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Accessing a component in a ViewModel C#

I have a class that extends ViewModelBase in C#. There is already a trigger on a checkbox:
public bool PrintPackingCode
{
get
{
return this.reportConfiguration.PrintPackingCode;
}
set
{
this.reportConfiguration.PrintPackingCode = value;
this.OnPropertyChanged("PrintPackingCode");
}
}
I want to hook into that event and render a GroupBox to disable, yet I can't find a way to access the GroupBox. In the .xaml I gave my Box a name of PackingcodeGroupBox. All methods and hint I found weren't aplieable. My tries inculded:
Direct Access: PackingcodeGroupBox.Enabled = false;
Using a x:Name
this.Resources["mykey"]
Here some more Code:
//At program start assign the view it's view model:
new SmlKonfigurationWindow(new SmlKonfigurationWindowVm(reportConfiguration, smlKonfigurationDialogVm));
public SmlKonfigurationWindow(ISmlKonfigurationWindowVm viewModel)
{
this.DataContext = viewModel;
this.viewModel = viewModel;
this.InitializeComponent();
this.ShowDialog();
}
The xaml:
<CheckBox Content="Content" IsChecked="{Binding Path=PrintPackingCode, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Name="PrintPackingCode"/>
<GroupBox Header="Verpackungscode" Name="VerpackungscodeGroupbox">
//Stuff to be disabled
</GroupBox>

IsEnabled is ambiental property which means that if you disable the GroupBox all controls inside that group box will also be disabled.
Try to add a binding on GroupBox like so:
IsEnabled="{Binding PrintPackingCode}"
You can also bind IsEnabled to check box if you give name to the check box.
<CheckBox x:Name="myCheckBox" .../>
<GroupBox IsEnabled="{Binding ElementName=myCheckBox, Path=IsChecked}"/>

On your vm create a new property say
private bool _isGroupEnabled;
public bool IsGroupEnabled
{
get
{
return _isGroupEnabled;
}
set
{
_isGroupEnabled = value;
this.OnPropertyChanged("IsGroupEnabled");
}
}
Now tie into the notify process by adjusting your set for PrintPackingCode
set
{
this.reportConfiguration.PrintPackingCode = value;
IsGroupEnabled = !value; // reverse of packing to enable/disable.
this.OnPropertyChanged("PrintPackingCode");
}
Now bind your groupbox as such:
isEnabled = "{Binding IsGroupEnabled}"

CheckBox Checked event fires before bound collection updates

I have a custom control to show items with checkboxes inside a ComboBox. To realize this, I used a DataTemplate with a CheckBox. The ItemSource of the ComboBox uses a binding to a ObserableCollection<FilterValue> which contains my filter values. FilterValue is a custom class implementing INotifyPropertyChanged. The properties Content and IsChecked of the CheckBox use bindings as well to use the values of my list. This control will be used in Silverlight.
Binding itself works fine, as seen here:
The problem appears when I register the Checked or Unchecked event.
As soon as one of the check boxes changed its state, the event is fired as expected but at this moment, the value in the bound list is still not updated.
What I saw while debugging is that the Checked/Unchecked events are firing before the PropertyChanged event of the FilterValue.
This means that at the time the event is firing, I can't ask the list for all active (checked) filters. What could I do to achieve this?
FilterControl.xaml:
<UserControl
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:sdk="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation/sdk"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Controls" x:Class="Controls.FilterControl"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="45" d:DesignWidth="140">
<StackPanel x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<sdk:Label x:Name="LblFilterDescription" Content="-" />
<ComboBox x:Name="Filter" Width="120" ItemsSource="{Binding AvailableFilters, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType=local:FilterControl}}">
<ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<CheckBox Content="{Binding Path=Text}" IsChecked="{Binding Path=IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Checked="FilterChanged" Unchecked="FilterChanged" />
</DataTemplate>
</ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
</ComboBox>
</StackPanel>
</UserControl>
FilterControl.xaml.cs:
public partial class FilterControl : UserControl
{
public delegate void FilterChangedHandler(object sender);
public event FilterChangedHandler OnFilterChanged;
public ObservableCollection<FilterValue> AvailableFilters { get; set; }
public List<string> AppliedFilters
{
get
{
return new List<string>(AvailableFilters.Where(filter => filter.IsChecked).Select(filter => filter.Text));
}
}
public FilterControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
AvailableFilters = new ObservableCollection<FilterValue>();
}
public bool AddFilterValue(string filterValue)
{
bool found = false;
foreach (FilterValue f in AvailableFilters)
{
if (f.Text == filterValue)
{
found = true;
break;
}
}
if (!found)
AvailableFilters.Add(new FilterValue() { IsChecked = false, Text = filterValue });
return found;
}
private void FilterChanged(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
//Here if I check AvailableFilters, the value is not changed yet.
//PropertyChanged allways fires after this, what makes me unable to
//get all currently applied filters (checked items)...
}
}
FilterValue:
public class FilterValue : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private bool _IsChecked;
private string _Text;
public bool IsChecked
{
get { return _IsChecked; }
set
{
_IsChecked = value;
PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("IsChecked"));
}
}
public string Text
{
get { return _Text; }
set
{
_Text = value;
PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Text"));
}
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

