Binding UserControl Dependency Property and MVVM

Question

I have a MainWindow containing a UserControl, both implemented in MVVM-pattern. The MainWindowVM has properties that I want to bind to properties in the UserControl1VM. But this doesn't work.

Here's some code (the viewmodels use some kind of mvvm-framework that implement the INotifyPropertyChanged in a ViewModelBase-class but that's hopefully no problem):

MainWindow.xaml:

<Window x:Class="DPandMVVM.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:DPandMVVM"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Grid>
        <local:UserControl1 TextInControl="{Binding Text}" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

CodeBehind MainWindow.xaml.cs:

using System.Windows;
namespace DPandMVVM
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            DataContext = new MainWindowVM();
        }
    }
}

MainWindow-ViewModel MainWindowVM.cs:

namespace DPandMVVM
{
    public class MainWindowVM : ViewModelBase
    {
        private string _text;
        public string Text { get { return _text; } }

        public MainWindowVM()
        {
            _text = "Text from MainWindowVM";
        }
    }
}

And here the UserControl1.xaml:

<UserControl x:Class="DPandMVVM.UserControl1"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
             xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
             mc:Ignorable="d" 
             d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="300">
    <Grid>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding TextInTextBlock}" />  
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

The Codebehind UserControl1.xaml.cs:

using System.Windows.Controls;    
namespace DPandMVVM
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for UserControl1.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class UserControl1 : UserControl
    {
        public UserControl1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            DataContext = new UserControl1VM();
        }
    }
}

And the Viewmodel UserControl1VM.cs:

using System.Windows;    
namespace DPandMVVM
{
    public class UserControl1VM : DependencyObject
    {
        public UserControl1VM()
        {
            TextInControl = "TextfromUserControl1VM";
        }

        public string TextInControl
        {
            get { return (string)GetValue(TextInControlProperty); }
            set { SetValue(TextInControlProperty, value); }
        }

        public static readonly DependencyProperty TextInControlProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register("TextInControl", typeof(string), typeof(UserControl1VM));
    }
}

With this constellation the DP cannot be found in MainWindow.xaml.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

First of all you want DependencyProperty TextInControl to be declared inside UserControl1 if you want to bind it from outside.

Move the declaration of DP inside of UserControl1.

public partial class UserControl1 : UserControl
{
    public UserControl1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    public string TextInControl
    {
        get { return (string)GetValue(TextInControlProperty); }
        set { SetValue(TextInControlProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty TextInControlProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("TextInControl", typeof(string), 
                                       typeof(UserControl1));
}

---

Second you have externally set DataContext of UserControl to UserControl1VM,

    public UserControl1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        DataContext = new UserControl1VM(); <-- HERE (Remove this)
    }

So WPF binding engine looking for property Text in UserControl1VM instead of MainWindowVM. Remove setting DataContext and update XAML of UserControl1 to this:

<UserControl x:Class="DPandMVVM.UserControl1"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
             xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
             mc:Ignorable="d" 
             d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="300"
             x:Name="userControl1">
    <Grid>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding TextInTextBlock, ElementName=userControl1}" />  
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

Bind DP using ElementName by setting x:Name on UserControl.

---

UPDATE

In case you want to have ViewModel intact for UserControl, you have to update binding in MainWindow. Explicitly tell WPF binding engine to look for property in MainWindow's DataContext using ElementName in binding like this:

<local:UserControl1 TextInControl="{Binding DataContext.Text,
                    ElementName=mainWindow}" />

For this you need to set x:Name="mainWindow" on window root level.