Force BindingSource to update data/model - c#

I can't seem to figure this out and couldn't find any answers.
I have a Combobox binded to a property in my model.
I'll just copy and paste key lines in my code:
this.m_typeCombobox.DataBindings.Add(new System.Windows.Forms.Binding("EditValue", this.m_bindingSource, "Type", true, System.Windows.Forms.DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged));
My Model:
public class TypeConfig : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private EnumType<eLType> m_type;
public EnumType<eLType> Type
{
get { return m_type; }
set
{
if (m_type!= value)
{
m_type= value;
var handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Type"));
}
}
}
I need to have the model updated on combobox EditValueChanged event but it looks like the model is updated later. EditValueChanged is the latest called event when changing.
I have tried this:
void m_TypeCombobox_EditValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
m_bindingSource.EndEdit(); //this doesn't work
//need to have the new value here
}
Here's what MSDN says:
When the EndEdit method is called, all pending changes are applied to the underlying data source.
This method has no effect unless the objects contained by the data source implement the IEditableObject interface. If the objects do not implement the IEditableObject interface, changes to the data are copied to the underlying data source immediately after each change.
So, from my undesrstanding the model should be immediately updated when changing the combobox value.
I'm using a DevExpress combobox that's pretty much the same as a normal WinForms combobox.
How can i workaround this?

try to make binding to "Value" property, rather than "EditValue"
I hope it helps you

For BindingSource.EndEdit to do anything, You need to implement System.ComponentModel.IEditableObject for the items contained within the BindingSource.
When you invoke "EndEdit" on the binding source, it subsequently invokes the corresponding IEditableObject.EndEdit() method on the items in it's list that implement IEditableObject.
Having said that, I am having some issues with EndEdit not being called for all items that BeginEdit has been called on when, eg, the user closes the form.

Related

How to subscribe to events fired from any collection element in C#?

I have made the following Dictionary, and I would like to be able to subscribe to the event fired from any of its' elements, in order to know which dictionary elements' properties were changed.
Here is my class:
public class BlockInput : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
public void NotifyPropertyChanged(string PropertyName)
{
PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(PropertyName));
}
private int _value;
public int Value
{
get
{
return _value;
}
set
{
_value = Value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("Value");
}
}
}
I create a concurrent dictionary like the following:
public ConcurrentDictionary<string, BlockInput> Inputs;
How would this be achieved, in order for me to find every time that one of the BlockInput values were changed/event for each element fired?
Thanks for your time.
I don't believe you have another way than manually subscribing to all events yourself:
foreach (BlockInput item in Inputs.Values) {
item.PropertyChanged += BlockInput_PropertyChanged;
}
private void BlockInput_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e) {
var blockInput = sender as BlockInput; // Get the item that was changed
// Do stuff
}
You would have to subscribe to all added items and unsubscribe from removed ones as well if you plan to add or remove items from the Dictionary.
In practical use of this Interface (wich is primarily MVVM) usually this is enough. You have the GUI classes do all the plumbing work of subscribing to events. You only need to provide 3 Change Notifications:
The one of each property of BlockInput. You did that in your example code.
The one if something is added or removed from the Collection. That is what ObservableCollection<BlockInput> will take care off. It is also the only thing the OC will take care off.
The one on the property exposing the ObservableCollection<BlockInput>. The OC is notoriously bad at bulk modifications, so often you need to prepare a new instance in code, with Exposing being the last step.
If you do not have a MVVM use case, please leave a comment. I can think of 2 ways on top of manually subscribing to each Event.