So, as I tried to reproduce this behavior, I realized that this appears to be a behavior that only occurs like that in Silverlight. If you try this example on WPF, the Changed fires after the bound property is updated. So you can just access your AppliedFilters property in the FilterChanged method and it will reflect the actual current situation. On Silverlight though, not so much. Even worse, this behavior didn’t even appear to be consistent to me. I did encounter situations in which the event fired after the property has been updated (resulting in the expected output).
A way to get around this is to clean up your component logic. If you look at it, you are mixing two different concepts: Event-driven UI logic, and clear data binding. Of course, doing it “properly” has multiple effects you likely cannot just ensure in an existing project, but you can at least try to get in the right direction here which should then also solve this issue.
So your logic right now uses data binding to provide the data for the view, and to reflect changes of the displayed items. But you are using events on the item level to perform additional logic depending on the former changes. As we have seen, the order of execution appears not be guaranteed across platforms, so it’s best to avoid having to rely on it.
In this case, you should have your data be the source of truth and make changes in the data tell you when applied filters change. You’re already halfway there by having an ObservableCollection and items that implement INotifyPropertyChanged. Unfortunately, an observable collection will only notify you about changes to the collection but not to changes to the contained items. But there are multiple solutions to expand the collection to also look at the items inside the collection.
This related question covers exactly that topic and there are multiple ideas on how to expand the observable collection for exactly that behavior. In my case, I have used the FullyObservableCollection implementation by Bob Sammers.
All you have to do for that is to change your ObservableCollection<FilterValue> into a FullyObservableCollection<FilterValue> and subscribe to the ItemPropertyChanged event:
AvailableFilters = new FullyObservableCollection<FilterValue>();
AvailableFilters.ItemPropertyChanged += AvailableFilters_ItemPropertyChanged;
In that event handler, you will then correctly see the proper behavior.

