Modifying user control in WPF DataGrid on edit

Question

I am new to WPF and have hit a wall trying to solve a seemingly straightforward problem.

I need to design a table of data and allow users to edit it. When user starts editing a cell I need to display a set of buttons in the rightmost column [OK] and [Cancel] to either accept or cancel the changes. When user is not editing a cell a [Delete] button should be displayed for user to delete the row.

I wrote a custom control that would display either [OK][Cancel] or a single [Delete] button based on the custom IsInEditMode property.

public partial class RowEditControl : UserControl
{
    public static DependencyProperty
            IsInEditModeProperty = DependencyProperty.Register( "IsInEditMode", 
                                                                    typeof(bool), 
                                                                    typeof(RowEditControl),
                                                                    new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(OnEditModeChanged));

    private static void OnEditModeChanged(DependencyObject aD, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs aE)
    {
        //depending on the value show [Delete] or [Ok][Cancel] buttons
    }
}

I need to somehow set IsInEditMode when user starts editing a cell. I've been looking all over msdn and this forum for an example/way how to do it, but can't find anything.

I add my custom control to the last column programmatically like this:

        {
        mwTagList.Columns[1].Width = new DataGridLength(1, DataGridLengthUnitType.Star);

        var fRowEditTemplate = new FrameworkElementFactory(typeof (RowEditControl));

        fRowEditTemplate.AddHandler(
                                   RowEditControl.DeleteClickedEvent,
                                   new RoutedEventHandler(OnDeleteRowBtn)
            );

        fRowEditTemplate.AddHandler(
                                 RowEditControl.OkClickedEvent,
                                 new RoutedEventHandler(OnRowEditOk));

        fRowEditTemplate.AddHandler(
                                 RowEditControl.CancelClickedEvent,
                                 new RoutedEventHandler(OnRowEditCancel));

        mwTagList.Columns.Add(
                              new DataGridTemplateColumn()
                              {
                                  Header = "Delete Row",
                                  CellTemplate = new DataTemplate() {VisualTree = fRowEditTemplate}
                              }
            );
    }

Thank you very much for any info and tips!

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '14 at 17:10

I solved this problem using styles:

<Style x:Key="MwControlCellStyle" TargetType="{x:Type notesList:RowEditControl}">
        <Style.Triggers>
            <MultiDataTrigger>
                <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                    <!-- find DataGridRow parent object and trigger if it is in editing mode -->
                    <Condition Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type DataGridRow}}, Path=IsEditing}" Value="True"></Condition>
                </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                <Setter Property="IsInEditMode" Value="True"></Setter>
            </MultiDataTrigger>
        </Style.Triggers>
    </Style>

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

There is an IsEditing dependency property on the DataGridRow so you can probably do this with XAML and a couple of converters. The main bits of the XAML look something like this

<Window.Resources>
<viewModel:BooleanVisibleConverter x:Key="boolVisConv"/>
<viewModel:InverseBooleanVisibleConverter x:Key="invBoolVisConv"/>

<DataTemplate x:Key="DataGridButtonsTemplate">
    <StackPanel >
        <Button Content="Delete" Visibility ="{Binding IsEditing, Mode=OneWay, Converter={StaticResource invBoolVisConv}, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor, AncestorType=DataGridRow}}"/>
        <Button Content="OK"  Visibility="{Binding IsEditing, Mode=OneWay, Converter={StaticResource boolVisConv},RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor, AncestorType=DataGridRow}}"/>
        <Button Content="Cancel"  Visibility="{Binding IsEditing, Mode=OneWay, Converter={StaticResource boolVisConv},RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor, AncestorType=DataGridRow}}"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>

<DataGrid Grid.Row="1" ItemsSource="{Binding MyData}" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
    <DataGrid.Columns>
        <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding FirstField}" Header="First Property"></DataGridTextColumn>
        <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding SecondField}" Header="Second Property"></DataGridTextColumn>
        <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding ThirdField}" Header="Third Property"></DataGridTextColumn>
        <DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Control" CellTemplate="{StaticResource DataGridButtonsTemplate}"></DataGridTemplateColumn>
    </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

An example converter is here, obviously you will need two of these, the second will have the return value reversed

    [ValueConversion(typeof(bool), typeof(Visibility))]
public class BooleanVisibleConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter,
        System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        if (targetType != typeof(Visibility))
            throw new InvalidOperationException("The target must be a System.Windows.Visibility");

        return ((bool)value)? Visibility.Visible : Visibility.Collapsed;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter,
        System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
}

You will need to figure out which button was pressed as there are will be one per row. There are a couple of ideas as to how to do that here

WPF DataGrid - Button in a column, getting the row from which it came on the Click event handler

Thanks! I solved this problem using styles as above, but this looks cool too. It is also a great example on how to use converters, I am new to WPF and never used them. — Alex Gdalevich, Apr 07 '14 at 17:12

Modifying user control in WPF DataGrid on edit

2 Answers2