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How group wpf controls and send group to method

I have 2 buttons and they do the same on different controls. How can i make this better? Because now i too much copy/paste. Here is image and code.
enter image description here
private void button_ClickOld(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
TextBoxOld.Text = SelectCatalog();
if (File.Exists(TextBoxOld + ConfigFilePath))
{
GetClientProperty(TextBoxOld.Text);
UpdateOldLabel();
}
else
{
LogsTextBox.AppendText("\nWrong folder selected - Config file doesn't exist");
}
}
private void button_ClickNew(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
TextBoxNew.Text = SelectCatalog();
if (File.Exists(TextBoxNew + ConfigFilePath))
{
GetClientProperty(TextBoxNew.Text);
UpdateNewLabel();
}
else
{
LogsTextBox.AppendText("\nWrong folder selected - Config file doesn't exist");
}
}
xaml
<Button x:Name="ButtonOld" Content="..." HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="149,35,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="25" Click="button_ClickOld"/>
<TextBox x:Name="TextBoxOld" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="24,35,0,0" Text="" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" IsReadOnly="True"/>
<Button x:Name="ButtonNew" Content="..." HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="447,35,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="25" Click="button_ClickNew"/>
<TextBox x:Name="TextBoxNew" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="322,35,0,0" Text="" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" IsReadOnly="True"/>` <Label x:Name="OldNameLabel" Content="Name" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="24,70,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<Label x:Name="OldIpLabel" Content="IP" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="24,100,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<Label x:Name="OldWebpageUriLabel" Content="WebpageUri" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="24,130,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<TextBox x:Name="OldConnectionStringTextBox" Text="ConnectionString" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="24,160,0,0" Width="120"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Background="Linen" BorderThickness="0" IsReadOnly="True"/>
<Label x:Name="NewNameLabel" Content="Name" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="322,70,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<Label x:Name="NewIpLabel" Content="IP" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="322,100,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<Label x:Name="NewWebpageUriLabel" Content="WebpageUri" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="322,130,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<TextBox x:Name="NewConnectionStringTextBox" Text="ConnectionString" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="322,160,0,0" Width="120"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Background="Linen" BorderThickness="0" IsReadOnly="True"/>
<Label x:Name="ArrowLabel" Content="<-" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="221,14,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="30" />
<Label x:Name="OldVersionTextBoxLabel" Content="Old Version:" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="24,4,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<Label x:Name="NewVersionTextBoxLabel" Content="New Version:" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="325,4,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>`

By the looks of your it, you don't understand MVVM and SOLID principles. If you truly want to take advantage of WPF, you must first learn MVVM, and to truly take advantage of MVVM, you need to understand SOLID. To reduce the burden of verbose XAML and boiler plate code, you should take advantage of MVVM frameworks, Caliburn.Micro is super easy to use but require you to have a good architecture to be able to fully utilize it.
Further, using MVVM will make your XAML code so much simpler. Old Version and New Version section will just have one UserControl and may look like
<views:VersionView DataContext={Binding OldVersionViewModel}/>
<views:VersionView DataContext={Binding NewVersionViewModel}/>
You will save yourself a lot of pain and make you delighted you chose WPF for your UI once you learn the power of MVVM.
But if this is just a small project and you insist on using code behind, you can do
private void button_ClickOld(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SelectVerifyAndLog(TextBoxOld, UpdateOldLabel);
}
private void button_ClickNew(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SelectVerifyAndLog(TextBoxNew, UpdateNewLabel);
}
void SelectVerifyAndLog(TextBox textBox, Action updateLabel)
{
textBox.Text = SelectCatalog();
if (File.Exists(textBox + ConfigFilePath))
{
GetClientProperty(textBox.Text);
updateLabel();
}
else
{
LogsTextBox.AppendText("\nWrong folder selected - Config file doesn't exist");
}
}

1) You can reuse your code
private void button_ClickOld(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
ButtonHelper(TextBoxOld);
}
private void button_ClickNew(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
ButtonHelper(TextBoxNew);
}
void ButtonsHelper(TextBox textBox) {
TextBoxNew.Text = SelectCatalog();
if (File.Exists(textBox + ConfigFilePath))
{
GetClientProperty(textBox.Text);
UpdateNewLabel();
}
else
{
LogsTextBox.AppendText("\nWrong folder selected - Config file doesn't exist");
}
}
2) In WPF, use MVVM, otherwise you just don't have advantages of WPF
3) If you have many groups of controls like you marked on your picture and they have much of code, make them controls. And each of them will contain it's own xaml, it's own code, and you can reuse it. It's not necessary to put all the xaml in one file.