WPF :: Custom Control's Dependency Properties Aren't Working

I'm making a Ribbon control for a WYSIWYG HTML editor. The ribbon has the typical Bold, Italic, Underline, FontFamily, etc. controls that you'd expect to see. I'll focus on the Bold functionality for this example.
I want the Ribbon to be reuseable, so I've added a Dependency Property (DP) and associated property wrapper to the control's code behind (standard boilerplate stuff):
public partial class EditorRibbon: UserControl
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty IsBoldProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register(
"IsBold",
typeof (bool),
typeof (EditorRibbon),
new PropertyMetadata(default(bool)));
public bool IsBold
{
get { return (bool) GetValue(IsBoldProperty); }
set { SetValue(IsBoldProperty, value); }
}
}
... and in the XAML I have my RibbonToggleButton, and I've bound the IsChecked property to the dependency property:
<UserControl x:Class="My.EditorRibbon">
<r:RibbonToggleButton Command="ToggleBold"
ToolTip="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=Command.Text}"
SmallImageSource="{StaticResource ToggleBoldIcon}"
IsChecked="{Binding IsBold}" />
</UserControl>
In my Editor window, I've bound the IsBold property of the EditorRibbon to a conventional property on the window's ViewModel:
<Window x:class="My.MainWindow>
<My.EditorRibbon IsBold="{Binding SelectionIsBold}"/>
</Window>
Here is the SelectionIsBold property:
public bool SelectionIsBold
{
get { return _selection.IsBold(); }
}
... and I raise the NotifyPropertyChanged() event (in the MainWindow's ViewModel) whenever the selection in the RichTextBox changes:
public class MainWindowViewModel : BaseViewModel
{
public MainWindowViewModel(MainWindow window)
{
rtb.SelectionChanged += rtb_OnSelectionChanged;
}
private void rtb_OnSelectionChanged(object sender, RoutedEventArgs routedEventArgs)
{
NotifyPropertyChanged(()=>SelectionIsBold);
}
}
To my mind, this should be enough to change the IsChecked state of the RibbonToggleButton whenever the selection changes... but it doesn't. Despite changing the selection, and despite the NotifyPropertyChanged() firing as expected, a breakpoint on the SelectionIsBold property (yes, I've deselected VS's "Step Over Property" setting) is never hit. Somewhere, the request to refresh the value isn't propagating correctly.
Do I need to trigger NotifyPropertyChanged() on the IsBold property after the value is set in the setter?

Change the IsBold binding to the following
<UserControl x:Class="My.EditorRibbon" x:Name="EditorRibbonInstance">
<r:RibbonToggleButton Command="ToggleBold"
ToolTip="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=Command.Text}"
SmallImageSource="{StaticResource ToggleBoldIcon}"
IsChecked="{Binding IsBold, ElementName=EditorRibbonInstance, Mode=TwoWay}" />
</UserControl>
With that you are sure that the binding is going to the property of the control and not to the datacontext of the control

You have to fire notifypropertychanged in ViewModel. Try somethings like this in ViewModel:
protected void FirePropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
if (this.PropertyChanged != null)
{
this.PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
}
->> FirePropertyChanged("SelectionIsBold")
The reason is: now, your data context is ViewModel, all of binding to ViewModel must be triggered by ViewModel's properties

first of all, I never saw the injection of the Window to the ViewModel before... are you using some Kind of DI for the injection?
I think it is not a good idea to use the selection changed Event on viewmodel... This is not mvvm from my Point of view...
Are you updating the _selection somewhere? Might be that you always checking the same selection?!

You are not properly binding the command property of your button.
Should reflect something like this:
Command="{Binding ToggleBold}"

opening the appbar in metro style apps using binding property

My main page has the appbar and it is shared across different pages. I wrote the following code to open the appbar on the click of a gridview item.
XAML
<AppBar Opened="AppBar_Opened" IsOpen="{Binding IsAppBarOpen}">
Back end
private void Clock_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
App.ViewModel.SelectedClock = (Clock)ThemeGridView.SelectedItem;
App.WorldViewModel.IsAppBarOpen = true;
}
private void ThemeGridView_ItemClick(object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e)
{
App.ViewModel.SelectedClock = (Clock)ThemeGridView.SelectedItem;
App.WorldViewModel.IsAppBarOpen = true;
}
WorldViewModel
private bool _IsAppBarOpen;
public bool IsAppBarOpen
{
get { return _IsAppBarOpen; }
set { base.SetProperty(ref _IsAppBarOpen, value); }
}
GridView XAML
<GridView
Grid.Row="1"
Grid.Column="1"
x:Name="ThemeGridView"
ItemsSource="{Binding Clocks}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource WorldClockTemplate}"
SelectionChanged="Clock_SelectionChanged"
SelectionMode="None"
IsItemClickEnabled="True"
ItemClick="ThemeGridView_ItemClick"
>
<GridView.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<WrapGrid />
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</GridView.ItemsPanel>
</GridView>
But the appbar is not popping up when i select the gridview item. There is no binding error so its really mysterious!

There is not way to bind IsOpen property according the msdn:
Note Binding to the IsOpen property doesn't have the expected results
because the PropertyChanged notification doesn't occur when the
property is set.

