I have a DataGridView that is bound to a collection. The types in the collection implement INotifyPropertyChanged (textbook implementation from the MSDN page).
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string name)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
}
public string Name
{
get { return m_Name; }
set { m_Name = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("Name"); }
}
I'm trying to understand when, how and why the PropertyChanged event actually gets fired. If I write code to use the Name property to change the string everything works, PropertyChanged is != NULL, and my DataGridView updates correctly. Like so:
for (int i = 0; i < Server.Customers.Count; i++)
{
Server.Customers[i].Name = Server.Customers[i].Name + "!!";
}
That's just a test, however, the way the collection should really update is via XML deserialization. The implementation for the serializer is very straighforward, and the code steps through the exactly the same Name property (calling NotifyPropertyChanged) as in the previous example. With one difference: PropertyChanged turns out to be NULL and is never invoked. Result: no update in my data binding.
I don't quite understand what's going on here. I never explicitly subscribe to PropertyChanged in the first place (and neither do any of the code examples I have found), yet it gets invoked correctly in the first example. How do I get this to work for my second example, where I deserialize my XML into the object?
XML serialization can't update an existing object, it always creates a new one when you deserialize. Since it's a new object, there isn't any handler for PropertyChanged yet, so the event isn't fired.
It doesn't make sense to listen to the PropertyChanged event of an object that is being created. What are you trying to do exactly?
I totally agree with Thomas's answer and add a few suggestions:
If you need to use INotifyPropertyChanges you definitely should go some other way to deserialize an object. You can use instance method like InitializeFrom(string xml) or UpdateFrom(string xml). You create an object, subscribe to PropertyChanged event and latter you call UpdateFrom(xml) on existing object. So you will be notified of changes and keep the existing object alive. Here, you can implement the whole thing in the following way:
class MyClass : INotifyPropertyChanges
{
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string name)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
}
public string Name
{
get { return m_Name; }
set { m_Name = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("Name"); }
}
public void UpdateFrom(string xml)
{
MyClass deserialized = Deserialize(xml);
// here you set all properties you have
Name = deserialized.Name;
// and all the rest properties...
}
private static MyClass Deserialize(string xml)
{
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyClass));
using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(xml))
{
return (MyClass)ser.Deserialize(reader);
}
}
}
Also I would modify NotifyPropertyChanged method so it would not fire when property value hadn't changed.
Related
I have a BookViewModel class with some properties, one of then an ObservableCollection. But I'm having problems updating its value. This is my case:
public class BookViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private IEnumerable<Book> booksList;
private ObservableCollection<Chapter> selectedChapters = new ObservableCollection<Chapter>();
public BookViewModel()
{
}
public BookViewModel(List<Book> booksList)
{
this.BooksList = booksList;
}
// ...
public ObservableCollection<Book> SelectedChapters
{
get
{
return this.selectedChapters;
}
set
{
this.selectedChapters = value;
this.OnPropertyChanged();
}
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string propertyName = "")
{
if (this.PropertyChanged != null)
{
this.PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
}
}
In one UserControl of my application I do:
private TrainViewModel booksViewModel;
// ...
booksViewModel = new BookViewModel(booksList); // booksList comes from other site
this.DataContext = this.booksViewModel;
And in another UserControl, which is created dynamically as a child of the previous UserControl, I do:
private TrainViewModel booksViewModel;
// ...
booksViewModel = new BookViewModel();
this.DataContext = this.booksViewModel; // Different constructor
In this latter page, I have some checkboxes which modify my selectedChapters property by adding or removing elements from it:
// When some checkbox is checked
this.booksViewModel.SelectedChapters.Add(selectedChapter);
// When some checkbox is unchecked
this.booksViewModel.SelectedChapters.Remove(selectedChapter);
If each time a checkbox is checked or unchecked I do:
Debug.Print(this.booksViewModel.SelectedChapters.Count()); // Always print out 1!!
I'm wondering if using the same ViewModel, but with different instances in each view (the new thing), is causing the problem.
