MVVM (with WPF) - Binding Multiple Views to the Same ViewModel

Question

I have recently started investigating the MVVM pattern with WPF for an upcoming project. I started with Josh Smith\'s MSDN article. I have a question (well many, but let\'s

Answer 1

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I am still new with WPF too and learning about all the different possibilities including binding methods. Anyway for anyone interested, here is the solution I arrived at for this particular case:

I decided I wanted to keep the view models separated in two subclasses AddIndividualViewModel and EditIndividualViewModel which only expose commands, rather than trying to manage state in the one class. However I wanted one view so that I'm not duplicating the XAML. I ended up using two DataTemplates and DataTemplateSelector to switch out the action buttons depending on the view model:

        
            Add
        

        
            Update
        

        

and a content presenter at the bottom of the form:

Here is the code for the template selector:

class AddEditTemplateSelector : DataTemplateSelector
{
    public DataTemplate AddTemplate { get; set; }
    public DataTemplate EditTemplate { get; set; }

    public override DataTemplate SelectTemplate(object item, DependencyObject container)
    {
        if (item is AddIndividualViewModel)
        {
            return AddTemplate;
        }
        else if (item is EditIndividualViewModel)
        {
            return EditTemplate;
        }

        return null;
    }
}

This may or may not be how implement the final thing (given the requirements) but it's good to see I have this sort of option available.