Question

I’ve got a collection of ViewModels that are rendered as tabs using a style to pull out the relevant content to display on the tab:

public class TabViewModel : DependencyObject
{
      public object Content
      {
          get { return (object)GetValue(ContentProperty); }
          set
          {
              SetValue(ContentProperty, value);
          }
      }

}

Here’s the TabControl:

<TabControl 
     ItemsSource={Binding MyCollectionOfTabViewModels}" 
     ItemContainerStyle="{StaticResource TabItemStyle}" />

And here’s the style

<Style TargetType="TabItem" x:Key="TabItemStyle">
     <Setter Property="Content" Value="{Binding Content}"/>
</Style>

We are creating an instance of a usercontrol and setting the “Content” property of the TabViewModel to that so that the usercontrol gets displayed in the TabItem’s Content area.

MyCollectionOfViewModels.Add(new TabViewModel() 
{ 
     Content = new MyUserControl();
});

My question is, I would like to allow a MyUserControl (or any of its sub controls) added to the TabViewModel’s Content property to be allowed to raise an event that the TabViewModel handles.

Anyone know how I would do that?

We’ve experimented using RoutedEvents and RoutedCommands, but haven’t been able to get anything to work 100% and have it be compatible with MVVM. I really think that this could be done with a RoutedEvent or RoutedCommand, but I don’t seem to be able to get this to work.

Note: I’ve removed some of the relevant Prism-specific code, but if you are wondering why we do something so silly, it is because we are trying to stay control agnostic by using Prism’s RegionManager.

Answer 1

You could add a State property to your TabViewModel, and check the DependencyPropertyChanged events.

So imagine the following enum:

public enum TabViewModelState
{
    True,
    False,
    FileNotFound
}

Then add a State property to your TabViewModel of this enum:

public static readonly DependencyProperty StateProperty =
    DependencyProperty.Register("State", typeof(TabViewModelState), typeof(TabViewModel), new PropertyMetadata(OnStateChanged));

private static void OnStateChanged(DependencyObject obj, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
    TabViewModel viewModel= (TabViewModel)obj;

    //Do stuff with your viewModel
}

Use a two-way binding to this property in your control:

<CheckBox Checked="{Binding Path=State, Converter={StaticResource StateToBooleanConverter}, Mode=TwoWay}" />

And last but not least implement the converter that will convert to and from the original value needed for the control.. (in my example boolean <–> TabViewModelState):

public class StateToBooleanConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {
        TabViewModelState state = (TabViewModelState) value;
        return state == TabViewModelState.True;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {
        bool result = (bool) value;
        return result ? TabViewModelState.True : TabViewModelState.False;
    }
}

So now you have a State property that is managed by the UI, and throws changed events when you need to respond..

Hope this helps!