Question

I have a bool property in my ViewModel called IsConnected and I would like to bind it to a TextBlock in my MainWindow. Rather than have the textblock read true or false I need it to say Connected or Disconnected instead. Forgive me because I’m new to WPF. If someone could give me a head start I can take it from there but I’m not sure how to figure out what I need.

Answer 1

I’d generally prefer to just add a property to the view model (I really dislike value converters), but here’s a simple way to accomplish what you’re trying to do using a style:

<TextBlock>
  <TextBlock.Style>
    <Style TargetType="TextBlock">
      <Setter Property="Text" Value="Connected"/>
      <Style.Triggers>
        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding IsConnected}" Value="False">
          <Setter Property="Text" Value="Disconnected"/>
        </DataTrigger>
      </Style.Triggers>
    </Style>
  </TextBlock.Style>
</TextBlock>

Edit

Note that once you get used to using data triggers, you can make all kinds of modifications to your view without touching your view model. For instance:

<StackPanel>
   <Image Source="images\connected.png">
     <Image.Style>
        <Style TargetType="Image">
           <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Collapsed"/>
           <Style.Triggers>
              <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding IsConnected}" Value="True">
                <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/>
              </DataTrigger>
           </Style.Triggers>
        </Style>
     </Image.Style>
  </Image>
   <Image Source="images\disconnected.png">
     <Image.Style>
        <Style TargetType="Image">
           <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Collapsed"/>
           <Style.Triggers>
              <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding IsConnected}" Value="False">
                <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/>
              </DataTrigger>
           </Style.Triggers>
        </Style>
     </Image.Style>
  </Image>
</StackPanel>