Windows phone 8.1 button click arguments

Is there a way to pass arguments on button click in Windows Phone 8.1?
I have a grid of 5x5 buttons, and they should all call the same method but with a different parameter. I am adding a handler like this:
foreach (var child in buttonGrid.Children)
{
Button b = child as Button;
if (b != null)
{
b.Click += Button_Click;
// I want to add an argument to this
}
}
Now the only way I can get the index of the button is by iterating over the whole grid and checking if the sender is equal to the button:
private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 0; i < buttonGrid.Children.Count; i++)
{
if (sender == buttonGrid.Children[i])
{
DoSomething(i);
return;
}
}
}
It works, but I don't really like this approach. Is there a more efficient way of doing this (other than creating a different method for each of the 25 buttons)?
I tried searching on the internet, but the documentation and examples for Windows Phone are really lacking. If anyone has a good repository of Windows Phone 8.1 tutorials to direct me to, that would also be of help.

You can use Tag property of the button.
For eg.
I'm trying to create a number pad which has 9 buttons with the respective number as the button content and i have set the same thing as the Tag property also.
<StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" >
<Button Content="1" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="1" />
<Button Content="2" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="2" />
<Button Content="3" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="3" />
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Button Content="4" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="4" />
<Button Content="5" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="5" />
<Button Content="6" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="6" />
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Button Content="7" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="7" />
<Button Content="8" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="8" />
<Button Content="9" Margin="10" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Click="Button_Click" Tag="9" />
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
This produces the following output :
In your code behind you can now use the Tag property in the following manner
private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var tag = (sender as Button).Tag;
int t = Convert.ToInt16(tag);
switch (t)
{
case 1:
//Do Something
break;
case 2:
//Do Something
break;
case 3:
//Do Something
break;
case 4:
//Do Something
break;
case 5:
//Do Something
break;
case 6:
//Do Something
break;
case 7:
//Do Something
break;
case 8:
//Do Something
break;
case 9:
//Do Something
break;
default:
break;
}
}

Controls and other elements in XAML have a Tag property that you can set to an arbitrary object value for this kind of thing. Set it when you create the object and then inspect it in the event handler.

A simple solution would be to assign unique numbers to each button and then call the function with this uniquely assigned number as a parameter.
In the function, you could easily use the If-Else blocks to perform the task according to the Unique Number.
The code for 4 buttons becomes something like:-
void func(int unique_number)
{
if(unique_number==1)
{
//perform tasks for button 1
}
if(unique_number==2)
{
//perform tasks for button 2
}
if(unique_number==3)
{
//perform tasks for button 3
}
if(unique_number==4)
{
//perform tasks for button 4
}
}
private void Button_1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
func(1); //Call from button 1
}
private void Button_2_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
func(2); //Call from button 2
}
private void Button_3_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
func(3); //Call from button 3
}
private void Button_4_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
func(4); //Call from button 4
}
I hope this makes it somewhat easy and efficient.

While the answers show you how to do this using Tag, this approach is non-convenient for, say 100 buttons.
To achieve your result, you can use closures for the job. Here's how:
// When you're attaching handlers
int i=0;
foreach (var child in buttonGrid.Children)
{
Button b = child as Button;
if (b != null)
{
b.Click += () => {
int z = i++; // You can put a different id generator here as well, like int z = <rand>%<prime> if you want
DoSomething(z); // DoSomething called with corrosponding button id
}
}
}
This approach does not require you to use tags!