ItemsSource binding do not update values

I need to make list of items. I binded collection of users to listbox. Everything works quite well, but items in listbox aren't updated in real time. They aren't updated at all by this binding. So when I remove any user from the list, listbox isn't updated even if its source is correctly changed.
Source is located in data view model at path DataViewModel.Instance.AllUsers; Whenever I add to this list new item or remove one, layout does not update. Other bindings work well. I tried to update listbox layout, to raise event of source update, other way of adding/removing items, but nothing worked.
I tried to debug binding, but I have too many bindings to find the error.
Thanks in advance for any useful advice.
Listbox:
<ListBox x:Name="ListboxUsers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=AllUsers, Mode=OneWay}" Grid.Column="1" Margin="0" Grid.Row="5" Background="DimGray" BorderThickness="0" Visibility="Hidden" SelectionChanged="ListboxUsers_SelectionChanged"/>
Code-behind:
CatalogueGrid.DataContext = DataViewModel.Instance; //whole view model added as datacontext
DataViewModel class:
public class DataViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private static DataViewModel _dataViewModel;
private Collection<UserModel> allUsers;
public Collection<UserModel> AllUsers
{
get
{
return allUsers;
}
set
{
allUsers = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("AllUsers");
}
}
private DataViewModel()
{
AllUsers = new Collection<UserModel>();
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string info)
{
PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
{
handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
}
}
.
.
.
}
use ObservableColLection instead if Collection wich implements the INotifyCollectionChanged Interface :
private ObservableCollection<UserModel> allUsers;
public ObservableCollection<UserModel> AllUsers
{
get
{
return allUsers;
}
set
{
allUsers = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("AllUsers");
}
}
For changes to the collection to propagate to the UI, the collection class needs to implement INotifyCollectionChanged.
A very useful class that already implements this is ObservableCollection<T> (MSDN). Use that instead of Collection<T>.
You have bound your listbox to a Collection<T> - that is just a list, which does not issue any notifications to bound properties that its contents has changed. Hence, your listbox cannot possibly know when the collection has changed.
Instead, you can use the ObservableCollection<T> class (or, more precisely, any collection that also implements INotifyCollectionChanged), and changes will be automatically propagated to the listbox.
Note that your property does not have to be typed as ObservableCollection<T>, you can also just declare your public property as IEnumerable<T> or IList<T>; the binding will find out on its own whether the returned class also implements INotifyCollectionChanged. Like this, you are free to replace your actual underlying collection class later on, for example with a ReadOnlyObservableCollection<T>, in case you want to disallow changes from the outside.
Speaking of this, a note on your code: You have provided your AllUsers property with a setter. This may lead to undesired consequences, as you open up possibilities for some other code to set the property to null, which (depending on the rest of your code) might lead to exceptions. Unless you actually want to allow assigning new values, for the ItemsSource property binding, a read-only property is fully sufficient, as long as the returned collection object implements INotifyCollectionChanged.

How to have bindable properties of a UserControl which work with OnPropertyChanged

