there's one important caveat when interacting with these controls programmatically.
It's a very common pattern to bind these properties to similar properties in your view model.
public class MuhViewModel
{
public MuhItems[] MuhItems {get;} = new[]{ new Item(1), new Item(2) };
// I don't want to show INPC impls in my sample code, kthx
[SuperSlickImplementINotifyPropertyChangedAttribute]
public MuhSelectedItem {get;set;}
}
bound to
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding MuhItems}"
SelectedItem="{Binding MuhSelectedItem}" />
If you try to manually update the selected item this way...
muhViewModel.MuhSelectedItem = new Item(2);
The UI will not change. The Selector sees that ItemsSource has changed, yes, but it doesn't find that instance in the ItemsSource collection. It doesn't know that one instance of Item with a value of 2 is equivalent to any other Item with the same value. So it does nothing. (That's a bit simplistic for what really happens. You can bust out JustDecompile and see for yourself. It gets real convoluted down in there.)
What you should be doing in this situation is updating SelectedItem with an instance found within the collection bound to ItemsSource. In our example,
var derp = muhViewModel.MuhItems.FirstOrDefault(x => x.MuhValue == 2);
muhViewModel.MuhSelectedItem = derp;
Side note, when tracking instances within a debug session, it helps to use Visual Studio's Make Object ID feature.

Why does a ViewModel lose attribute values after being assigned to a DataContext

Recently I've discovered a strange behavior when I assign a ViewModel which comes back from a WCF service call to a DataContext in a UserControl element. When I first assign the ViewModel everything is fine. All XAML bindings are showing the correct and expected values if available.
But let's say I've saved changes in the ViewModel via another service call and get back an updated version of the ViewModel and now like to reassign the new ViewModel to the DataContext sometimes the DataContext and the ViewModel (which has been assigned) are losing attribute values (they are null after assigning).
Let me show you a simplified example to demonstrate
namespace MyProject.ViewModels
{
[DataContract]
public class MyViewModel : ViewModelBase //ViewModelBase implements INotifyPropertyChanged
{
#region Properties
private MyViewModelListItem _myViewModelListItem; //another nested ViewModel
[DataMember]
public MyViewModelListItem myViewModelListItem { get { return _myViewModelListItem; } set { _myViewModelListItem = value; RaisePropertyChanged(() => myViewModelListItem); } }
private string _aStringVariable; //just a simple string
[DataMember]
public string aStringVariable { get { return _aStringVariable; } set { _aStringVariable = value; RaisePropertyChanged(() => aStringVariable); } }
private MyEnum _myEnum; //an enumeration
[DataMember]
public MyEnum myEnum { get { return _myEnum; } set { _myEnum = value;RaisePropertyChanged(() => myEnum); } }
#endregion
}
}
Here is an extract of a simplified code behind of an xaml UserControl
//some other code parts not related to the problem
// get the VM
MyViewModel vm = service.getMyViewModel();
if(vm != null){
//assign the datacontext
userControl.Grid.DataContext = vm; //everything is fine. all values are set as expected. Databinding works like a charm
}
Now let's imagine some changes in the vm via user input and data binding. The viewmodel is saved (calling a WCF service method) and after that I call the service again to get an updated version of the VM:
// get the VM again
vm = service.getMyViewModel();
if(vm != null){
//assign the datacontext
userControl.Grid.DataContext = vm;
}
When I set a breakpoint before the assignment of the new ViewModel all values of any attribute of the ViewModel are set (because the service filled them with values)
But then right after the assignment some of the attribute values are null. I cannot say which one. I'm using a lot of different ViewModels in my project and in this example maybe the string is not null and the nested ViewModel also. But the enumeration is suddenly null. And at another place in the project maybe something else is suddenly null.
I assume that the DataContext variable has a setter method which is doing something strange (or I get it totally wrong).
Does anybody know what's happening here? And in addition what could be a "good" way of preventing this (maybe reassigning is the wrong approach).
For now I just set the DataContext to null before reassigning the ViewModel but it seems not the best way, does it?
vm = service.getMyViewModel();
if(vm != null){
//assign the datacontext
userControl.Grid.DataContext = null;
userControl.Grid.DataContext = vm;
}
Edit:
just to clarify: No viewmodels are saved into a database. They are properly converted to corresponding entities and then these are saved.
changed this to userControl.Grid to be more specific in the examples