Accessing items in DataTemplate using Visual Tree Helper in ListBox

I have the following DataTemplate:
<DataTemplate x:Key="ToDoListBoxItemTemplate">
<Grid x:Name="item2Expanded" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="480" Background="{Binding Converter={StaticResource RowColour}}" MinHeight="81">
<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="420" Margin="60,0,0,0">
<TextBox x:Name="taskTitle" HorizontalAlignment="Left" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding ItemName}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="420" Background="{x:Null}" BorderBrush="{x:Null}" CaretBrush="#FF0080FF" SelectionBackground="#FFCFCFCF" Foreground="#FF4E4E4E" BorderThickness="3,3,3,6" FontSize="29.333" Style="{StaticResource listTextBoxTemplate}" InputScope="Text" SelectionForeground="#FF4E4E4E" KeyUp="taskTitle_KeyUp" LostFocus="taskTitle_LostFocus" Tap="taskTitle_Tap" IsReadOnly="True" Margin="0,1,0,0" DoubleTap="taskTitle_DoubleTap"/>
<TextBox x:Name="taskDetail" HorizontalAlignment="Left" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="Tea is an essential English beverage, it has a nice calming effect, and is often served alongside biscuits." VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="420" Background="{x:Null}" BorderBrush="{x:Null}" CaretBrush="#FF0080FF" SelectionBackground="#FFCFCFCF" Foreground="#FF878787" BorderThickness="3,0,3,6" FontSize="21.333" Style="{StaticResource listTextBoxTemplate}" InputScope="Text" SelectionForeground="#FF878787" Margin="0,-20,0,0" KeyUp="taskDetail_KeyUp" LostFocus="taskDetail_LostFocus" Padding="2,5,2,2" IsHitTestVisible="False"/>
<Grid Height="170" Margin="0,-20,0,0">
<Button x:Name="chooseDateButton" Content="27/06/2013" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="6,13,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" BorderBrush="#FF959595" Foreground="#FF959595" Width="157" HorizontalContentAlignment="Left" FontSize="20" Style="{StaticResource selectorButtonTemplate}"/>
<Button x:Name="chooseTimeButton" Content="12:00" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="146,13,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" BorderBrush="#FF959595" Foreground="#FF959595" Width="99" HorizontalContentAlignment="Left" FontSize="20" Style="{StaticResource selectorButtonTemplate}"/>
<Button x:Name="setOrClearButton" Content="REMIND ME" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="228,13,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" BorderBrush="#FF959595" Foreground="White" Width="180" FontSize="20" Background="#FF959595" Style="{StaticResource greyButtonTemplate}"/>
<Button x:Name="deleteButton" Content="DELETE TASK" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="6,85,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" BorderBrush="#FFEE4747" Foreground="White" Width="180" FontSize="20" Background="#FFEE4747" Style="{StaticResource redButtonTemplate}"/>
<Image x:Name="retractButton" Margin="347,107,21,11" Source="/Assets/retract.png" Stretch="Fill" Tap="retractButton_Tap"/>
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
<CheckBox x:Name="checkBox" IsChecked="{Binding IsComplete, Mode=TwoWay}" Content="" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Background="{x:Null}" BorderBrush="{x:Null}" Foreground="{x:Null}" Width="72" BorderThickness="0" Template="{StaticResource checkBoxTemplate}" Checked="checkBox_Checked" Unchecked="checkBox_Unchecked"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
Where the Grid item2Expanded is placed dynamically in a ListBox (Name="allToDoItemsListBox"). Text is added to each item via bindings.
The image retractButton has Tap="retractButton_Tap", As shown in the code:
private void retractButton_Tap(object sender, System.Windows.Input.GestureEventArgs e)
{
if (isItemExpanded == true)
{
// Compacts current item
itemGrid.Height = taskTitle.ActualHeight; // Restores itemGrid height to fit only taskTitle
taskTitle.IsReadOnly = true; // taskTitle becomes only double-tap editable, single tap to expand once more
taskDetail.IsHitTestVisible = false; // Stops overlapping taps
isItemExpanded = false;
}
// Adds the event handler for single tap event
tapTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(tapTimer_Tick);
tapTimer.Start();
}
private void tapTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Stop timer
tapTimer.Tick -= new EventHandler(tapTimer_Tick);
tapTimer.Stop();
// Rest of the single tap function
if (isItemExpanded == false)
{
taskDetail.IsHitTestVisible = true;
taskDetail.IsEnabled = false;
// Expands current item
itemGrid.Height = double.NaN; // Sets itemGrid height to auto
isItemExpanded = true;
// Yeah... don't ask.
// Stops temporary text highlighting/auto jumping to keyboard
taskTitle.IsEnabled = false;
taskTitle.IsEnabled = true;
taskDetail.IsEnabled = true;
}
}
But I cannot access itemGrid, taskTitle, or taskDetail for this specific item. And I have no idea how to pass them to the tapTimer_Tick function.
I have been able to use the Tag="{binding itemID}" on elements, but that still hasn't allowed me to solve this issue.
How do I find the grid item2Expanded that the Tap originated from, and then access elements in the same grid by name?
If I want to access the same element as was clicked, then it's easy:
private void taskTitle_Tap(object sender, System.Windows.Input.GestureEventArgs e)
{
TextBox taskTitle = (TextBox)sender;
taskTitle.IsEnabled = false;
}
I've been trying to work out how to use Visual Tree Helper to solve this problem, but I have no idea how to do it.