I have a simple usercontrol (WinForms) with some public properties. When I use this control, I want to databind to those properties with the DataSourceUpdateMode set to OnPropertyChanged. The datasource is a class which implements INotifyPropertyChanged.
I'm aware of the need to create bindings against the properties and I'm doing that.
I assumed that my usercontrol would have to implement an interface, or the properties would need to be decorated with some attribute, or something along those lines.But my research has come up blank.
How should this be accomplished? At the moment I'm doing it by calling OnValidating() in my usercontrol whenever a property changes, but that doesn't seem right.
I can get validation to happen if I set the CausesValidation to true on the usercontrol, but that's not very useful to me. I need to validate each child property as it changes.
Note this is a WinForms situation.
EDIT: Evidently I have no talent for explanation so hopefully this will clarify what I'm doing. This is an abbreviated example:
// I have a user control
public class MyControl : UserControl
{
// I'm binding to this property
public string ControlProperty { get; set; }
public void DoSomething()
{
// when the property value changes, the change should immediately be applied
// to the bound datasource
ControlProperty = "new value";
// This is how I make it work, but it seems wrong
OnValidating();
}
}
// the class being bound to the usercontrol
public class MyDataSource : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private string sourceProperty;
public string SourceProperty
{
get { return sourceProperty; }
set
{
if (value != sourceProperty)
{
sourceProperty = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("SourceProperty");
}
}
}
// boilerplate stuff
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
protected void NotifyPropertyChanged(string info)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
}
}
public class MyForm : Form
{
private MyControl myControl;
public MyForm()
{
// create the datasource
var dataSource = new MyDataSource() { SourceProperty = "test" };
// bind a property of the datasource to a property of the usercontrol
myControl.DataBindings.Add("ControlProperty", dataSource, "SourceProperty",
false, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged); // note the update mode
}
}
(I have tried this using a BindingSource, but the result was the same.)
Now what I want to happen is that when the value of MyControl.ControlProperty changes, the change is immediately propagated to the datasource (the MyDataSource instance). To achieve this I call OnValidating() in the usercontrol after changing the property. If I don't do that, I have to wait until validation gets triggered by a focus change, which is the equivalent of the "OnValidation" update mode, rather than the desired "OnPropertyUpdate" validation mode. I just don't feel like calling OnValidating() after altering a property value is the right thing to do, even if it (kind of) works.
Am I right in assuming the calling OnValidating() is not the right way to do this? If so, how do I notify the datasource of the ControlProperty change?
I think I've got this figured out. I didn't understand how change notifications were sent from control to bound datasource.
Yes, calling OnValidating() is the wrong way.
From what I've pieced together, there are two ways a control can notify the datasource that a property has changed.
One way is for the control to implement INotifyPropertyChanged. I had never done this from the control side before, and I thought only the datasource side of the binding had to implement it.
When I implemented INotifyPropertyChanged on my user control, and raised the PropertyChanged event at the appropriate time, it worked.
The second way is for the control to raise a specific change event for each property. The event must follow the naming convention: <propertyname>Changed
e.g. for my example it would be
public event EventHandler ControlPropertyChanged
If my property was called Foo, it would be FooChanged.
I failed to notice the relavent part of the MSDN documentation, where it says:
For change notification to occur in a
binding between a bound client and a
data source, your bound type should
either:
Implement the INotifyPropertyChanged
interface (preferred).
Provide a change event for each
property of the bound type.
This second way is how all existing WinForms controls work, so this is how I'm doing it now. I use INotifyPropertyChanged on my datasource, but I raise the Changed events on my control. This seems to be the conventional way.
Implementing the INotifyPropertyChanged interface is very simple. Here is a sample that shows an object with a single public field...
public class Demo : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(String info)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
}
private string _demoField;
public string DemoField
{
get {return demoField; }
set
{
if (value != demoField)
{
demoField = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("DemoField");
}
}
}
}
Then you would create a Binding instance to bind a control property to a property (DemoField) on your source instance (instance of Demo).

WPF datagrid refreshes on it's own when it's not supposed to

I feel like I'm missing something here, but I have this datagrid which when the datasource changes, automatically redraws it self with no logical reason for it doing so.
I have the datagrid bound to a DataView property which implements INotifyPropertyChanged and I want to do some other stuff when that event is fired before calling Refresh().
So here is the datasource.
public class MainScreenDataView : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
void OnPropertyChanged(string name)
{
PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
{
handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
}
}
DataView _dataview;
public DataView GetDataView
{
get { return _dataview; }
set
{
_dataview = value;
OnPropertyChanged("GetDataView");
}
}
public MainScreenDataView()
{
}
}
And the binding (I call this in the constructor of the window)
public void MakeData()
{
MiddleMan midman = MiddleMan.Instance;
midman.PropertyChanged += new System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler(midman_PropertyChanged); //unrelated event for error messages
midman.InstantiateAll();
Binding bind = new Binding();
bind.Source = midman.GetDict["contact"].GetDataView; //GetDict is a dictionary that holds instances of MainScreenDataView
bind.UpdateSourceTrigger = UpdateSourceTrigger.Explicit;
DG_Contacts.SetBinding(BetterDataGrid.ItemsSourceProperty, bind);
}
The class that updates the DataView with data from a database has access to that same instance of MainScreenDataView as the window. The instance is kept in a dictionary in a singleton.
Now I see no reason why the datagrid would refresh it self, I even tried removing the INotifyPropertyChanged stuff from MainScreenDataview and yet it keeps the same behavior.
Guess there's something I'm missing here. Default behavior somewhere that needs to be overridden or something?
You've got target and source swapped. Done it myself. The UpdateSourceTrigger.Explicit setting affects how the binding updates the source which is the MainScreenDataView.GetDataView property not the DataGrid.ItemSource. The DataGrid.ItemSource is the target.
Removing INotifyPropertyChanged from MainScreenDataView will have no effect on a singleton because the instance doesn't change, only the values inside the instance. In other words, GetDataView is a "set it and forget it" property.
As long as the binding is in effect, there is no way to prevent changes made to the collection from being propagated by the binding system unless you suppress DataView.CollectionChanged events from firing or block so that the binding subsystem simply doesn't run.
If you really want this you can disconnect the binding and set it again when you are ready or create an entirely new DataView and overwrite the binding when you are ready.

