Question

The following situation. I’ve got a UserControl with five keybindings. When the TextBox has the focus the keybindings of the UserControl stop firing..

Is there a way to fix this ‘problem’?

<UserControl.InputBindings>
    <KeyBinding Key="PageDown" Modifiers="Control" Command="{Binding NextCommand}"></KeyBinding>
    <KeyBinding Key="PageUp" Modifiers="Control" Command="{Binding PreviousCommand}"></KeyBinding>
    <KeyBinding Key="End" Modifiers="Control"  Command="{Binding LastCommand}"></KeyBinding>
    <KeyBinding Key="Home" Modifiers="Control" Command="{Binding FirstCommand}"></KeyBinding>
    <KeyBinding Key="F" Modifiers="Control" Command="{Binding SetFocusCommand}"></KeyBinding>
</UserControl.InputBindings>
<TextBox Text="{Binding FilterText, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}">
    <TextBox.InputBindings>
        <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type UserControl }}, Path=DataContext.FilterCommand}"></KeyBinding>
    </TextBox.InputBindings>
</TextBox>

It seems function keys (F1 etc) and ALT+[key] do work. I presume the CTRL and SHIFT modifiers are somehow ‘blocking’ the event from bubbling up to the UserControl.

Answer 1

The reason some input bindings work and some don’t is that the TextBox control catches and handles some key bindings. For example, it handles CTRL+V for paste, CTRL+Home for going to the beginning of the text, etc. Other key combinations such as CTRL+F3 on the other hand aren’t handled by the TextBox, and so they will bubble up.

If you’d just wanted to disable the TextBox’s input binding, that would be simple – you could use the ApplicationCommands.NotACommand command, which would disable the default behavior. For example, in the following case, pasting with CTRL+V will be disabled:

<TextBox>
    <TextBox.InputBindings>
        <KeyBinding Key="V" Modifiers="Control" Command="ApplicationCommands.NotACommand" />
    </TextBox.InputBindings>
</TextBox>

However, making it bubble up to the user control is a bit trickier. My suggestion is to create an attached behavior that will be applied to the UserControl, register to its PreviewKeyDown event, and execute its input bindings as necessary before they reach the TextBox. This will give precedence to the UserControl when input bindings are executed.

I wrote a basic behavior that achieves this functionality to get you started:

public class InputBindingsBehavior
{
    public static readonly DependencyProperty TakesInputBindingPrecedenceProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("TakesInputBindingPrecedence", typeof(bool), typeof(InputBindingsBehavior), new UIPropertyMetadata(false, OnTakesInputBindingPrecedenceChanged));

    public static bool GetTakesInputBindingPrecedence(UIElement obj)
    {
        return (bool)obj.GetValue(TakesInputBindingPrecedenceProperty);
    }

    public static void SetTakesInputBindingPrecedence(UIElement obj, bool value)
    {
        obj.SetValue(TakesInputBindingPrecedenceProperty, value);
    }

    private static void OnTakesInputBindingPrecedenceChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        ((UIElement)d).PreviewKeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(InputBindingsBehavior_PreviewKeyDown);
    }

    private static void InputBindingsBehavior_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
    {
        var uielement = (UIElement)sender;

        var foundBinding = uielement.InputBindings
            .OfType<KeyBinding>()
            .FirstOrDefault(kb => kb.Key == e.Key && kb.Modifiers == e.KeyboardDevice.Modifiers);

        if (foundBinding != null)
        {
            e.Handled = true;
            if (foundBinding.Command.CanExecute(foundBinding.CommandParameter))
            {
                foundBinding.Command.Execute(foundBinding.CommandParameter);
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage:

<UserControl local:InputBindingsBehavior.TakesInputBindingPrecedence="True">
    <UserControl.InputBindings>
        <KeyBinding Key="Home" Modifiers="Control" Command="{Binding MyCommand}" />
    </UserControl.InputBindings>
    <TextBox ... />
</UserControl>

Hope this helps.