Data binding to SelectedItem in a WPF Treeview

Question

How can I retrieve the item that is selected in a WPF-treeview? I want to do this in XAML, because I want to bind it.

You might think that it is SelectedItem

Answer 1

My requirement was for PRISM-MVVM based solution where a TreeView was needed and the bound object is of type Collection<> and hence needs HierarchicalDataTemplate. The default BindableSelectedItemBehavior wont be able to identify the child TreeViewItem. To make it to work in this scenario.

public class BindableSelectedItemBehavior : Behavior
{
    #region SelectedItem Property

    public object SelectedItem
    {
        get { return (object)GetValue(SelectedItemProperty); }
        set { SetValue(SelectedItemProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedItemProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("SelectedItem", typeof(object), typeof(BindableSelectedItemBehavior), new UIPropertyMetadata(null, OnSelectedItemChanged));

    private static void OnSelectedItemChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        var behavior = sender as BindableSelectedItemBehavior;
        if (behavior == null) return;
        var tree = behavior.AssociatedObject;
        if (tree == null) return;
        if (e.NewValue == null)
            foreach (var item in tree.Items.OfType())
                item.SetValue(TreeViewItem.IsSelectedProperty, false);
        var treeViewItem = e.NewValue as TreeViewItem;
        if (treeViewItem != null)
            treeViewItem.SetValue(TreeViewItem.IsSelectedProperty, true);
        else
        {
            var itemsHostProperty = tree.GetType().GetProperty("ItemsHost", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance);
            if (itemsHostProperty == null) return;
            var itemsHost = itemsHostProperty.GetValue(tree, null) as Panel;
            if (itemsHost == null) return;
            foreach (var item in itemsHost.Children.OfType())
            {
                if (WalkTreeViewItem(item, e.NewValue)) 
                    break;
            }
        }
    }

    public static bool WalkTreeViewItem(TreeViewItem treeViewItem, object selectedValue)
    {
        if (treeViewItem.DataContext == selectedValue)
        {
            treeViewItem.SetValue(TreeViewItem.IsSelectedProperty, true);
            treeViewItem.Focus();
            return true;
        }
        var itemsHostProperty = treeViewItem.GetType().GetProperty("ItemsHost", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance);
        if (itemsHostProperty == null) return false;
        var itemsHost = itemsHostProperty.GetValue(treeViewItem, null) as Panel;
        if (itemsHost == null) return false;
        foreach (var item in itemsHost.Children.OfType())
        {
            if (WalkTreeViewItem(item, selectedValue))
                break;
        }
        return false;
    }
    #endregion

    protected override void OnAttached()
    {
        base.OnAttached();
        this.AssociatedObject.SelectedItemChanged += OnTreeViewSelectedItemChanged;
    }

    protected override void OnDetaching()
    {
        base.OnDetaching();
        if (this.AssociatedObject != null)
        {
            this.AssociatedObject.SelectedItemChanged -= OnTreeViewSelectedItemChanged;
        }
    }

    private void OnTreeViewSelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs