Develop Reference

Updating user control content from a different control

I am new to wpf format, and ran into a problem at the end of my project.
So let's say I have a top bar, with one textbox and a button.
When the user clicks the button, the user control below this bar should update with the search results from the textbox, and it does, except it does not refresh the UI, only the data storage. For simplicity I will post a demo code modelling the issue, with a single string property.
<!-- the main window -->
<Window.DataContext>
<local:CustomerViewModel/>
</Window.DataContext>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" VerticalAlignment="Top" Grid.Row="0">
<Label Content="content of the textbox: " Margin="10"/>
<TextBox Width="300" Text="{Binding Customer.Name}"/>
<Button Content="Update" Command="{Binding UpdateCommand}"/>
</StackPanel>
<DockPanel Grid.Row="1">
<local:TestControl />
</DockPanel>
user control:
<!-- the user control named TestControl-->
<UserControl.DataContext>
<local:CustomerViewModel />
</UserControl.DataContext>
<DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
<Label DockPanel.Dock="Top" Content="Saved" />
<Label DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" Content="{Binding Info, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
</DockPanel>
datamodel class:
public class Customer : ObservableObject
{
private string mName;
public string Name
{
get => mName;
set
{
if (value != mName)
{
mName = value;
OnPropertyChanged(nameof(Name));
}
}
}
}
viewmodel class:
public class CustomerViewModel : ObservableObject
{
private Customer mCustomer;
public Customer Customer
{
get => mCustomer;
set
{
if (value != mCustomer)
{
mCustomer = value;
OnPropertyChanged(nameof(Customer));
}
}
}
private string mInfo;
public string Info
{
get => mInfo;
set
{
if (value != mInfo)
{
mInfo = value;
OnPropertyChanged(nameof(Info));
}
}
}
private ICommand mUpdateCommand;
public ICommand UpdateCommand
{
get
{
if (mUpdateCommand == null)
{
mUpdateCommand = new RelayCommand(p => SaveChanges());
}
return mUpdateCommand;
}
}
public void SaveChanges()
{
Info = Customer.Name + " was updated";
MessageBox.Show(Info);
}
public CustomerViewModel()
{
mCustomer = new Customer();
mCustomer.Name = "Test";
Info = mCustomer.Name;
}
}
The correct value is displayed in the messagebox, but it does not change in the user control. I am calling the property changed interface, and have tried to invoke the button press with dispatcher.invoke, same issue, am I missing something very obvious here?

Your usercontrol is creating its own personal instance of the viewmodel, and using that for its DataContext. That usercontrol instance then sets Info on itself, not on the CustomerViewModel that the parent window has for its own datacontext.
<UserControl.DataContext>
<local:CustomerViewModel />
</UserControl.DataContext>
Remove those three lines from your usercontrol. Keep the corresponding lines in the window. The usercontrol will then inherit its datacontext from its parent, and they'll both be on the same page.
Those three lines aren't just declaring the type of viewmodel the view uses; they're creating an actual instance of the class and assigning it to DataContext.

Changing the ViewModel's property from another ViewModel

I have the ListBox on my MainView.xaml, selecting the Item forces the ContentControl to display different UserControls. I use Caliburn.Micro library in this propgram. Here's some code:
<ListBox Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" x:Name="ItemsListBox" SelectedItem="0" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding TextBlock1Text}" x:Name="TextBlock1"/>
<ContentControl Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="1" Content="{Binding ElementName=ItemsListBox, Path=SelectedItem.Content}" />
The MainViewModel.cs:
private string _name;
public string Name
{
get => _name;
set
{
_name = value;
NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => Name);
}
}
private string _textBlock1Text;
public string TextBlock1Text
{
get => _textBlock1Text;
set
{
_textBlock1Text = value;
NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => TextBlock1Text);
}
}
public MainViewModel()
{
TextBlock1Text = "Test";
Items = new ObservableCollection<ItemsModel>()
{
new ItemsModel { Name="Useless", Content=null },
new ItemsModel { Name="TextChangerViewModel", Content=new TextChangerViewModel(TextBlock1Text) }
};
}
public ObservableCollection<ItemsModel> Items { get; set; }
The ItemsModel.cs:
public class ItemsModel
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public object Content { get; set; }
}
And finally the TextChangerViewModel.cs:
public class TextChangerViewModel : Conductor<object>
{
private string _textBlock1Text;
public string TextBlock1Text
{
get => _textBlock1Text;
set
{
_textBlock1Text = value;
NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => TextBlock1Text);
}
}
public TextChangerViewModel(string textBlock1Text) //passing parameter from another ViewModel
{
TextBlock1Text = textBlock1Text;
}
}
So, the main question is how to change the TextBlock1Text (and the Text value of TextBlock in .xaml as well) in the MainViewModel.cs from the TextChangerViewModel.cs? I was thinking about using something like NotifyCollectionChanged on my Items ObservableCollection, but it work with collection of ItemsModel, not with the VM's, so I'm stuck here.
I'm also not sure if having public object Content { get; set; } in ItemsModel.cs is a good thing if I'm targeting the MVVM pattern, but I don't know the other way to do it (I'm very new to MVVM).
UPD
I'm looking for the property-changing way because I need to change the TextBlock1Text Text from another UserControl. Suppose I have the button on my TextChangerView.xaml: <Button Grid.Row="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Content="Change da text" cal:Message.Attach="ChangeTextButton"/>
And after the click on it I want the text on the parental MainView.xaml to change. But the thing is, I don't know how to change properties in this case, as I wrote above why.

