Using Caliburn.Micro binding feature on an "inner" user control

Question

I'm quite new to Caliburn.Micro, so I guess this has a simple answer (or at least I hope it has :))

I have a ViewModel with a property called ConnectedSystem that has a sub-property called Name.

In my View, I have the following XAML (excerpt):

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
  <Label Content="Name:" />
  <TextBlock x:Name="ConnectedSystem_Name" />
</StackPanel>

This works just fine, and the name is shown in the TextBlock as expected. However, ConnectedSystem has around 10 properties that should be displayed, and I don't want to copy-paste the XAML above 10 times inside my view. Instead I want to extract that XAML as a UserControl where I can set the LabelText and Text as properties.

I tried this, but I'm not sure how I can get Caliburn.Micro to pass the ConnectedSystem_Name into my UserControl automatically.

It might be a better way than using a UserControl here also, so the question is basically: What is the best way of putting this shared XAML as it's own control, and still be able to use Caliburn.Micros binding.

Answer 1

What you need to do is use a ContentControl in your main view to display the ConnectedSystem property of the main view model. By using a ContentControl you will get included in the view model binding process and the view model binder rules will be applied. So you want your property (using the default implementation of Caliburn) to be of type ConnectedSystemViewModel and have a view named ConnectedSystemView. Then in the view used to display the parent you want a ContentControl with an x:Name of ConnectedSystem (the name of the ConnectedSystemViewModel property. This will cause the view model binder to connect the two and do its usual work. Here is some code for clarity:

ConnectedSystemView.xaml (the user control that conventions will use when specifying ContentControl as the control to display the connected system property of main view model)

<UserControl x:Class="Sample.Views.ConnectedSystemView"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
            <ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <Label Grid.Column="0"
                   Grid.Row="0">PropertyOne Label:</Label>
        <TextBox x:Name="PropertyOne"
                 Grid.Column="1"
                 Grid.Row="0"></TextBox>

        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0"
                   Grid.Row="1">PropertyTwo Label:</TextBlock>
        <TextBox x:Name="PropertyTwo"
                 Grid.Column="1"
                 Grid.Row="1"></TextBox>

        <!-- repeat the TextBlock, TextBox pair for the remaining
             properties three through ten -->
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

ConnectedSystemViewModel.cs (the type of the ConnectedSystem property on your main view model)

namespace Sample.ViewModels
{
    public class ConnectedSystemViewModel : PropertyChangedBase
    {
        private string _propertyOne;
        public string PropertyOne
        {
            get { return _propertyOne; }
            set
            {
                _propertyOne = value;
                NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => PropertyOne);
            }
        }

        // these all need to be as above with NotifyPropertyChange,
        // omitted for brevity.
        public string PropertyTwo { get; set;}
        public string PropertyThree { get; set;}
        public string PropertyFour { get; set;}
        public string PropertyFive { get; set;}
        public string PropertySix { get; set;}
        public string PropertySeven { get; set;}
        public string PropertyEight { get; set;}
        public string PropertyNine { get; set;}
        public string PropertyTen { get; set;}
    }
}

And in your main view define a ContentControl named relative to the main view model property of type ConnectedSystemViewModel

<ContentControl x:Name="ConnectedSystem"></ContentControl>

If I understand you question correctly this should be all you need to hook into the default Caliburn.Micro conventions. Obviously you will add the 10 ConnectedSystem properties to ConnectedSystemViewModel and appropriate controls with appropriate names to ConnectedSystemView to complete the implementation.

This way inside your main view you only need to define the one ContentControl to display the ConnectedSytem property (instead of 10 identical custom user controls) and conventions will determine the type of user control to use to fill the ContentControl.

Inside the ConnectedSystemView which will be inserted to the content property of your main views ContentControl via conventions, you have the controls you want to display your 10 connected system properties.

Answer 2

Caliburn.Micro doesn't deal well with automatically linking multiple items to a single control. However you don't have to rely on the automatic binder, you can use a plain old wpf binding instead.

A UserControl is the way to go here. In the code you can add two DependencyProperties, LabelText and Text.

Then in the XAML for your UserControl, bind to the new properties.

Where you use this control you can now set the LabelText and Text values in XAML. So on your main view add the control, and bind LabelText and Text to the properties in your ViewModel.