Any way to reuse Bindings in WPF?

Question

I'm getting to the point in a WPF application where all of the bindings on my controls are getting quite repetitive and also a little too verbose. Also if I want to change this binding I would have to change it in various places instead of just one.

Is there any way to write the source part of the binding once such as in a resource and then reuse it by referencing it with a more compact syntax. I've looked around for such capabilities but I haven't found it.

What I'm doing now

<StackPanel>
    <ToggleButton x:Name="someToggleButton" />
    <Button Visibility="{Binding ElementName=someToggleButton, Path=IsChecked, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}" />
    <Grid Visibility="{Binding ElementName=someToggleButton, Path=IsChecked, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}" />
    <TextBox Visibility="{Binding ElementName=someToggleButton, Path=IsChecked, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}" />
    <CheckBox Visibility="{Binding ElementName=someToggleButton, Path=IsChecked, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}" />
</StackPanel>

What I want to be able to do (Pseudocode)

<StackPanel>
    <StackPanel.Resources>
        <Variable x:Name="someToggleButtonIsChecked" 
                  Type="{x:Type Visibility}"  
                  Value="{Binding ElementName=someToggleButton, Path=IsChecked, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}" />
    </StackPanel.Resources>

    <ToggleButton x:Name="someToggleButton" />
    <Button Visibility="{VariableBinding someToggleButtonIsChecked}" />
    <Grid Visibility="{VariableBinding someToggleButtonIsChecked}" />
    <TextBox Visibility="{VariableBinding someToggleButtonIsChecked}" />
    <CheckBox Visibility="{VariableBinding someToggleButtonIsChecked}" />
</StackPanel>

Is there any similar type of similar feature or technique that will allow me to declare the binding source once and then reuse it?

Answer 1

You can just bind someToggleButton's IsChecked property to a property on your viewmodel (the DataContext) and use that. It would look something like this:

<StackPanel>  
<ToggleButton x:Name="someToggleButton" IsChecked="{Binding ToggleVisibility, Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisibilityConverter}}"   /> 
<Button Visibility="{Binding ToggleVisibility}" /> 
<Grid Visibility="{Binding ToggleVisibility}" /> 
<TextBox Visibility="{Binding ToggleVisibility}" /> 
<CheckBox Visibility="{Binding ToggleVisibility}" /> 
</StackPanel> 

This would require that your Window's DataContext has a property called ToggleVisibility of type Visibility.

EDIT:

To eleborate further, your viewmodel could look like this:

public class SomeViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{

    private Visibility toggleVisibility;

    public SomeViewModel()
    {
        this.toggleVisibility = Visibility.Visible;
    }

    public Visibility ToggleVisibility
    {
        get
        {
            return this.toggleVisibility;
        }
        set
        {
            this.toggleVisibility = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("ToggleVisibility");
        }
    }

    private void RaisePropertyChanged(string propertyName)
    {
        if (this.PropertyChanged != null)
            this.PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
    }

    #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    #endregion
}

And you would then set an instance of it as the DataContext on the Window or even just on the StackPanel