Ok, I could solve it. Not sure if I'm expressing myself well, but it was like I was modifying different sources of data (i.e. data contexts). So, what I did was try to cast the data context of the child UserControl to a BookViewModel (which is the data context of its parent) and work from that:
// Inside the event handler for check and uncheck
BookViewModel bookViewModel = this.DataContext as BookViewModel;
// When some checkbox is checked
if (bookViewModel != null){
this.booksViewModel.SelectedChapters.Add(selectedChapter);
}
// When some checkbox is unchecked
if (bookViewModel != null){
this.booksViewModel.SelectedChapters.Remove(selectedChapter);
}
And that's all. Update perfectly. I don't do anything with related to data dontext or view model in any part of the code (even in the constructor). Now, it's like I'm modifying the data in the same data context of the parent (sorry if my explanation isn't precise, I'm still getting used to WPF concepts).
Here is my model class, the column that I am interested in this question:
public class Cell : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public string TestImageAspect
{
get { return testImageAspect; }
set
{
testImageAspect = value;
Console.WriteLine("OnPropertyChanged => testImageAspect");
this.OnPropertyChanged("OperationResult");
}
}
private string testImageAspect;
}
ImageList is prepared with required images. In the ObjectListView I set appropriate column's ImageAspectName to the property name:
Then on button click I run the following code to change the
Cell c = ...;
c.TestImageAspect = "success"; // the name exist in ImageList
After above code I see that OnPropertyChanged has been called, however UI is not updating, unless I hover to the row where it has to change, then I see new icon. I am not looking for dirty workaround, since I know few, but rather want to understand whether ObjectListView has to update UI itself. If yes, what am I doing wrong?
The ObjectListView property UseNotifyPropertyChanged has to be set true.
From the official documentation
If you set UseNotifyPropertyChanged, then ObjectListView will listen for changes on your model classes, and automatically update the rows when properties on the model classes changed. Obviously, your model objects have to implement INotifyPropertyChanged.
Could you post the XAML for the binding - that might help debug this. Also, it's bit confusing that your property is called TestImageAspect but you're passing "OperationResult" to OnPropertyChanged. I'm not sure if OnPropertyChanged would work either. The more usual way would be to do:-
public class Cell : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
public string TestImageAspect
{
get { return testImageAspect; }
set
{
testImageAspect = value;
if (PropertyChanged != null)
{
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("TestImageAspect"));
}
}
}
private string testImageAspect;
}
I was experimenting with Data Binding in Windows Forms and found a glitch that I can't explain. I post the question here in hopes that someone in the community can come up with an answer that makes sense.
I tried to come up with a clever way of binding read-only values that depend on operations on other values, and update it automatically when the dependent values change.
I created a form with 3 textboxes, where I want the sum of the first 2 to appear in the 3rd textbox.
The following code should work, but doesn't, at least not properly:
public class Model : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private int m_valueA;
private int m_valueB;
public int ValueA
{
get { return m_valueA; }
set { m_valueA = value; RaisePropertyChanged("ValueA"); }
}
public int ValueB
{
get { return m_valueB; }
set { m_valueB = value; RaisePropertyChanged("ValueB"); }
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
private void RaisePropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
var handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null) handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
}
public class DynamicBindingProperty<T> : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private Func<T> m_function;
private HashSet<string> m_properties;
public DynamicBindingProperty(Func<T> function, INotifyPropertyChanged container, IEnumerable<string> properties)
{
m_function = function;
m_properties = new HashSet<string>(properties);
container.PropertyChanged += DynamicBindingProperty_PropertyChanged;
}
public T Property { get { return m_function(); } }
void DynamicBindingProperty_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (!m_properties.Contains(e.PropertyName)) return;
if (PropertyChanged == null) return;
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Property"));
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeDataBinding();
}
private void InitializeDataBinding()
{
Model model = new Model();
DynamicBindingProperty<int> tmp = new DynamicBindingProperty<int>(() => model.ValueA + model.ValueB, model, new[] {"ValueA", "ValueB"});
textBox1.DataBindings.Add("Text", model, "ValueA");
textBox2.DataBindings.Add("Text", model, "ValueB");
textBox3.DataBindings.Add("Text", tmp, "Property");
tmp.PropertyChanged += (sender, args) => Console.WriteLine(args.PropertyName);
}
}
After experimenting for a while, I tried renaming DynamicBindingProperty<T>.Property to something else (e.g. DynamicProperty), and everything worked as expected!. Now, I was expecting something to break by renaming Model.ValueA to Property, but it didn't, and still worked flawlessly.
What is going on here?
I did some debugging and it looks like a bug (or requirement "the property must not be named Property" I am not aware of). If you replace
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Property"));
with
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(null));
it still does not work - null or an empty string means any property may have changed. This indicates that problem is not in the handling of the change notification but that the binding has not been correctly established.
If you add a second property Property2 to DynamicBindingProperty<T> that does the same as Property and bind it to a fourth text box, then both text boxes will get update correctly if you perform a change notification with an empty string, null or "Property2". If you perform the change notification with "Property" both text boxes will not get update correctly. This indicates that the binding to Property is not completely broken and also that the change notification is somewhat broken.
Sadly I was unable to pin down the exact location where things go wrong, but if you invest enough time stepping through optimized framework source code you can probably figure it out. The earliest difference between the case with property name Property and the case with property name Property2 I could identify when processing a change notification was in OnValueChanged() in the internal class System.ComponentModel.ReflectPropertyDescriptor. In one case the base implementation gets called while it gets skipped in the other case - at least if the debugger didn't trick me, but this is hard to tell in optimized code.
Given a standard view model implementation, when a property changes, is there any way to determine the originator of the change? In other words, in the following view model, I would like the "sender" argument of the "PropertyChanged" event to be the actual object that called the Prop1 setter:
public class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public double Prop1
{
get { return _prop1; }
set
{
if (_prop1 == value)
return;
_prop1 = value;
// here, can I determine the sender?
RaisePropertyChanged(propertyName: "Prop1", sender: this);
}
}
private double _prop1;
// TODO implement INotifyPropertyChanged
}
Alternatively, is it possible to apply CallerMemberNameAttribute to a property setter?
If I understood correctly, you're asking about the caller of the setter. That means, the previous method call in the call stack before getting to the setter itself (which is a method too).
Use StackTrace.GetFrames method for this. For example (taken from http://www.csharp-examples.net/reflection-callstack/):
using System.Diagnostics;
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
StackTrace stackTrace = new StackTrace(); // get call stack
StackFrame[] stackFrames = stackTrace.GetFrames(); // get method calls (frames)
// write call stack method names
foreach (StackFrame stackFrame in stackFrames)
{
Console.WriteLine(stackFrame.GetMethod().Name); // write method name
}
}
The output:
Main
nExecuteAssembly
ExecuteAssembly
RunUsersAssembly
ThreadStart_Context
Run
ThreadStart
Basically, what you're asking for would be stackFrames[1].GetMethod().Name.
My first approach to your problem would be to derive from PropertyEventArgs. The new class would have a member called, for instance PropertyChangeOrigin in addition to PropertyName. When you invoke the RaisePropertyChanged, you supply an instance of the new class with the PropertyChangeOrigin set from the information gleaned from the CallerMemberName attribute. Now, when you subscribe to the event, the subscriber could try casting the eventargs to your new class and use the information if the cast is successful.
This is what I always use as a middle-ground between INotifyPropertyChanged and my View Models:
public class NotifyOnPropertyChanged : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private IDictionary<string, PropertyChangedEventArgs> _arguments;
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged = delegate { };
public void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string property = "")
{
if(_arguments == null)
{
_arguments = new Dictionary<string, PropertyChangedEventArgs>();
}
if(!_arguments.ContainsKey(property))
{
_arguments.Add(property, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(property));
}
PropertyChanged(this, _arguments[property]);
}
}
Two things here. It uses the [CallerMemberName] attribute to set the property name. This makes the usage syntax as follows:
public string Words
{
set
{
if(value != _words)
{
_words = value;
OnPropertyChanged( );
}
}
}
Beyond that, it stores the PropertyChangedEventArgs object in a dictionary so it's not created a ton of times for properties that are frequently set. I believe this addresses your problem. Good luck!