MVVM DataBinding

I've started an MVVM project and now I'm stucking with correct DataBinding.
My project has:
A UserControl whit a ViewModel as DataContext like:
public partial class TestUserControl: UserControl
{
public TestUserControl()
{
this.DataContext = new TestUserControlViewModel();
}
}
ViewModel code is (BaseViewModel class contains PropertyChangedEventHandler):
public class TestUserControlViewModel : BaseViewModel
{
public KrankenkasseControlViewModel()
{}
public IEnumerable<DataItem> GetAllData
{
get
{
IGetTheData src= new DataRepository();
return src.GetData();
}
}
}
IGetTheData is the interface to DataContext:
public interface IGetTheData
{
IEnumerable<DataItem> GetData();
}
}
and finally the DataRepository code:
public class DataRepository : IGetTheData
{
private TestProjectDataContext dax = new TestProjectDataContext();
public IEnumerable<DataItem> GetData()
{
return (from d in this.dax.TestData
select new DataItem
{
ID = d.ID,
SomeOtherData = d.SomeOtherData
});
}
}
My UserControl has a few TextBoxes, but what's the best way to bind correctly?
Thanks for your help, regards.

EDIT: Binding the data against multiple textboxes
After reading your comment, I will elaborate my example for textboxes.
First important thing is that the ViewModel will model the things in the View, so that the View gets all information it needs in the structure it needs. That means, if you have multiple textboses in the View, you will need multiple string Properties in your ViewModel, one for each textbox.
In your XAML you could have something like
<TextBox Text="{Binding ID, Mode=TwoWay}" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding SomeOtherData, Mode=TwoWay}" />
and in your ViewModel
public class TestUserControlViewModel : BaseViewModel {
private string id;
private string someOtherData;
public TestUserControlViewModel() {
DataItem firstItem = new DataRepository().GetData().First();
this.ID = firstItem.ID;
this.SomeOtherData = firstItem.SomeOtherData;
}
public string ID {
get {
return this.id;
}
set {
if (this.id == value) return;
this.id = value;
this.OnPropertyChangedEvent("ID");
}
}
public string SomeOtherData {
get {
return this.someOtherData;
}
set {
if (this.someOtherData == value) return;
this.someOtherData = value;
this.OnPropertyChangedEvent("SomeOtherData");
}
}
}
Here I assume that in your BaseViewModel there is an OnPropertyChangedEvent method to fire the corresponding event. This tells the View that the property has changed and it must update itself.
Note the Mode=TwoWay in the XAML. This means, that it doesn't matter on which side the value changes, the other side will reflect the change immediately. So if the user changes a value in a TwoWay bound TextBox, then the corresponding ViewModel property will automatically change! And also vice versa: if you change the ViewModel property programmatically, the View will refresh.
If you want to show multiple textboxes for more than one data item, then you must introduce more Properties in the ViewModel and bind them accordingly. Maybe a ListBox with a flexible number of TextBoxes inside is a solution then, like #Haspemulator already answered.
Binding the data against a collection control
In the TestUserControl I guess you have a control (like a ListView) to show the list of loaded things. So bind that control against the list in the ViewModel with
<ListView ... ItemsSource="{Binding GetAllData}" ... />
First you must understand that Binding means not "read the data and then forget the ViewModel". Instead you bind the View to the ViewModel (and its Properties) as long as the View lasts. From this point of view, AllData is a much better name than GetAllData (thanks #Malcolm O'Hare).
Now in your code, every time the View reads the AllData property, a new DataRepository is created. Because of the Binding, that is not what you want, instead you want to have one instance of DataRepository for the whole lifetime of the View, which is used to read the initial data and can later be used to update the View, if the underlying database changes (maybe with an event).
To enable such a behavior you should change the type of the AllData property to an ObservableCollection, so that the View can automatically update the list if changes occur.
public class TestUserControlViewModel : BaseViewModel
private ObservableCollection<DataItem> allData;
public TestUserControlViewModel() {
IGetTheData src = new DataRepository();
this.allData = new ObservableCollection<DataItem>(src.GetData());
}
public ObservableCollection<DataItem> AllData {
get {
return this.allData;
}
}
public void AddDataItem(DataItem item) {
this.allData.Add(item);
}
}
Now if you call AddDataItem later, the ListView will update itself automatically.

Your Property Name is bad. You should call it AllData, not GetAllData.
Since you are returning a collection, you probably should be using some sort of list control (ListBox, ListView).
In that case you'd be doing
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding GetAllData}" />

Guten Abend. :) As it already mentioned, since you're returning the collection, it's better to use a ListBox. The comment about having ObservableCollection as a cache is also absolutely valid. I would add that if you need to have your data editable, you should use TextBox inside the ItemTemplate:
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBox Text={Binding SomeOtherData,Mode=TwoWay} />
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
In this case if user edits the text in the box, data will be updated in your data object, so that it could be saved in the database later.