Is there a MVVM way to select text in a textbox? The MVVM framework that I am using is Laurent Bugnion's MVVM Light Toolkit.
Whenever I am trying to directly affect the the View in a "pure" MVVM application (no code-behind in View), I will use Attached Properties to encapsulate whatever effect I am trying to achieve. I will create an interface that defines the actions I wish to take using custom events. I then implement this interface in each ViewModel that will be "running" these commands on the View. Finally, I bind my ViewModel to the attached property in my View definition. The following code shows how to this for SelectAll and a TextBox. This code can be easily expanded to perform just about any action on any component in the View.
My Attached Property and interface definition:
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace SelectAllSample
{
public static class TextBoxAttach
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty TextBoxControllerProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached(
"TextBoxController", typeof(ITextBoxController), typeof(TextBoxAttach),
new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(null, OnTextBoxControllerChanged));
public static void SetTextBoxController(UIElement element, ITextBoxController value)
{
element.SetValue(TextBoxControllerProperty, value);
}
public static ITextBoxController GetTextBoxController(UIElement element)
{
return (ITextBoxController)element.GetValue(TextBoxControllerProperty);
}
private static readonly Dictionary<ITextBoxController, TextBox> elements = new Dictionary<ITextBoxController, TextBox>();
private static void OnTextBoxControllerChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
var element = d as TextBox;
if (element == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("d");
var oldController = e.OldValue as ITextBoxController;
if (oldController != null)
{
elements.Remove(oldController);
oldController.SelectAll -= SelectAll;
}
var newController = e.NewValue as ITextBoxController;
if (newController != null)
{
elements.Add(newController, element);
newController.SelectAll += SelectAll;
}
}
private static void SelectAll(ITextBoxController sender)
{
TextBox element;
if (!elements.TryGetValue(sender, out element))
throw new ArgumentException("sender");
element.Focus();
element.SelectAll();
}
}
public interface ITextBoxController
{
event SelectAllEventHandler SelectAll;
}
public delegate void SelectAllEventHandler(ITextBoxController sender);
}
My ViewModel definition:
public class MyViewModel : ITextBoxController
{
public MyViewModel()
{
Value = "My Text";
SelectAllCommand = new RelayCommand(p =>
{
if (SelectAll != null)
SelectAll(this);
});
}
public string Value { get; set; }
public RelayCommand SelectAllCommand { get; private set; }
public event SelectAllEventHandler SelectAll;
}
My View definition:
<Window x:Class="SelectAllSample.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:loc="clr-namespace:SelectAllSample"
Title="Window1" Height="150" Width="150">
<x:Code><![CDATA[
public Window1()
{
InitializeComponent();
DataContext = new MyViewModel();
}
]]></x:Code>
<StackPanel>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Value}" loc:TextBoxAttach.TextBoxController="{Binding}" />
<Button Content="Select All" Command="{Binding SelectAllCommand}" />
</StackPanel>
</Window>
Note: Thanks to Josh Smith for RelayCommand (see code in Figure 3 on this page). It is used in MyViewModel in this example (and just about all my MVVM code).
find a good introduction to attached properties here: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/AttachedBehaviors.aspx
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