<AppBar Opened="AppBar_Opened" IsOpen="{Binding IsAppBarOpen, **Mode=TwoWay**}">

This works for me. I use MVVM Light Toolkit.
public bool AppBarIsOpen
{
get { return this._appBarIsOpen; }
set
{
if (this._appBarIsOpen == value) { return; }
this._appBarIsOpen = value;
this.RaisePropertyChanged("AppBarIsOpen"); // without INotifyPropertyChanged it doesn't work
}
}
<AppBar
IsSticky="True"
IsOpen="{Binding Path=AppBarIsOpen, Mode=TwoWay}">

Roman Weisert's answer correctly states the likely reason for it not working, although you also must make the binding two-way as Zack Weiner suggested (I'm not sure the reason for the latter since the binding is not working in the target-to-source direction anyway). The current value of AppBar.IsOpen may not be reflected by IsAppBarOpen of your view-model. When that's the case, and you try updating the value, it's possible that no PropertyChanged event is raised since you may not actually be updating a value. Instead, you may be just setting the value from false to false or from true to true. Most SetProperty method implementations do not raise the PropertyChanged event unless there is an actual change, and I presume yours is the same.
To fix the problem, consider modifying your view-model as follows:
public bool IsAppBarOpen
{
get { return _IsAppBarOpen; } //changes initiated from UI not reflected
set //not updated from UI
{
_IsAppBarOpen = value;
base.OnPropertyChanged();
}
}
bool _IsAppBarOpen;
The notable difference from your view-model's code, is that SetProperty is not called here so PropertyChanged is raised even when the backing store equals the newly introduced value. In case your base class differs, note that mine has an OnPropertyChanged method with the signature
void OnPropertyChanged( [CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null )
that serves to raise the PropertyChanged event.
I can see from your use of the code-behind, though, that you are not really following MVVM. If MVVM is not a concern to you, then you could forgo the IsAppBarOpen property altogether and just directly set AppBar.IsOpen. As someone who religiously adheres to MVVM, however, I do not recommend that you further head in that (sinful) direction.

I had the same issue and using Caliburn Micro for WinRT and with this code worked for me:
<AppBar IsOpen="{Binding AppBarsOpen}" Name="MainAppBar" Padding="10,0,10,0" AutomationProperties.Name="Bottom App Bar">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="50*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel x:Name="LeftPanel" Orientation="Horizontal" Grid.Column="0" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
<Button Name="ShowFlyout" Style="{StaticResource BookmarksAppBarButtonStyle}" />
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel x:Name="RightPanel" Orientation="Horizontal" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
<Button Style="{StaticResource SaveAppBarButtonStyle}" />
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</AppBar>
And that's your property in ViewModel:
public bool AppBarsOpen
{
get { return _appBarsOpen; }
set
{
if (value.Equals(_appBarsOpen)) return;
_appBarsOpen = value;
NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => AppBarsOpen);
}
}

Had the same issue, solved it by adding the Closed event and updating the ViewModel from the code behind. Saw no other way since TwoWay binding was not working as Roman pointed out.
XAML
<AppBar x:Name="BottomAppBar1"
AutomationProperties.Name="Bottom App Bar"
Closed="BottomAppBar1_Closed"
IsOpen="{Binding IsOpen, Mode=TwoWay}"
IsSticky="True">
C# Code behind
private void BottomAppBar1_Closed(object sender, object e)
{
MainViewModel vm = this.DataContext as MainViewModel;
vm.IsOpen = false;
}
C# MainViewModel
public const string IsOpenPropertyName = "IsOpen";
private bool isOpen = false;
/// <summary>
/// Sets and gets the IsOpen property.
/// Changes to that property's value raise the PropertyChanged event.
/// </summary>
public bool IsOpen
{
get
{
return isOpen;
}
set
{
RaisePropertyChanging(IsOpenPropertyName);
isOpen = value;
RaisePropertyChanged(IsOpenPropertyName);
}
}

You should bind both IsOpen and IsSticky two way because otherwise you will get problems with for example having to tap two time to unselect an item (once to close the app bar and once for unselecting) and also it's the will help having your app bar behave more standarly (will prevent the app bar to pop down on tap when an item is selected).
To show the app bar you will need to do the following (the order is important):
this.IsAppBarSticky = true;
this.IsAppBarOpen = true;
and to hide it, do the following:
this.IsAppBarSticky = false;
this.IsAppBarOpen = false;

