Question

I have a datagrid like below in my WPF application.

<Window x:Class="MyApp.TestWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
    <Grid>
    <DataGrid x:Name="dgTest"  ItemsSource="{Binding TestSource}" AutoGenerateColumns="False" >
            <DataGrid.Columns>
                <DataGridTemplateColumn Width="125" >
                       <DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                                      <TextBox Text="{Binding Column1}"></TextBox>
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
                </DataGridTemplateColumn>
                <DataGridTemplateColumn Width="500" >
                    <DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                            <TextBox Text="{Binding Column2}"></TextBox>
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
                </DataGridTemplateColumn>
            </DataGrid.Columns>
        </DataGrid>
         <Button Click="SaveButton_Click">Save</Button>
    </Grid>
</Window>

I am binding it using the following code. Now my requirement is when the user enters some text into these textboxes inside datagrid and click on save button, it should update the database. How can I achieve this?

namespace MyApp
{
    public partial class TestWindow: Window
    {
        private ObservableCollection<Test> _testSource
        public ObservableCollection<Test> TestSource
        {
            get
            {
                return _testSource;
            }
            set
            {
                _testSource = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("TestSource");
            }
        }

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
        private void OnPropertyChanged(string propName)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
            {
                PropertyChanged.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propName));
            }
        }

        public TestWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            TestSource= new ObservableCollection<Test>();
             string strConnString = Application.Current.Properties["connectionStr"].ToString();
             SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(strConnString);
            SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT Column1,Column2 FROM MyTable", con);
            SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
            DataTable dtTest = new DataTable();
            da.Fill(dtTest);
            foreach (DataRow row in dtTest)
            {
                Test cd = new Test();
                cd.Column1 = row["Column1"].ToString();
                cd.Column2 = row["Column2"].ToString();
                TestSource.Add(cd);
            }
            this.DataContext = this;
        }

        private void SaveButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
             // here I need to get the updated ObservableCollection, but now it is showing old data
             foreach Test t in TestSource)
            {
                string a = t.Column1;
                string b = t.Column2;
            }
        }
    }

    public class Test: 
    {
        public string Column1{ get; set; }
        public string Column2{ get; set; }
    }
}

Thanks

Answer 1

When creating your own UI in DataGridTemplateColumn (or a custom DataGrid.RowStyle for that matter), the DataGrid changes the UpdateSourceTrigger (i.e. when the underlying data should be updated) on all your bindings to Explicit if you didn’t specify them yourself.

That “feature” is described briefly here: 5 Random Gotchas with the WPF DataGrid, and even though the author says this happens whether or not you set the UpdateSourceTrigger yourself, setting it yourself does actually work (at least in .Net 4.0).

Use LostFocus to mimic the default TextBox behavior (and PropertyChanged on CheckBox etc):

...
<TextBox Text="{Binding Column1, UpdateSourceTrigger=LostFocus}"></TextBox>
...
<TextBox Text="{Binding Column2, UpdateSourceTrigger=LostFocus}"></TextBox>
...