CODEWITHSUNDEEP
dependency-properties
onestarblack
onestarblack

Reputation: 814

WPF: Cannot bind to a custom controls dependency property

I've created a custom control with a dependency property for databinding. The binded value should then be displayed in a text box. This binding works properly.

The problem occurs when I implement my custom control. The grid's data context is a simple view model which contains a String property for binding.

  1. If I bind this property to a standard wpf controls text box everything works fine.
  2. If I bind the property to my custom control nothing happens.

After some debugging I found out that SampleText is searched in CustomControl. Of course it doesn't exist there. Why is my property searched in CustomControl and not taken from the DataContext as it happens in scenario 1.

    <Window x:Class="SampleApplicatoin.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:SampleApplication"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.DataContext>
            <controls:ViewModel/>
        </Grid.DataContext>
        <TextBox Text="{Binding SampleText}"/>
        <controls:CustomControl TextBoxText="{Binding SampleText}"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Below the XAML code of the custom control. I use DataContext = Self to get the dependency property from code behind:

<UserControl x:Class="SampleApplication.CustomControl"
             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" DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}">
    <Grid>
        <TextBox HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="87,133,0,0" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding TextBoxText}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120"/>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

The xaml.cs file just contains the dependency property:

public partial class CustomControl : UserControl
    {
        public static readonly DependencyProperty TextBoxTextProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("TextBoxText", typeof (String), typeof (CustomControl), new PropertyMetadata(default(String)));

        public CustomControl()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        public String TextBoxText
        {
            get { return (String) GetValue(TextBoxTextProperty); }
            set { SetValue(TextBoxTextProperty, value); }
        }
    }

Thanks for any help on this. It really drives me crazy now.

EDIT:

I just came over two possible solutions:

Here the first (which works for me):

<!-- Give that child a name ... -->
<controls:ViewModel x:Name="viewModel"/>
<!-- ... and set it as ElementName -->
<controls:CustomControl TextBoxText="{Binding SampleText, ElementName=viewModel}"/>

The second one. This doesn't work in my case. I don't know why:

<controls:CustomControl TextBoxText="{Binding SampleText, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type controls:ViewModel}}}"/>
<!-- or -->
<controls:CustomControl TextBoxText="{Binding SampleText, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType=controls:ViewModel}}"/>

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1948

Answers (1)

zetty
zetty

Reputation: 11

I had a similar situation. In my case, I fixed it with adding OnPropertyChanged in setter of property in ViewModel.

Upvotes: 1

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