Another way to make this work without having to use a codebehind handler for app bar closed event:
public class AppBarClosedCommand
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty CommandProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("Command", typeof(ICommand),
typeof(AppBarClosedCommand), new PropertyMetadata(null, CommandPropertyChanged));
public static void SetCommand(DependencyObject attached, ICommand value)
{
attached.SetValue(CommandProperty, value);
}
public static ICommand GetCommand(DependencyObject attached)
{
return (ICommand)attached.GetValue(CommandProperty);
}
private static void CommandPropertyChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
// Attach click handler
(d as AppBar).Closed += AppBar_onClose;
}
private static void AppBar_onClose(object sender, object e)
{
// Get GridView
var appBar = (sender as AppBar);
// Get command
ICommand command = GetCommand(appBar);
// Execute command
command.Execute(e);
}
}
then in the XAML you can use it like :
common:AppBarClosedCommand.Command="{Binding AppBarClosedCommand}"
with the command function looking like:
public void OnAppBarClosed()
{
AppBarOpen = false;
}

Binding ToggleButton's IsChecked property in WP7

I have this ToggleButton in my WP7 app which I bind to a property in my ViewModel. I also have a command to the ToggleButton which does work when clicking the button.
Based on the result of that command, I set the property that is bound to the ToggleButton.IsChecked property. But no matter what I set the property to, the toggle button lives its own life and just switches between unchecked and checked. Is this expected behaviour or is this a bug?
It seems like the toggle button loses its binding when clicking on it, would this be true? The reason I want it bound is that I do not always want to change the checked state, because the logic in my command can fail, e.g. network is down so it cant set what I want in the back end, and so forth.
Any workaround for this problem?
Xaml:
<ToggleButton x:Name="ToggleButton" Style="{StaticResource ToggleButtonStyle}" IsChecked="{Binding IsToggleButtonChecked}, Mode=OneWay}" Command="{Binding ToggleButtonCommand, Mode=OneWay}" CommandParameter="{Binding ToggleButtonCommandParameter}"/>
The style sets the image of the button based on states. The command does logic when the button is clicked and, as said earlier, sets IsToggleButtonChecked to desired value. I have both tried OneWay and TwoWay on the IsChecked, but I can´t see the difference.
ViewModel:
public const string IsToggleButtonCheckedPropertyName = "IsToggleButtonChecked";
private bool _isToggleButtonChecked;
public bool IsToggleButtonChecked
{
get { return _isToggleButtonChecked; }
set
{
if (_isToggleButtonChecked == value)
{
return;
}
_isToggleButtonChecked = value;
RaisePropertyChanged(IsToggleButtonCheckedPropertyName);
}
}
This property is set each time i want to change the checked state of the ToggleButton.

Make sure the ToggleButton is being notified of any changes you make to the bound property.
XAML
<ToggleButton Click="OnClicked"
IsChecked="{Binding IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay}" />
C#
private bool _isChecked = false;
public bool IsChecked
{
get { return _isChecked; }
set
{
if( value != _isChecked ) {
_isChecked = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged( "IsChecked" );
}
}
}
Have your logic set IsChecked = false; in code behind to uncheck the button.

Without seeing any code, my first instinct would be to verify that the ViewModel implements INotifyPropertyChanged, and that the setter of the property that is bound to IsEnabled is firing the property changed event when it's set.
using System.ComponentModel;
class MyViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private bool _enableCheckBox;
public bool EnableCheckBox
{
get { return _enableCheckBox }
set
{
_enableCheckBox = value;
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("EnableCheckBox"));
}
}
}

For others that might wonder about the same: I solved this by using TwoWay mode as Praetorian said, but let it change its value by itself for the normal scenarios. The times I want it to stay in the same state as before I clicked it, I just set the bindable value to the wanted value. Also, I have another variable that keeps track of the isChecked state that is not binded. By doing that, I can check and set the value accordingly, and don't mess up the visual checked state. This works, but its not a perfect way to do it.