WPF ComboBox SelectedItem - change to previous value

Question

I have a ComboBox that has the SelectedItem bound to the ViewModel.

Answer 1

Thanks for this question and answers. The Dispatcher.BeginInvoke helped me and was part of my final solution, but the above solution didn't quite work in my WPF 4 app.

I put together a small sample to figure out why. I had to add code that actually changed the underlying member variable's value temporarily so that when WPF re-queried the getter, it would see that the value chaned. Otherwise, the UI didn't properly reflect the cancellation and the BeginInvoke() call did not do anything.

Here's a my blog post with my sample showing a non-working and a working implementation.

My setter ended up looking like this:

    private Person _CurrentPersonCancellable;
    public Person CurrentPersonCancellable
    {
        get
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("Getting CurrentPersonCancellable.");
            return _CurrentPersonCancellable;
        }
        set
        {
            // Store the current value so that we can 
            // change it back if needed.
            var origValue = _CurrentPersonCancellable;

            // If the value hasn't changed, don't do anything.
            if (value == _CurrentPersonCancellable)
                return;

            // Note that we actually change the value for now.
            // This is necessary because WPF seems to query the 
            //  value after the change. The combo box
            // likes to know that the value did change.
            _CurrentPersonCancellable = value;

            if (
                MessageBox.Show(
                    "Allow change of selected item?", 
                    "Continue", 
                    MessageBoxButton.YesNo
                ) != MessageBoxResult.Yes
            )
            {
                Debug.WriteLine("Selection Cancelled.");

                // change the value back, but do so after the 
                // UI has finished it's current context operation.
                Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
                        new Action(() =>
                        {
                            Debug.WriteLine(
                                "Dispatcher BeginInvoke " + 
                                "Setting CurrentPersonCancellable."
                            );

                            // Do this against the underlying value so 
                            //  that we don't invoke the cancellation question again.
                            _CurrentPersonCancellable = origValue;
                            OnPropertyChanged("CurrentPersonCancellable");
                        }),
                        DispatcherPriority.ContextIdle,
                        null
                    );

                // Exit early. 
                return;
            }

            // Normal path. Selection applied. 
            // Raise PropertyChanged on the field.
            Debug.WriteLine("Selection applied.");
            OnPropertyChanged("CurrentPersonCancellable");
        }
    }