How do I Bind WPF Commands between a UserControl and a parent Window

Question

I'l start by letting a picture do some talking.

So you see, I want to create a WPF user control that supports binding to a parent window's DataContext. The user control is simply a Button and a ListBox with a custom ItemTemplate to present things with a Label and a Remove Button.

The Add button should call an ICommand on the main view model to interact with the user in selecting a new thing (instance of IThing). The Remove buttons in the ListBoxItem in the user control should similarly call an ICommand on the main view model to request the related thing's removal. For that to work, the Remove button would have to send some identifying information to the view model about the thing requesting to be removed. So there are 2 types of Command that should be bindable to this control. Something like AddThingCommand() and RemoveThingCommand(IThing thing).

I got the functionality working using Click events, but that feels hacky, producing a bunch of code behind the XAML, and rubs against the rest of the pristine MVVM implementation. I really want to use Commands and MVVM normally.

There's enough code involved to get a basic demo working, I am holding off on posting the whole thing to reduce confusion. What is working that makes me feel like I'm so close is the DataTemplate for the ListBox binds the Label correctly, and when the parent window adds items to the collection, they show up.

<Label Content="{Binding Path=DisplayName}" />

While that displays the IThing correctly, the Remove button right next to it does nothing when I click it.

<Button Command="{Binding Path=RemoveItemCommand, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type userControlCommands:ItemManager }}}">

This isn't terribly unexpected since the specific item isn't provided, but the Add button doesn't have to specify anything, and it also fails to call the command.

<Button Command="{Binding Path=AddItemCommand, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type userControlCommands:ItemManager }}}">

So what I need is the "basic" fix for the Add button, so that it calls the parent window's command to add a thing, and the more complex fix for the Remove button, so that it also calls the parent command but also passes along its bound thing.

Many thanks for any insights,

Answer 1

This is trivial, and made so by treating your UserControl like what it is--a control (that just happens to be made up from other controls). What does that mean? It means you should place DependencyProperties on your UC to which your ViewModel can bind, like any other control. Buttons expose a Command property, TextBoxes expose a Text property, etc. You need to expose, on the surface of your UserControl, everything you need for it to do its job.

Let's take a trivial (thrown together in under two minutes) example. I'll leave out the ICommand implementation.

First, our Window

<Window x:Class="UCsAndICommands.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:t="clr-namespace:UCsAndICommands"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Window.DataContext>
        <t:ViewModel />
    </Window.DataContext>
    <t:ItemsEditor Items="{Binding Items}"
                   AddItem="{Binding AddItem}"
                   RemoveItem="{Binding RemoveItem}" />
</Window>

Notice we have our Items editor, which exposes properties for everything it needs--the list of items it is editing, a command to add a new item, and a command to remove an item.

Next, the UserControl

<UserControl x:Class="UCsAndICommands.ItemsEditor"
             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"
             xmlns:t="clr-namespace:UCsAndICommands"
             x:Name="root">
    <UserControl.Resources>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type t:Item}">
            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                <Button Command="{Binding RemoveItem, ElementName=root}"
                        CommandParameter="{Binding}">Remove</Button>
                <TextBox Text="{Binding Name}" Width="100"/>
            </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
    </UserControl.Resources>
    <StackPanel>
        <Button Command="{Binding AddItem, ElementName=root}">Add</Button>
        <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Items, ElementName=root}" />
    </StackPanel>
</UserControl>

We bind our controls to the DPs defined on the surface of the UC. Please, don't do any nonsense like DataContext=this; as this anti-pattern breaks more complex UC implementations.

Here's the definitions of these properties on the UC

public partial class ItemsEditor : UserControl
{
    #region Items
    public static readonly DependencyProperty ItemsProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
            "Items",
            typeof(IEnumerable<Item>),
            typeof(ItemsEditor),
            new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
    public IEnumerable<Item> Items
    {
        get { return (IEnumerable<Item>)GetValue(ItemsProperty); }
        set { SetValue(ItemsProperty, value); }
    }
    #endregion  
    #region AddItem
    public static readonly DependencyProperty AddItemProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
            "AddItem",
            typeof(ICommand),
            typeof(ItemsEditor),
            new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
    public ICommand AddItem
    {
        get { return (ICommand)GetValue(AddItemProperty); }
        set { SetValue(AddItemProperty, value); }
    }
    #endregion          
    #region RemoveItem
    public static readonly DependencyProperty RemoveItemProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
            "RemoveItem",
            typeof(ICommand),
            typeof(ItemsEditor),
            new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
    public ICommand RemoveItem
    {
        get { return (ICommand)GetValue(RemoveItemProperty); }
        set { SetValue(RemoveItemProperty, value); }
    }        
    #endregion  
    public ItemsEditor()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
}

Just DPs on the surface of the UC. No biggie. And our ViewModel is similarly simple

public class ViewModel
{
    public ObservableCollection<Item> Items { get; private set; }
    public ICommand AddItem { get; private set; }
    public ICommand RemoveItem { get; private set; }
    public ViewModel()
    {
        Items = new ObservableCollection<Item>();
        AddItem = new DelegatedCommand<object>(
            o => true, o => Items.Add(new Item()));
        RemoveItem = new DelegatedCommand<Item>(
            i => true, i => Items.Remove(i));
    }
}

You are editing three different collections, so you may want to expose more ICommands to make it clear which you are adding/removing. Or you could cheap out and use the CommandParameter to figure it out.