Change the the binding of textblox1 to reference the selected item.
<TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding ElementName=ItemsListBox, Path=SelectedItem.Name}" x:Name="TextBlock1"/>
or
<TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding ElementName=ItemsListBox, Path=SelectedItem.Content.TextBlock1Text}" x:Name="TextBlock1"/>

How to bind data to ViewModel wrapper and pass it to RelayCommand as parameter?

I have been searching the web, but can't find the answer i need.
I have a list where the user can choose some items. In my ViewModel it looks like this:
public ObservableCollection<RentalItemVM> ChosenRentalItems {
get { return chosenRentalItems; }
set {
chosenRentalItems = value;
RaisePropertyChanged("ChosenRentalItems");
}
}
When the user is done selecting, he presses a button to save his collection. It works fine if I setup my RelayCommand like this:
public RelayCommand<ObservableCollection<RentalItemVM>> FinishCommand { get; set; }
private void Finish(ObservableCollection<RentalItemVM> chosenItems) {
...
}
Now I need to get the UserId as well, so after some research I found out that I can't pass more than one paramater to the RelayCommand so I need a wrapper. I've made a new ViewModel:
public class OrderVM {
public int UserId { get; set; }
ObservableCollection<RentalItemVM> ChosenItems { get; set; }
}
and changed the RelayCommand to this:
public RelayCommand<OrderVM> FinishCommand { get; set; }
private void Finish(OrderVM order) {
...
}
And i changed the XAML UserControl from this:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"
Grid.Row="3"
Grid.ColumnSpan="2"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<TextBox Text="UserId" />
<Button Content="Finish"
Command="{Binding FinishCommand}"
CommandParameter="{Binding ChosenRentalItems}"
UseLayoutRounding="False"
FontSize="24" />
</StackPanel>
to this:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"
Grid.Row="3"
Grid.ColumnSpan="2"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<TextBox Text="UserId"
x:Name="UserId" />
<Button Content="Finish"
Command="{Binding FinishCommand}"
CommandParameter="{Binding OrderVM}"
UseLayoutRounding="False"
FontSize="24" />
</StackPanel>
Now this is where I get confused. I have no idea how to bind the UserId and ChosenItems. The OrderVM parameter in the RelayCommand is null, so maybe I need to instantiate it first?
Most answers that I found on the web were about displaying data from a ViewModel in a View, but almost no answers on how to post data (or I searched for the wrong things?)

If the command FinishCommand is in the same view model of the DataConext, you can bind UserId too.
<TextBox Text="{Binding UserId} " x:Name="UserId"></TextBox>
and take UserId from your ViewModel instance where command is implemented.
private void Finish(ObservableCollection<RentalItemVM> chosenItems) {
var userid = this.UserId;
foo(userid);
}

Best approach to add an item to a databound Listbox using MVVM pattern?

I'm facing a problem in my WPF project at the moment. At this moment I have a Viewmodel which has a Manager (to communicate with the repo).
internal class TicketViewModel
{
private TicketManager mgr;
public IEnumerable<Ticket> List { get; set; }
public TicketViewModel()
{
mgr = new TicketManager();
List = mgr.GetTickets();
}
}
I've managed to bind this list to the Listbox in my MainWindow. The next step is that I need to add an extra ticket to the list and also pass this through the manager. The problem is I need two parameters from some Controls in the MainWindow. From MVVM perspective I need to use bound Commands on e.g. a Button to communicate with the viewmodel as my viewmodel can't/may not access controls from the window. Is using parameterized Commands the way to go here?
The next problem is that the Listbox won't update I guess. This is the code:
<ListBox x:Name="listboxTix" BorderThickness="0" ItemsSource="{Binding List}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border BorderBrush="Bisque" Background="Beige" BorderThickness="2">
<StackPanel Width="250">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding TicketNumber}" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding State}" />
</StackPanel>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
I found that using a CompareableCollection is the way to go here, but then I still have to read all the Tickets again after adding a new Ticket.
Thanks in advance,
Hicy

