I have been strugging with this for a while, it would have been simple to do in WindowForms.
I am making a IRC Client, there will be a number of Tabs one for each channel connect to.
Each Tab needs to show a number of things, UserList, MessageHistory, Topic.
In WindowForms i would just have inherited from TabItem, added some Custom Properties, and Controls, and done.
In WPF i am having some slight issues with working out how to do it.
I have tried many ways of doing it, and below is my current method, but i cannot get the TextBox to bind to the Topic Property.
<Style TargetType="{x:Type t:IRCTabItem}" BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type TabItem}}" >
<Setter Property="ContentTemplate">
<Setter.Value>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="540" />
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Column="0">
<TextBox Text="{Binding Topic, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type t:IRCTabItem}}}" />
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
And the Codebehind
public class IRCTabItem : TabItem
{
static IRCTabItem()
{
//This OverrideMetadata call tells the system that this element wants to provide a style that is different than its base class.
//This style is defined in themes\generic.xaml
//DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(IRCTabItem),
// new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(IRCTabItem)));
}
public static readonly RoutedEvent CloseTabEvent =
EventManager.RegisterRoutedEvent("CloseTab", RoutingStrategy.Bubble,
typeof(RoutedEventHandler), typeof(IRCTabItem));
public event RoutedEventHandler CloseTab
{
add { AddHandler(CloseTabEvent, value); }
remove { RemoveHandler(CloseTabEvent, value); }
}
public override void OnApplyTemplate()
{
base.OnApplyTemplate();
Button closeButton = base.GetTemplateChild("PART_Close") as Button;
if (closeButton != null)
closeButton.Click += new System.Windows.RoutedEventHandler(closeButton_Click);
}
void closeButton_Click(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
{
this.RaiseEvent(new RoutedEventArgs(CloseTabEvent, this));
}
public bool Closeable { get; set; }
public static readonly DependencyProperty CloseableProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Closeable", typeof(bool), typeof(IRCTabItem), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(true, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault));
public List<String> UserList { get; set; }
public static readonly DependencyProperty UserListProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("UserList", typeof(List<String>), typeof(IRCTabItem), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(new List<String>(), FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault));
public String Topic { get; set; }
public static readonly DependencyProperty TopicProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Topic", typeof(String), typeof(IRCTabItem), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata("Not Connected", FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault));
public bool HasAlerts { get; set; }
public static readonly DependencyProperty HasAlertsProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("HasAlerts", typeof(bool), typeof(IRCTabItem), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(false, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault));
}
So my questions are:
Am i doing it the right way (best practices)?
If so how can i bind DataTemplate to Properties?
If not so, what is the correct way of achieve what i am trying to achieve?