Executing viewmodels command on enter in TextBox

Question

I want to execute a command in my viewmodel when the user presses enter in a TextBox. The command works when bound to a button.

Answer 1

Here's an attached dependency property I created for this. It has the advantage of ensuring that your text binding is updated back to the ViewModel before the command fires (useful for silverlight which doesn't support the property changed update source trigger).

public static class EnterKeyHelpers
{
    public static ICommand GetEnterKeyCommand(DependencyObject target)
    {
        return (ICommand)target.GetValue(EnterKeyCommandProperty);
    }

    public static void SetEnterKeyCommand(DependencyObject target, ICommand value)
    {
        target.SetValue(EnterKeyCommandProperty, value);
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty EnterKeyCommandProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached(
            "EnterKeyCommand",
            typeof(ICommand),
            typeof(EnterKeyHelpers),
            new PropertyMetadata(null, OnEnterKeyCommandChanged));

    static void OnEnterKeyCommandChanged(DependencyObject target, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        ICommand command = (ICommand)e.NewValue;
        FrameworkElement fe = (FrameworkElement)target;
        Control control = (Control)target;
        control.KeyDown += (s, args) =>
        {
            if (args.Key == Key.Enter)
            {
                // make sure the textbox binding updates its source first
                BindingExpression b = control.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty);
                if (b != null)
                {
                    b.UpdateSource();
                }
                command.Execute(null);
            }
        };
    }
}

You use it like this: