How can I bind an ObservableCollection of ViewModels to a MenuItem?

Question

When I bind Menu Items with an ObservableCollection, only the "inner" area of the MenuItem is clickable:

alt text http://tanguay.info/web/external/mvvmMenuItems.png

In my View I have this menu:

<Menu>
    <MenuItem 
        Header="Options" ItemsSource="{Binding ManageMenuPageItemViewModels}"
              ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MainMenuTemplate}"/>
</Menu>

Then I bind it with this DataTemplate:

<DataTemplate x:Key="MainMenuTemplate">
    <MenuItem
        Header="{Binding Title}" 
        Command="{Binding DataContext.SwitchPageCommand,
        RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type Menu}}}" 
        Background="Red"
        CommandParameter="{Binding IdCode}"/>
</DataTemplate>

Since each ViewModel in the ObservableCollection ManageMenuPageItemViewModels has a property Title and IdCode, the above code works fine at first sight.

HOWEVER, the problem is that the MenuItem in the DataTemplate is actually inside another MenuItem (as if it is being bound twice) so that in the above DataTemplate with Background="Red" there is a Red box inside each menu item and only this area can be clicked, not the whole menu item area itself (e.g. if the user clicks on the area where the checkmark is or to the right or left of the inner clickable area, then nothing happens, which, if you don't have a separate color is very confusing.)

What is the correct way to bind MenuItems to an ObservableCollection of ViewModels so that the whole area inside each MenuItem is clickable?

UPDATE:

So I made the following changes based on advice below and now have this:

alt text http://tanguay.info/web/external/mvvmMenuItemsYellow.png

I have only a TextBlock inside my DataTemplate, but I still can't "color the whole MenuItem" but just the TextBlock:

<DataTemplate x:Key="MainMenuTemplate">
    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}"/>
</DataTemplate>

And I put the Command binding into Menu.ItemContainerStyle but they don't fire now:

<Menu DockPanel.Dock="Top">
    <Menu.ItemContainerStyle>
        <Style TargetType="MenuItem">
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="Yellow"/>
            <Setter Property="Command" Value="{Binding DataContext.SwitchPageCommand,
        RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type Menu}}}"/>
            <Setter Property="CommandParameter" Value="{Binding IdCode}"/>
        </Style>
    </Menu.ItemContainerStyle>
    <MenuItem 
        Header="MVVM" ItemsSource="{Binding MvvmMenuPageItemViewModels}"
              ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MainMenuTemplate}"/>
    <MenuItem 
        Header="Application" ItemsSource="{Binding ApplicationMenuPageItemViewModels}"
              ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MainMenuTemplate}"/>
    <MenuItem 
        Header="Manage" ItemsSource="{Binding ManageMenuPageItemViewModels}"
              ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MainMenuTemplate}"/>
</Menu>

Answer 1

I found using MVVM with MenuItems to be very challenging. The rest of my application uses DataTemplates to pair the View with the ViewModel, but that just doesn't seem to work with Menus because of exactly the reasons you've described. Here's how I eventually solved it. My View looks like this:

<DockPanel>
<Menu DockPanel.Dock="Top" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=(local:MainViewModel.MainMenu)}">
    <Menu.ItemContainerStyle>
        <Style>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.Header" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.Header)}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.ItemsSource" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.Items)}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.Icon" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.Icon)}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.IsCheckable" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.IsCheckable)}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.IsChecked" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.IsChecked)}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.Command" Value="{Binding}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.Visibility" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.Visible), 
                Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}"/>
            <Setter Property="MenuItem.ToolTip" Value="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.ToolTip)}"/>
            <Style.Triggers>
                <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=(contracts:IMenuItem.IsSeparator)}" Value="true">
                    <Setter Property="MenuItem.Template">
                        <Setter.Value>
                            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type MenuItem}">
                                <Separator Style="{DynamicResource {x:Static MenuItem.SeparatorStyleKey}}"/>
                            </ControlTemplate>
                        </Setter.Value>
                    </Setter>
                </DataTrigger>
            </Style.Triggers>
        </Style>
    </Menu.ItemContainerStyle>
</Menu>
</DockPanel>

If you notice, I defined an interface called IMenuItem, which is the ViewModel for a MenuItem. Here's the code for that:

public interface IMenuItem : ICommand
{
    string Header { get; }
    IEnumerable<IMenuItem> Items { get; }
    object Icon { get; }
    bool IsCheckable { get; }
    bool IsChecked { get; set; }
    bool Visible { get; }
    bool IsSeparator { get; }
    string ToolTip { get; }
}

Notice that the IMenuItem defines IEnumerable Items, which is how you get sub-menus. Also, the IsSeparator is a way to define separators in the menu (another tough little trick). You can see in the xaml how it uses a DataTrigger to change the style to the existing separator style if IsSeparator is true. Here's how MainViewModel defines the MainMenu property (that the view binds to):

public IEnumerable<IMenuItem> MainMenu { get; set; }

This seems to work well. I assume you could use an ObservableCollection for the MainMenu. I'm actually using MEF to compose the menu out of parts, but after that the items themselves are static (even though the properties of each menu item are not). I also use an AbstractMenuItem class that implements IMenuItem and is a helper class to instantiate menu items in the various parts.

UPDATE:

Regarding your color problem, does this thread help?