Binding to CurrentItem in a ItemsControl

Question

The XAML below is basically trying to make a list of Buttons (rendered from the Name property of objects in the Views collection in the current DataContext.

When I click on a button the CurrentItem property of CollectionViewSource should change and the associated View should be displayed in a content presenter.

OK. If I click in the ListBox in the XAML below it works exactly as desired.

But, If I click a button in the UniformGrid (created by the items control) the CurrentItem property is not updated.

How do I get the CurrentItem to be updated when an item is selected in the ItemsControl?

Thanks

<UserControl x:Class="Pos.Features.Reservation.ReservationView"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:product="clr-namespace:Pos.Features.ProductBrowser"
             xmlns:activity="clr-namespace:Pos.Features.ActivityBrowser"
             xmlns:addbysku="clr-namespace:Pos.Features.AddBySku"
             xmlns:client="clr-namespace:Pos.Features.ClientBrowser"
             xmlns:notes="clr-namespace:Pos.Features.Notes"
             xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Pos.Views"
             xmlns:res="clr-namespace:Pos.Core;assembly=Pos.Core"
             Height="300" Width="300">
    <UserControl.Resources>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type product:ProductBrowserViewModel}">
            <product:ProductBrowserView/>
        </DataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type activity:ActivityBrowserViewModel}">
            <activity:ActivityBrowserView/>
        </DataTemplate>

        <CollectionViewSource x:Name="x" x:Key="ViewsCollection" Source="{Binding Views}"  />
    </UserControl.Resources>

    <StackPanel>
        <ListBox Name="ListBoxMenu" Grid.Column="0" Margin="5" ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ViewsCollection}}">
            <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" Padding="10"/>
                </DataTemplate>
            </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
        </ListBox>
        <ContentControl Grid.Column="1" Content="{Binding ElementName=ListBoxMenu, Path=SelectedItem}"/>
        <ItemsControl  Grid.Column="2" Name="ViewList" ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ViewsCollection}}">
            <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <Button>
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" Name="txtButtonLabel" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Foreground="Black"/>
                    </Button>
                </DataTemplate>                
            </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
            <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
                <ItemsPanelTemplate>
                    <UniformGrid Rows="1" Columns="{Binding Views.Count}"/>
                </ItemsPanelTemplate>
            </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
        </ItemsControl>
        <ContentControl Grid.Column="3" Content="{Binding Source={StaticResource ViewsCollection}, Path=CurrentItem}"/>
        <Button Grid.Column="4" Click="Button_Click">dsadsd</Button>
    </StackPanel>
</UserControl>

Answer 1

Your button does nothing. Usually your ViewModel would have an ICommand called Select (or something similar) that the Button would be bound against

Command="{Binding Select, ElementName="root"}"

and you'd pass the instance to the ICommand that you'd like to select

CommandParameter="{Binding}"

It would look something like this (c#/XAML like pseudocode):

public class MyModel { public string Name {get;set;} }

public class MyViewModel
{
  public ObservableCollection<MyModel> Models {get;set;}
  public ICommand Select {get;set;}
  /* configure Models and Select etc */
}

<UserControl DataContext="{StaticResource MyViewModelInstance}" x:Name="root">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Models}">
  <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    <ItemsPanelTemplate>
      <Button Text="{Binding Name}" 
      Command="{Binding Select, ElementName="root"}"
      CommandParameter="{Binding}"/>
   </ItemsPanelTemplate>
  </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</UserControl>

The ItemsControl binds to Models, so each MyModel in Models gets a button. The button text is bound to the property Name. The button command is bound to the Select property in the ViewModel. When the button is pressed, it calls the ICommand, sending in the instance of MyModel that the button is bound against.

Please do note that using ViewModels within a UserControl is a code smell. UserControls should appear to users as all other controls--they should have bindable public properties which are bound to the user's ViewModel, not yours. You then bind to the values of these properties within the UserControl. For this example, you would have an ItemsSource property defined on your UserControl, and the ItemsControl would bind to this property rather than a ViewModel directly.