okay here is the code.
Lets say you have three textboxes on MainWindow(since you have three Textblocks.) so Your MainWindow.xaml looks like
<Window.DataContext>
<local:MyViewModel/>--set's your viewModel
</Window.DataContext>
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="250*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="90"/>
<RowDefinition Height="30"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<ListBox Grid.Row="0" x:Name="listboxTix" BorderThickness="0" ItemsSource="{Binding List}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Border BorderBrush="Bisque" Background="Beige" BorderThickness="2">
<StackPanel Width="250">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding TicketNumber}" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding State}" />
</StackPanel>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
<TextBox x:Name="TicketNumber" Grid.Row="1" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding Path=Text}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120"/>
<TextBox x:Name="Text" Grid.Row="1" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding Path=State}" />
<TextBox x:Name="State" Grid.Row="1" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding Path=TicketNumber}" />
<Button Content="Button" Command="{Binding Path=MainCommand}" Grid.Row="2"/>
</Grid>
and I am assuming that you have some class called class Ticket which contain these three members
Class Ticket
{
public int TicketNumber { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
public string State { get; set; }
}
Now in class TicketManager we fill it with some dummy data
class TicketManager
{
ObservableCollection<Ticket> tl = new ObservableCollection<Ticket>();
internal ObservableCollection<Ticket> GetTickets()
{
tl.Add(new Ticket() { State = "State1", Text = "Text1", TicketNumber = 1 });
tl.Add(new Ticket() { State = "State2", Text = "Text2", TicketNumber = 2 });
tl.Add(new Ticket() { State = "State3", Text = "Text3", TicketNumber = 3 });
return tl;
}
}
and in your Mainwindow ViewModel lets call it MyViewModel.cs we add
class MyViewModel:INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private TicketManager mgr;
public ObservableCollection<Ticket> List { get; set; }
private string text;
private string state;
private int ticketNumber;
private readonly DelegateCommand<object> MyButtonCommand;
public Class1()
{
mgr = new TicketManager();
List = mgr.GetTickets();
MyButtonCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>((s) => { AddListToGrid(text, state, ticketNumber); }, (s) => { return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(state); });
}
private void AddListToGrid(string text, string state, int ticketNumber)
{
List.Add(new Ticket() {Text=text,State=state,TicketNumber=ticketNumber });
}
public DelegateCommand<object> MainCommand
{
get
{
return MyButtonCommand;
}
}
public string Text
{
get
{
return text;
}
set
{
text = value;
OnPropertyChanged("Text");
MyButtonCommand.RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
}
}
public string State
{
get
{
return state;
}
set
{
state = value;
OnPropertyChanged("State");
MyButtonCommand.RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
}
}
public int TicketNumber
{
get
{
return ticketNumber;
}
set
{
ticketNumber = value;
OnPropertyChanged("TicketNumber");
MyButtonCommand.RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
}
}
private void OnPropertyChanged(string p)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(p));
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}
You can Modify the code in anyway you want
This ViewModel implements fewthings which are very important from MVVM point of view
1) INotifyPropertyChanged
2) WPF Delegate Command
P.S:The code is tested and it runs as expected

Don't get hung up on MVVM it is simply a separation of data from a view, and models are shared between the two with a majority of the business logic (on a shared component) should be performed on the VM; it is not a religion just a three tiered data system. IMHO
If your button needs to do an operation, have it make a call, most likely in the code behind, to a method on the VM which handles the business logic, updates the list with the new item and notifies the manager.
I would bind the list in question to an ObservableCollection which can notify upon insert/delete of an item.

Why isn't this data binding working?

So I'm brand new to WPF data binding, and it is.. complicated. At this point, I'm trying to just create a list of premade test items and have it displayed in a listbox with a data template when I press a button. After hours of puzzling through tutorials and MSDN this is the best I could come up with.
The data item I want to make a list from:
class ListingItem
{
private string title;
private string user;
private string category;
//Dummy constructor for test purposes
public ListingItem()
{
title = "TestTitle";
user = "TestUser";
category = "TestCatagory";
}
}
The quick and dirty list creator:
class ListMaker
{
public static List<ListingItem> getListing()
{
List<ListingItem> listing = new List<ListingItem>();
for(int i = 0; i <100; i++)
{
listing.Add(new ListingItem());
}
return listing;
}
}
The XAML of the list itself:
<ListBox x:Name="Listing">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Foreground="Gray" Margin="25,0,0,0" Text="{Binding user}"/>
<TextBlock Foreground="Gray" Margin="25,0,0,0" Text="{Binding category}"/>
</StackPanel>
<TextBlock Foreground="Black" Width="270" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding title}"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
And finally, the button click event which is SUPPOSED to make the magic happen:
private void TabClickEvent(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Listing.DataContext = RedditScanner.getListing();
}
Problem is, obviously, the magic is not happening. No errors or anything so easy, I just press that button and dont see any change to the list box. Any help with this?

