Data Binding to Nested Properties?

Question

I'm pretty new to WPF and XAML and now I'm stuck with data binding for days! I just wanted to bind some nested properties to a TextBox and ListView (via XAML), but I'm doing it wrong. Here's my Sample Code:

MainWindow.xaml.cs

namespace CounterTestNestedDataBinding
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MyModel MyModel { get; set; }

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            MyModel = new MyModel { MyCounter = new Counter() };
        }

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            MyModel.MyCounter.incrementCounter();
        }
    }
}

MyModel.cs

namespace CounterTestNestedDataBinding
{
    public class MyModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        public Counter _myCounter;
        public Counter MyCounter
        {
            get { return _myCounter; }
            set
            {
                _myCounter = value;
                NotifyPropertyChanged("MyCounter");
            }
        }

        // some other members and properties ...

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
        private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string property)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
            {
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(property));
            }
        }

    }
}

Counter.cs

namespace CounterTestNestedDataBinding
{
    public class Counter : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        #region Members
        private int _currentNumber;
        private ObservableCollection<int> _historyList;
        #endregion

        #region Constructor
        public Counter()
        {
            _currentNumber = 0;
            _historyList = new ObservableCollection<int>();
        }
        #endregion

        #region Properties
        public int CurrentNumber
        {
            get { return _currentNumber; }
            set
            {
                _currentNumber = value;
                NotifyPropertyChanged("CurrentNumber");
            }
        }

        public ObservableCollection<int> HistoryList
        {
            get { return _historyList; }
            set
            {
                _historyList = value;
                NotifyPropertyChanged("HistoryList");
            }
        }
        #endregion

        public void incrementCounter()
        {
            HistoryList.Add(CurrentNumber);
            CurrentNumber++;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return string.Format("CurrentNumber: {0}, HistoryList: {1}", _currentNumber, String.Join(",", _historyList));
        }

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
        private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string property)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
            {
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(property));
            }
        }
    }
}

MainWindow.xaml

<Window x:Class="CounterTestNestedDataBinding.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:counterTestNestedDataBinding="clr-namespace:CounterTestNestedDataBinding"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="200" ResizeMode="NoResize" WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"
        DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}"
        >
    <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
        <TextBox x:Name="TextBoxCounterCurrent" Text="{Binding MyModel.MyCounter.CurrentNumber}"/>
        <Button Content="Button" Click="Button_Click"/>
        <ListView x:Name="ListViewCounterHistory" Height="75" ItemsSource="{Binding MyModel.MyCounter.HistoryList}"></ListView>
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

My questions:

1. How can I bind nested properties? Is it possible? Why does something like

   Text="{Binding MyModel.MyCounter.CurrentNumber}"
   

   not work?

2. Is the "DataContext" set correct in the XAML?

Answer 1

Set your data context in the constructor like this:

public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    MyModel = new MyModel { MyCounter = new Counter() };
    this.DataContext = MyModel;
}

and then of course the path to your data changes because the data that you are binding is under MyModel. Your bindings should be changed as follows:

<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
    <TextBox x:Name="TextBoxCounterCurrent" Text="{Binding MyCounter.CurrentNumber}"/>
    <Button Content="Button" Click="Button_Click"/>
    <ListView x:Name="ListViewCounterHistory" Height="75" ItemsSource="{Binding MyCounter.HistoryList}"></ListView>
</StackPanel>

EDIT:

This is how you do it by using XAML.

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfApplication1"
    xmlns:system="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525" >
<Window.Resources>
    <local:MyModel x:Key="myModal" />
</Window.Resources>

<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" DataContext="{StaticResource myModal}">
    <TextBox x:Name="TextBoxCounterCurrent" Text="{Binding MyCounter.CurrentNumber}"/>
    <Button Content="Button" Click="Button_Click"/>
    <ListView x:Name="ListViewCounterHistory" Height="75" ItemsSource="{Binding MyCounter.HistoryList}"></ListView>
</StackPanel>

and code changes like this:

 public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MyModel MyModel { get; set; }
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        //MyModel = new MyModel { MyCounter = new Counter() };
        //this.DataContext = MyModel;
    }

    private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var myModel = this.Resources["myModal"] as MyModel;
        if (myModel != null)
        {
            myModel.MyCounter.incrementCounter();
        }
    }
}

By the way you should initialize _myCounter in MyModel constructor.