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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T06:13:33+00:00

I was looking at creating a common control that I will be able to

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I was looking at creating a common control that I will be able to reuse on my pages: an AddressControl which has Address1, Address2, City, State, Zip, etc…

Originally I just created a class (AddressEntity) that contained all these items and implemented INotifyPropertyChanged. I included that class as a DependencyProperty in my Code-Behind for the AddressControl and used it as the DataContext for the bindings to its properties.

Then, someone said my code was ugly and I should look into MVVM. Looking at it, I assume that:

  • AddressEntity.cs will just be a container of data (i.e. Address1, Address2, etc.) and members (i.e. Clone, ToString, etc.)
  • I need some AddressViewModel to wrap my AddressEntity in and provide the PropertyNotification Changes, Validation, etc.
  • I need to somehow have a “View” for this.

The problem is every example I’ve ever seen has a UserControl as the View and not a CustomControl. Before I delve too deep into this…

  • Is it possible to use MVVM + Custom Controls for this example?
  • Is it pretty much the same thing (UserControl vs CustomControl) as the View with the exception of primary differences of UserControl vs CustomControl? Basically, is my CustomControl really just a View?

References: The Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Design Pattern for WPF

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    CustomControls are never done with mvvm.

    What you want is a reusable view(user control) of your data and not a control(custom control).

    UserControls and CustomControls are two completely different beasts.

    EDIT:

    Notwithstanding why UserControls were originally developed, in MVVM typically you use a UserControl when you want a reuseable view which is specific to your model/viewmodel. Its just XAMl without any code behind (except for the auto generated InitializeComponent stuff). Generally you keep a UserControl in the same project that you use it in.

    You go for a CustomControl when you want a generic piece of functionality which requires a view and which has potential use even outside the scope of your current application. Here the control is actually defined in a code file and the look (which can be overriden) comes via XAML in a resource dictionary.
    Generally you keep a CustomControl in a a seperate ControlLibrary project and reference the library in the project you wish to use it in.

    With due respect to WallStreetProgrammer, choosing between a user control and a custom control based solely on whether or not you want a lookless control is a bit naive.

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