You cannot bind to private fields. Not even to public fields I think.
Use properties:
class ListingItem
{
//private string title;
//private string user;
//private string category;
public string Title { get; set; }
public string User { get; set; }
public string Category { get; set; }
//Dummy constructor for test purposes
public ListingItem()
{
Title = "TestTitle";
User = "TestUser";
Category = "TestCatagory";
}
}
And for full databinding you would have to implement INotifyPropertyChanged on ListingItem.
the magic is not happening. No errors or anything so easy,
Keep an eye on the Output Window during execution. Binding errors are reported.

Made some minor changes to your code as explained below.
class ListingItem
{
public string title { get; set; }
public string user { get; set; }
public string category { get; set; }
//Dummy constructor for test purposes
public ListingItem()
{
title = "TestTitle";
user = "TestUser";
category = "TestCatagory";
}
}
The list item class, I changed the title, user and category to properties (get;set;). I also needed to make them public so they could be accessed through the binding.
class ListMaker
{
public static List getListing()
{
List listing = new List();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
listing.Add(new ListingItem());
}
return listing;
}
}
No changes to your ListMaker class
public class CommandHandler : ICommand
{
private Action _action;
private bool _canExecute;
public CommandHandler(Action action, bool canExecute=true)
{
_action = action;
_canExecute = canExecute;
}
public bool CanExecute(object parameter)
{
return _canExecute;
}
public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged;
public void Execute(object parameter)
{
_action();
}
}
I introduced a new class to be able to bind the button. This kind of class if relatively common
<Window x:Class="SimpleDatabinding.MainWindow" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:viewmodel="clr-namespace:SimpleDatabinding" Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525"> <Window.DataContext> <viewmodel:MainWindowViewModel/> </Window.DataContext> <Grid> <DockPanel> <Button Command="{Binding FillListCommand}" DockPanel.Dock="Top">Fill List</Button> <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Listing}" DockPanel.Dock="Top"> <ListBox.ItemTemplate> <DataTemplate> <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical"> <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> <TextBlock Foreground="Gray" Margin="25,0,0,0" Text="{Binding user}"/> <TextBlock Foreground="Gray" Margin="25,0,0,0" Text="{Binding category}"/> </StackPanel> <TextBlock Foreground="Black" Width="270" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding title}"/> </StackPanel> </DataTemplate> </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox> </DockPanel> </Grid></Window>
Note the addition of xmlns:viewmodel="clr-namespace:SimpleDatabinding". SimpleDatabinding was the name of the project. It's used to locate the view model in the datacontext below.
The Window.DataContext binds the WPF page to the view model. I called my class MainWindowViewModel (see below). This will automatically create an instance of the view model and bind it to the window.
I introduced a button to click. It's bound to a command FillListCommand. I'll define that in the view model below.
I updated the ItemsSource on the ListBox to be bound to the Listing property.
Other than that, I think it's the same.
class MainWindowViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
public List Listing { get; set; }
public CommandHandler FillListCommand { get; set; }
public MainWindowViewModel()
{
FillListCommand = new CommandHandler(DoFillList);
}
public void DoFillList()
{
Listing = ListMaker.getListing();
ProperyHasChanged("Listing");
}
private void ProperyHasChanged(string propertyName)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null) PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
}
Finally in the viewmodel class, I implemented the INotifyPropertyChanged interface. This is the mechanism to notify the UI that a value on your view model has changed. In most implementations, this is wrapped in some sort of ViewModel base class but I left it in so you could see it.
As above, I converted the Listing variable to a public property (get;set;) so it could be accessed through the binding.
I created a CommandHandler property called FillListCommand. This uses the class above. The button is bound to this variable. The constructor of the view model initializes and points it to the function to be called when the button is clicked.
Finally, in the DoFillList function, I initialize Listing as you had it but I also use the notification to let the UI know it's changed.
Sorry about all the writing. Hope this is somewhat helpful. I don't think it's too different from what you had.

Don't forget to decorate your data members and service methods with the appropriate tags.
These short videos are great for learning WCF:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Endpoint?sort=rating#tab_sortBy_rating

There were only 2 problems with my code, which I found:
The properties were set as private in ListingItem, which Henk
Holterman caught (+1ed)
I wasn't setting ItemSource on the list anywhere.
I didn't need to do any of the other stuff Peter Trenery mentioned at all.