Whenever I have had to pass in extra information down into a VM I have a great success with using commands:
Commands, RelayCommands and EventToCommand
I'm building a WPF application and I'm slowly uncovering some of the joys and also the frustrations of using WPF. My latest question involves updating the UI using INotifyPropertyChanged
My app has stacked UserControls with each UserControl containing multiple controls, so overall there are hundreds of controls which update every second providing live data. In order to update all controls I'm using something similar to below which does currently work as intended.
namespace ProjectXAML
{
public partial class ProjectX : UserControl, INotifyPropertyChanged
{
#region Declare Getter/Setter with INotifyPropertyChanged groupx3
private string m_group1Text1;
public string group1Text1
{
get
{
return m_group1Text1;
}
set
{
m_group1Text1 = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("group1Text1");
}
}
private string m_group1Text2;
public string group1Text2
{
get
{
return m_group1Text2;
}
set
{
m_group1Text2 = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("group1Text2");
}
}
private string m_group2Text1;
public string group2Text1
{
get
{
return m_group2Text1;
}
set
{
m_group2Text1 = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("group2Text1");
}
}
private string m_group2Text2;
public string group2Text2
{
get
{
return m_group2Text2;
}
set
{
m_group2Text2 = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("group2Text2");
}
}
private string m_group3Text1;
public string group3Text1
{
get
{
return m_group3Text1;
}
set
{
m_group3Text1 = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("group3Text1");
}
}
private string m_group3Text2;
public string group3Text2
{
get
{
return m_group3Text2;
}
set
{
m_group3Text2 = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("group3Text2");
}
}
#endregion
#region INotifyPropertyChanged Members
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
/// Notifies the property changed.
private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string property)
{
if (PropertyChanged != null)
{
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(property));
}
}
#endregion
}
}
My questions are:
Is there a more elegant way to raise PropertyChanged events for lots of controls rather than lots of get/set code?
Is there a way to raise 1 PropertyChanged event covering the whole UserControl containing multiple controls instead of a separate event for every control? Is there a better method than what I'm attempting?
In strict reference to this part of your question..."Is there a way to raise 1 PropertyChanged event covering the whole UserControl containing ".
Yes, you can raise a PropertyChanged notification which says all my properties on my object are updated.
Use:
NotifyPropertyChanged(null);
then this informs the listener of INotifyPropertyChanged that all properties have changed on an object.
This isn't normally used...and can be abused....and cause inefficient updates e.g. if you were only changing a few properties and used that.
But you could argue the case for using it if you have lots of properties in your object, that you were always changing anyway at the same time...and you wanted to collapse lots of individual notifications into 1 that was raised after you had modified all properties.
Example use case (i.e. presumes you are updating all your groups in some way):
void UpdateAllGroupTextProperties()
{
group1Text1 = "groupA";
group1Text2 = "groupA2";
group2Text1 = "groupB";
group2Text2 = "groupB2";
group3Text1 = "groupC";
group3Text2 = "groupC2";
NotifyPropertyChanged(null);
}
For point 1 if you are using VS 2012 you can do the below
private void SetProperty<T>(ref T field, T value, [CallerMemberName] string name = "")
{
if (!EqualityComparer<T>.Default.Equals(field, value))
{
field = value;
var handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
{
handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
}
}
}
and then you can use your set property method without having to hard code the name of the properties.
Note the above code is an except of the below link
http://danrigby.com/2012/03/01/inotifypropertychanged-the-net-4-5-way/
Use the design pattern model view controler. So the model will raise the changes for you. Together with MVVM the controls will see with its dependency objects the changes and view them automatically.