WPF Databind Before Saving

Question

In my WPF application, I have a number of databound TextBoxes. The UpdateSourceTrigger for these bindings is LostFocus. The object is saved using t

Answer 1

Since I noticed this issue is still a pain in the ass to solve on a very generic way, I tried various solutions.

Eventually one that worked out for me: Whenever the need is there that UI changes must be validated and updated to its sources (Check for changes upon closeing a window, performing Save operations, ...), I call a validation function which does various things: - make sure a focused element (like textbox, combobox, ...) loses its focus which will trigger default updatesource behavior - validate any controls within the tree of the DependencyObject which is given to the validation function - set focus back to the original focused element

The function itself returns true if everything is in order (validation is succesful) -> your original action (closeing with optional asking confirmation, saveing, ...) can continue. Otherwise the function will return false and your action cannot continue because there are validation errors on one or more elements (with the help of a generic ErrorTemplate on the elements).

The code (validation functionality is based on the article Detecting WPF Validation Errors):

public static class Validator
{
    private static Dictionary> gdicCachedDependencyProperties = new Dictionary>();

    public static Boolean IsValid(DependencyObject Parent)
    {
        // Move focus and reset it to update bindings which or otherwise not processed until losefocus
        IInputElement lfocusedElement = Keyboard.FocusedElement;
        if (lfocusedElement != null && lfocusedElement is UIElement)
        {
            // Move to previous AND to next InputElement (if your next InputElement is a menu, focus will not be lost -> therefor move in both directions)
            (lfocusedElement as UIElement).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Previous));
            (lfocusedElement as UIElement).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
            Keyboard.ClearFocus();
        }

        if (Parent as UIElement == null || (Parent as UIElement).Visibility != Visibility.Visible)
            return true;

        // Validate all the bindings on the parent 
        Boolean lblnIsValid = true;
        foreach (DependencyProperty aDependencyProperty in GetAllDependencyProperties(Parent))
        {
            if (BindingOperations.IsDataBound(Parent, aDependencyProperty))
            {
                // Get the binding expression base. This way all kinds of bindings (MultiBinding, PropertyBinding, ...) can be updated
                BindingExpressionBase lbindingExpressionBase = BindingOperations.GetBindingExpressionBase(Parent, aDependencyProperty);
                if (lbindingExpressionBase != null)
                {
                    lbindingExpressionBase.ValidateWithoutUpdate();
                    if (lbindingExpressionBase.HasError)
                        lblnIsValid = false;
                }
            }
        }

        if (Parent is Visual || Parent is Visual3D)
        {
            // Fetch the visual children (in case of templated content, the LogicalTreeHelper will return no childs)
            Int32 lintVisualChildCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(Parent);
            for (Int32 lintVisualChildIndex = 0; lintVisualChildIndex < lintVisualChildCount; lintVisualChildIndex++)
                if (!IsValid(VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(Parent, lintVisualChildIndex)))
                    lblnIsValid = false;
        }

        if (lfocusedElement != null)
            lfocusedElement.Focus();

        return lblnIsValid;
    }

    public static List GetAllDependencyProperties(DependencyObject DependencyObject)
    {
        Type ltype = DependencyObject.GetType();
        if (gdicCachedDependencyProperties.ContainsKey(ltype.FullName))
            return gdicCachedDependencyProperties[ltype.FullName];

        List llstDependencyProperties = new List();
        List llstFieldInfos = ltype.GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Static).Where(Field => Field.FieldType == typeof(DependencyProperty)).ToList();
        foreach (FieldInfo aFieldInfo in llstFieldInfos)
            llstDependencyProperties.Add(aFieldInfo.GetValue(null) as DependencyProperty);
        gdicCachedDependencyProperties.Add(ltype.FullName, llstDependencyProperties);

        return llstDependencyProperties;
    }
}