How do I bind to RelativeSource Self?

Question

I am trying to bind several different properties in my Xaml:

<Label Content="{Binding Description}"  Visibility="{Binding Path=DescriptionVisibility,  ElementName=_UserInputOutput}"                FontSize="{Binding Path=FontSizeValue, ElementName=_UserInputOutput}"   HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Padding="0" /> 

You will noticed I have used two Different binding techniques here. The ones using Element Name work, the other does not. Here is code behind:

public string Description {      get { return (string)GetValue(DescriptionProperty); }      set { SetValue(DescriptionProperty, value); } } public static readonly DependencyProperty DescriptionProperty =  DependencyProperty.Register("Description", typeof(string), typeof(UserControl),  new UIPropertyMetadata("")); 

Each Binding has a different name but they all look like this for the most part. I want my Binding to be able to work with:

{Binding Description} 

Instead of:

{Binding Path=Description, ElementName=_UserInputOutput} 

It only seems to be working when ElementName is used. I need to export/import this XAML, so I can't have a ElementName or the import won't work.

I thought this would be best:

{Binding Path=Description, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}} 

This did not work.

Any ideas?? Thank you!

Answer 1

{RelativeSource Self} targets the object that owns the property that is being bound, if you have such a binding on a Label it will look for Label.Description, which isn't there. Instead you should use {RelativeSource AncestorType=UserControl}.

Bindings without a source (ElementName, Source, RelativeSource) are relative to the DataContext, however in UserControls you should avoid setting the DataContext to not mess with external bindings.