In the previous post, we explored Supervising Controller Pattern to provide a solution to the issue we faced when using Stimulsoft Designer Controller as an embedded control in WPF application. Even while we used the Supervising Controller Pattern, we still fiddled with the MVVM pattern by making the ViewModel “aware” of the View, even though it wasn’t depended. In this section, we would be exploring another method, through which could eliminate the ‘awareness’ factor, allowing us to work along the MVVM pattern with all its purity.
As in previous section, we will begin by adding the designer control in our XAML.
<wpfdesign:StiWpfDesignerControl></wpfdesign:StiWpfDesignerControl>
So how do we do resolve the issue this time around, without breaking the MVVM pattern ? Instead of Supervising Controller Pattern, we would instead on something which is native to the WPF. The Behaviours and Attached Properties
Behavior and Attached Property
Behavior allows us to Attach a new property the StiWpfDesignerControl, which is bindable.
public class ReportBehavior : Behavior
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty ReportSourceProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("ReportSource", typeof(object), typeof(ReportBehavior), new PropertyMetadata(ReportSourceChanged));
private static void ReportSourceChanged(DependencyObject DependencyObject, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs PropertyChangedEvent)
{
var stidesigner = DependencyObject as StiWpfDesignerControl;
if (stidesigner != null)
stidesigner.Report = PropertyChangedEvent.NewValue as Stimulsoft.Report.StiReport;
}
public static void SetReportSource(DependencyObject target, object value)
{
target.SetValue(ReportSourceProperty, value);
}
public static object GetReportSource(DependencyObject target)
{
return target.GetValue(ReportSourceProperty);
}
As can be seen in the code above, we have defined a property called “ReportSource” which allows us to the set the Report Property of the Designer Controller. We can now bind our property in our XAML
Putting it all together
<wpfdesign:StiWpfDesignerControl local1:ReportBehavior.ReportSource="{Binding Path=ActiveReport}" x:Name="DesignerControl" ></wpfdesign:StiWpfDesignerControl>
Don’t forget the namespace
xmlns:local1="clr-namespace:CM005.Behaviour"
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