Question

I am learning to use DelgateCommand from Prism….

In my UI, I have my UserName textbox and PasswordBox:

<TextBox Name="_UserNameTextBox" Text="{Binding UserName, Mode=TwoWay}" />

<PasswordBox Name="_PasswordBox"></PasswordBox>

And my Login Button:

<Button Name="button1" Command="{Binding LoginCommand, Mode=TwoWay}" CommandTarget="{Binding ElementName=_UserNameTextBox, Path=Text}">Login</Button>

Then my ViewModel I have:

    string _UserName = string.Empty;
    public string UserName
    {
        get
        {
            return _UserName;
        }
        set
        {
            if (value != _UserName)
            {
                _UserName = value;
                RaisePropertyChanged("UserName");
            }
        }

    }

    //For reference the password
    PasswordBox _PasswordBox { get; set; }


    public DelegateCommand<string> LoginCommand { get; set; }

    public LoginViewModel(PasswordBox passwordBox)
    {
        _PasswordBox = passwordBox;

        LoginCommand = new DelegateCommand<string>(
            (
                //Execute
                (str) =>
                {
                    Login(_PasswordBox.Password);
                }
            ),
                //CanExecute Delgate
                (usr) =>
                {
                    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(usr) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(_PasswordBox.Password))
                        return false;
                    return true;
                }
            );
    }

I can see my UserName is binding properly and I did pass my PasswordBox as referece in ViewModel constructor. When I execute the application the Button is disabled, so I know is binded to the command.

But I never see the CanExecute delgate that I wrote is being check after I type things in UserName and PasswordBox…. And is never enabled…

So what did I done wrong?

EDIT:

=====

So end result is…this?

string _UserName = string.Empty;
        public string UserName
        {
            get
            {
                return _UserName;
            }
            set
            {
                if (value != _UserName)
                {
                    _UserName = value;
                    RaisePropertyChanged("UserName");
                    LoginCommand.RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
                }
            }

        }

        //For reference the password
        PasswordBox _PasswordBox { get; set; }


        public DelegateCommand<string> LoginCommand { get; set; }

        public LoginViewModel(PasswordBox passwordBox)
        {
            _PasswordBox = passwordBox;
            _PasswordBox.PasswordChanged += delegate(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
            {
                LoginCommand.RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
            };
            LoginCommand = new DelegateCommand<string>(
                (
                    (str) =>
                    {
                        Login(_PasswordBox.Password);
                    }
                ),
                    (usr) =>
                    {
                        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(usr) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(_PasswordBox.Password))                        
                            return false;
                        return true;
                    }
                );
        }

Answer 1

Generally speaking, you have to call RaiseCanExecuteChanged whenever the effecting value returned by CanExecute changes. In this specific case you would need to call it whenever the value of the user or password fields changes. But that is exceedingly difficult, because your ViewModel implementation is totally wrong.

Here’s what you should do instead:

1. Expose a Username and a Password property inside your ViewModel. You will need to implement the getters and setters explicitly (i.e. it cannot be an automatic property).
2. From within your view, bind the contents of the username and password input fields to these properties.
3. Inside the property setters, call LoginCommand.RaiseCanExecuteChanged.

Here’s what will happen when you do this (let’s pick the password box for an example):

1. The user types a character inside the password box.
2. WPF sets the value of LoginViewModel.Password because of the two-way binding.
3. The password setter calls RaiseCanExecuteChanged, which raises the CanExecuteChanged event on your command.
4. The submit button (which has subscribed to that event when you bound it to the command) gets notified.
5. The button calls CanExecute to see if executing the command is now allowed.
6. Your delegate runs and returns true, so the button activates itself.