Question

All ValueConverter examples I have found used Resources to create ValueConverter instance. But my ValueConverter uses some dependencies which are resolved by IoC framework. So I would like to set Binding Converter property to some property of my ViewModel which is accessible through DataContext. I tried to do it but got an exception telling I can’t bind anything to Converter property of binding.

Answer 1

You cannot bind Binding.Converter as it is not a dependency property, but you can make the converter inherit from DependencyObject and declare dependency properties on that instead, then you can bind those.

Note however that you might need to jump some hoops to get what you want as you will not be able to bind to the DataContext. You probably cannot use ElementName either because the converter will have no name-scope. One common workaround is to target an object with the right DataContext using Binding.Source with x:Reference. Make sure not to declare to instantiate the converter inside the visual tree of the targeted object or x:Reference will throw cyclical dependency errors (the targeted object’s Resources are fine).