INotifyPropertyChange ~ PropertyChanged not firing when property is a collection and a new item is added to the collection

I have a class that implements the INotifyPropertyChanged interface. Some of the properties of the class are of type List. For example:
public List<string> Answers
{
get { return _answers; }
set
{
_answers = value;
onPropertyChanged("Answers")
}
}
...
private void onPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
if(this.PropertyChanged != null)
this.PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
If I assign a new List<string> to Answer, then the PropertyChanged event fires as expected; but if I add a string string to the Answer list using the List Add method, then PropertyChanged event doesn't fire.
I was considering adding an AddAnswer() method to my class, which would handle calling the lists's Add method and would call onPropertyChanged() from there, but is that the right way to do it? Is there a more elegant way of doing it?
Cheers,
KT
You should expose an ObservableCollection<string>, which implements the INotifyCollectionChange interface to raise its own change events.
You should also remove the property setter; Collection properties should be read only.
You should not raise the PropertyChanged event when the contents of the collection change.
Ok I just finally experienced this issue, and there are NO complete answers on the Internet afaikt, so here is the missing piece that no one mentions (maybe because the assume that we are not complete morons and have NOT deleted the default constructor, or have alteast extended the default constructor) anyhow:
Make certain that you DID NOT delete the InitializeComponent(); call in the constructor of your View.
Without this call BEFORE you set DataContext of the view, NotifyPropertyChanged Event will ALWAYS BE NULL. I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out what was different between two different MVVM userControls. I guess my mind is so used to seeing InitializeComponent(); that it did not register that it was missing. I added that back and viola!
Hope This Helps Other Dummies Like Me!
Cheers,
Code Warrior Malo
It's not firing because the collection reference isn't changing, just the contents. You'd need the collection's Add() method to fire the event to be able to see it.
have a look at System.Collections.ObjectModel.ObservableCollection. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms668604.aspx
It can be used like a List but has events built in for when its contents change.
ObservableCollection is your answer. If you want to fire on collection property changes, you'll need to implement INotifyPropertyChanged for each of the properties you'd like to track.
You should add an event listener to your _answers collection. Unfortunately, List<T> doesn't provide such an event.
As a suggestion, manage _answers as an ObservableCollection<string>, and properly attach/detach an event handler for the CollectionChanged event, as follows:
public ObservableCollection<string> Answers
{
get { return _answers; }
set
{
// Detach the event handler from current instance, if any:
if (_answers != null)
{
_answers.CollectionChanged -= _answers_CollectionChanged;
}
_answers = value;
// Attatach the event handler to the new instance, if any:
if (_answers != null)
{
_answers.CollectionChanged += _answers_CollectionChanged;
}
// Notify that the 'Answers' property has changed:
onPropertyChanged("Answers");
}
}
private void _answers_CollectionChanged(object sender,
NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
onPropertyChanged("Answers");
}

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