Handling the window closing event with WPF / MVVM Light Toolkit

Question

I would simply associate the handler in the View constructor:

MyWindow() 
{
    // Set up ViewModel, assign to DataContext etc.
    Closing += viewModel.OnWindowClosing;
}

Then add the handler to the ViewModel:

using System.ComponentModel;

public void OnWindowClosing(object sender, CancelEventArgs e) 
{
   // Handle closing logic, set e.Cancel as needed
}

In this case, you gain exactly nothing except complexity by using a more elaborate pattern with more indirection (5 extra lines of XAML plus Command pattern).

The "zero code-behind" mantra is not the goal in itself, the point is to decouple ViewModel from the View. Even when the event is bound in code-behind of the View, the ViewModel does not depend on the View and the closing logic can be unit-tested.

This code works just fine:

ViewModel.cs:

public ICommand WindowClosing
{
    get
    {
        return new RelayCommand<CancelEventArgs>(
            (args) =>{
                     });
    }
}

and in XAML:

<i:Interaction.Triggers>
    <i:EventTrigger EventName="Closing">
        <command:EventToCommand Command="{Binding WindowClosing}" PassEventArgsToCommand="True" />
    </i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>

assuming that:

• ViewModel is assigned to a DataContext of the main container.
• xmlns:command="clr-namespace:GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Command;assembly=GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.SL5"
• xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity"

This option is even easier, and maybe is suitable for you. In your View Model constructor, you can subscribe the Main Window closing event like this:

Application.Current.MainWindow.Closing += new CancelEventHandler(MainWindow_Closing);

void MainWindow_Closing(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
            //Your code to handle the event
}

All the best.

Here is an answer according to the MVVM-pattern if you don't want to know about the Window (or any of its event) in the ViewModel.

public interface IClosing
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Executes when window is closing
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>Whether the windows should be closed by the caller</returns>
    bool OnClosing();
}

In the ViewModel add the interface and implementation

public bool OnClosing()
{
    bool close = true;

    //Ask whether to save changes och cancel etc
    //close = false; //If you want to cancel close

    return close;
}

In the Window I add the Closing event. This code behind doesn't break the MVVM pattern. The View can know about the viewmodel!

void Window_Closing(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
{
    IClosing context = DataContext as IClosing;
    if (context != null)
    {
        e.Cancel = !context.OnClosing();
    }
}

Geez, seems like a lot of code going on here for this. Stas above had the right approach for minimal effort. Here is my adaptation (using MVVMLight but should be recognizable)... Oh and the PassEventArgsToCommand="True" is definitely needed as indicated above.

(credit to Laurent Bugnion http://blog.galasoft.ch/archive/2009/10/18/clean-shutdown-in-silverlight-and-wpf-applications.aspx)

   ... MainWindow Xaml
   ...
   WindowStyle="ThreeDBorderWindow" 
    WindowStartupLocation="Manual">



<i:Interaction.Triggers>
    <i:EventTrigger EventName="Closing">
        <cmd:EventToCommand Command="{Binding WindowClosingCommand}" PassEventArgsToCommand="True" />
    </i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers> 

In the view model:

///<summary>
///  public RelayCommand<CancelEventArgs> WindowClosingCommand
///</summary>
public RelayCommand<CancelEventArgs> WindowClosingCommand { get; private set; }
 ...
 ...
 ...
        // Window Closing
        WindowClosingCommand = new RelayCommand<CancelEventArgs>((args) =>
                                                                      {
                                                                          ShutdownService.MainWindowClosing(args);
                                                                      },
                                                                      (args) => CanShutdown);

in the ShutdownService

    /// <summary>
    ///   ask the application to shutdown
    /// </summary>
    public static void MainWindowClosing(CancelEventArgs e)
    {
        e.Cancel = true;  /// CANCEL THE CLOSE - let the shutdown service decide what to do with the shutdown request
        RequestShutdown();
    }

RequestShutdown looks something like the following but basicallyRequestShutdown or whatever it is named decides whether to shutdown the application or not (which will merrily close the window anyway):

...
...
...
    /// <summary>
    ///   ask the application to shutdown
    /// </summary>
    public static void RequestShutdown()
    {

        // Unless one of the listeners aborted the shutdown, we proceed.  If they abort the shutdown, they are responsible for restarting it too.

        var shouldAbortShutdown = false;
        Logger.InfoFormat("Application starting shutdown at {0}...", DateTime.Now);
        var msg = new NotificationMessageAction<bool>(
            Notifications.ConfirmShutdown,
            shouldAbort => shouldAbortShutdown |= shouldAbort);

        // recipients should answer either true or false with msg.execute(true) etc.

        Messenger.Default.Send(msg, Notifications.ConfirmShutdown);

        if (!shouldAbortShutdown)
        {
            // This time it is for real
            Messenger.Default.Send(new NotificationMessage(Notifications.NotifyShutdown),
                                   Notifications.NotifyShutdown);
            Logger.InfoFormat("Application has shutdown at {0}", DateTime.Now);
            Application.Current.Shutdown();
        }
        else
            Logger.InfoFormat("Application shutdown aborted at {0}", DateTime.Now);
    }
    }