Disabling bunch of Text Boxes dynamically using a single Check Box

MainWindow.xaml
<CheckBox Content="Enable" Height="16" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="190,40,0,0" Name="checkBox_Enable" VerticalAlignment="Top" IsChecked="True" Unchecked="checkBox_Enable_Unchecked" Checked="checkBox_Enable_Checked" />
<Label Content="Fullscreen:" Height="15" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="227,63,0,0" Name="label3" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="56" Padding="1" />
<TextBox HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,86,243,0" Name="textBox_Hotkey_Fullscreen" Width="33" Height="18" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
<Label Content="Custom field:" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="227,110,0,136" Name="label5" Padding="1" />
<TextBox Height="18" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="227,131,0,0" Name="textBox_Hotkey_Customfield" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="33" />
<Label Content="Window-related:" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="227,155,0,87" Name="label4" Padding="1" />
<TextBox HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="227,0,0,112" Name="textBox_Hotkey_Windowrelated" Width="33" Height="18" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
MainWindow.xaml.cs
private void checkBox_Enable_Unchecked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
textBox_Hotkey_Fullscreen.IsEnabled = false;
textBox_Hotkey_Customfield.IsEnabled = false;
textBox_Hotkey_Windowrelated.IsEnabled = false;
}
//There are no problems after purging this function. However, the controls couldn't be "re-enabled", what obviously makes my concept pointless.
private void checkBox_Enable_Checked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
textBox_Hotkey_Fullscreen.IsEnabled = true;
textBox_Hotkey_Customfield.IsEnabled = true;
textBox_Hotkey_Windowrelated.IsEnabled = true;
}
Why does it throw the NullReferenceException just after launch?

I would suggest use Binding like (remove event handlers from xaml)
IsEnabled="{Binding ElementName=checkBox_Enable, Path=IsChecked}"
for every control you want to enable/disable with the checkbox.

Why does it throw the NullReferenceException just after launch?
Because not all controls are loaded yet when the CheckBox fires the event.
I would suggest binding the CheckBox to a bool and binding the other controls' IsEnabled to that (or bind directly to the CheckBox).

Issue to Change button value dynamically in wpf

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<Button x:Name="btn_num" Width="51" Margin="318.849,158,262.15,0" Height="45" VerticalAlignment="Top" d:LayoutOverrides="HorizontalMargin">
<Grid Height="38.166" Width="44.833">
<Label x:Name="lbl_2" Content="2" Margin="4.483,-2.042,7,-1.626" FontSize="11.333"/>
<Label x:Name="lbl_1" Content="1" Margin="4.483,0,7,-19.251" FontSize="11.333" Height="41.834" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"/>
<Label x:Name="lbl_3" Content="3" Margin="0,8.083,-15,-11.751" FontSize="11.333" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Width="33.35" Foreground="Black"/>
</Grid>
</Button>
<Button x:Name="btn_a" Content="A" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="225.333,158,0,0" Width="55" Foreground="Black" Height="45" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="btn_alt_Click" />
</Grid>
It's design will be like this
public partial class button : Window
{
static int _AClick = 0;
public button()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
}
private void btn_alt_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (_AClick == 0)
{
_AClick = 1;
Fill();
}
else
{
btn_num.Content = "";
_AClick = 0;
}
}
public void Fill()
{
btn_num.Content = "3";
}
}
The result after window loaded
If i click A button first time. The result will be like this
If I click A button second time. The result will be like this
when I click A button second time. I need the result like below. what should I do for that.

There are a lot of ways available in WPF to achieve this. One way to do this is to have two ControlTemplates (one having all three numbers and other having just one number) and then set the template of your button in code -
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<Grid.Resources>
<ControlTemplate
x:Key="threeNumberTemplate"
TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Grid Height="38.166" Width="44.833">
<Label x:Name="lbl_2" Content="2" Margin="4.483,-2.042,7,-1.626" FontSize="11.333"/>
<Label x:Name="lbl_1" Content="1" Margin="4.483,0,7,-19.251" FontSize="11.333" Height="41.834" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"/>
<Label x:Name="lbl_3" Content="3" Margin="0,8.083,-15,-11.751" FontSize="11.333" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Width="33.35" Foreground="Black"/>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
<ControlTemplate
x:Key="oneNumberTemplate"
TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Label x:Name="lbl_3" Content="3" FontSize="11.333"/>
</ControlTemplate>
</Grid.Resources>
<Button x:Name="btn_num" Width="51" Margin="318.849,158,262.15,0" Height="45" VerticalAlignment="Top" Template="{StaticResource threeNumberTemplate}"></Button>
<Button x:Name="btn_a" Content="A" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="225.333,158,0,0" Width="55" Foreground="Black" Height="45" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="btn_alt_Click" />
</Grid>
Code behind -
private void btn_alt_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (_AClick == 0)
{
_AClick = 1;
btn_num.Template = FindResource("oneNumberTemplate") as ControlTemplate;
}
else
{
btn_num.Template = FindResource("threeNumberTemplate") as ControlTemplate;
_AClick = 0;
}
}
Same can be achieved through triggers by making _AClick as DependecyProperty and using it's value to swap templates in triggers.
Another approach is to have two Buttons and hide/show them based on the _AClick value in code.

You can create three DataTemplate and use DataTemplateSelector class to load the corresponding data template on run time.
MSDN - DataTemplateSelector