Question

I want to bind to a resource (DynamicResource) and access properties on that resource, but is there a way to do that?

(I want to visualize the default values from constructor in the xaml editor in visual studio. Those cannot be seen when referencing an object through DataContext nor through a property added on my Window class…)

Not working xaml: (works in composer but not at runtime…)

<Window ... >
    <Window.Resources>
        <local:MyClass x:Key="myResource"  />
    </Window.Resources>
    <StackPanel>
        <Button Content="{Binding Source={DynamicResource myResource} Path=Property1}" />
        <Button Content="{Binding Source={DynamicResource myResource} Path=Property2}" />
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

with the class (which probably need to implement INotifyPropertyChanged):

public class MyClass 
{
    public MyClass()
    {
        this.Property1 = "Ok";
        this.Property2 = "Cancel";
    }
    public string Property1 { get; set; }
    public string Property2 { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

That’s because the DynamicResource markup extension can only be used on a dependency property, because it will need to update it if the resource changes. And Binding.Source is not a dependency property…

As a workaround, you could set the DataContext of the button with the DynamicResource :

<Button DataContext="{DynamicResource myResource}" Content="{Binding Path=Property1}" />
<Button DataContext="{DynamicResource myResource}" Content="{Binding Path=Property2}" />