WPF Binding to a custom property in a custom control

Question

I have a custom text box defined as follows:

public class CustomTextBox : TextBox
{
    public static DependencyProperty CustomTextProperty = 
             DependencyProperty.Register("CustomText", typeof(string), 
             typeof(CustomTextBox));

    static CustomTextBox()
    {
        TextProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(SMSTextBox),
                      new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(string.Empty,
                      FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.Journal |
                          FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault,
                      new PropertyChangedCallback(CustomTextBox_OnTextPropertyChanged));
    }

    public string CustomText
    {
        get { return (string)GetValue(CustomTextProperty); }
        set { SetValue(CustomTextProperty, value); }
    }

    private static void CustomTextBox_OnTextPropertyChanged(DependencyObject d,
                     DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        CustomTextBox customTextBox = d as CustomTextBox;

        customTextBox.SetValue(CustomTextProperty, e.NewValue);
    }
}

I'm binding the Custom Text property in the XAML -

<local:CustomTextBox CustomText="{Binding ViewModelProperty}" />

The problem I'm facing is that when I enter anything in the CustomTextBox, the changes are not reflected in the ViewModelProperty i.e. the ViewModelProperty is not getting updated. The CustomTextProperty is getting updated but I suppose I need to do something extra to make the binding work as well.

What am I not doing? I would appreciate any help regarding this.

Thank you

Answer 1

I guess the binding needs to be two-way.

<local:CustomTextBox
    CustomText="{Binding ViewModelProperty, Mode=TwoWay}" />

You wouldn't need to specify the Mode if you made the CustomText property bind two-way by default:

public static readonly DependencyProperty CustomTextProperty =
    DependencyProperty.Register(
        "CustomText", typeof(string), typeof(CustomTextBox),
        new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(
            FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault));

You may also have to define a PropertyChangedCallback for the CustomText property that updates the Text property (i.e. the other direction of what you have implemented now). Otherwise the TextBox won't display anything that is initially contained in the ViewModel property and of course woudln't be updated when the ViewModel property changes.