WPF: template or UserControl with 2 (or more!) ContentPresenters to present content in 'slots'

Question

I am developing LOB application, where I will need multiple dialog windows (and displaying everything in one window is not an option/makes no sense).

I would like to

Answer 1

Hasta la victoria siempre!

I have come with working solution (first on the internet, it seems to me :))

The tricky DialogControl.xaml.cs - see comments:

public partial class DialogControl : UserControl
{
    public DialogControl()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        //The Logical tree detour:
        // - we want grandchildren to inherit DC from this (grandchildren.DC = this.DC),
        // but the children should have different DC (children.DC = this),
        // so that children can bind on this.Properties, but grandchildren bind on this.DataContext
        this.InnerWrapper.DataContext = this;
        this.DataContextChanged += DialogControl_DataContextChanged;
        // need to reinitialize, because otherwise we will get static collection with all buttons from all calls
        this.Buttons = new ObservableCollection();
    }


    void DialogControl_DataContextChanged(object sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        /* //Heading is ours, we want it to inherit this, so no detour
        if ((this.GetValue(HeadingProperty)) != null)
            this.HeadingContainer.DataContext = e.NewValue;
        */

        //pass it on to children of containers: detours
        if ((this.GetValue(ControlProperty)) != null)
            ((FrameworkElement)this.GetValue(ControlProperty)).DataContext = e.NewValue;

        if ((this.GetValue(ButtonProperty)) != null)
        {
            foreach (var control in ((ObservableCollection) this.GetValue(ButtonProperty)))
            {
                control.DataContext = e.NewValue;
            }
        }
    }

    public FrameworkElement Control
    {
        get { return (FrameworkElement)this.GetValue(ControlProperty); } 
        set { this.SetValue(ControlProperty, value); }
    }

    public ObservableCollection Buttons
    {
        get { return (ObservableCollection)this.GetValue(ButtonProperty); }
        set { this.SetValue(ButtonProperty, value); }
    }

    public string Heading
    {
        get { return (string)this.GetValue(HeadingProperty); }
        set { this.SetValue(HeadingProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty ControlProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register("Control", typeof(FrameworkElement), typeof(DialogControl));
    public static readonly DependencyProperty ButtonProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register(
                "Buttons",
                typeof(ObservableCollection),
                typeof(DialogControl),
                //we need to initialize this for the designer to work correctly!
                new PropertyMetadata(new ObservableCollection()));
    public static readonly DependencyProperty HeadingProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register("Heading", typeof(string), typeof(DialogControl));
}

And the DialogControl.xaml (no changes):

Sample usage:

    
        
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