Find an element in DataTemplate applied to TabItem

Question

I got a problem trying to find an element declared in DataTemplate, that after was applied like a ContentTemplate to TabItem object. I saw that there is already some solutions in regard of this problem, but no one of them actually works in my case, and I would like to understand why (obviously I make mistake in some place) Here is a sample code:

<DataTemplate x:Key="TabItemDataTemplate">             
    <Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 
        VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Name="templateGrid">
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="6.0*"> </RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="6" ></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="6.0*" ></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="*" ></RowDefinition>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>                

        <ListView x:Name="repoView" Grid.Row="0" 
            VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
            ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource  DataProviderForListView}}">                        
            <GridView>
                <GridViewColumn Header="State"
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=RepositoryItemState}"/>
                <GridViewColumn Header="Working Copy Rev num."
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=WCRevision}"/>
                <GridViewColumn Header="Repository Rev num."
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=RepoRevision}"/>
                <GridViewColumn Header="User"
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=Account}"/>
                <GridViewColumn Header="Item"
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=ItemName}"/>
            </GridView>
        </ListView>

        <GridSplitter x:Name="gridSplitter" Grid.Row="1"
            ResizeDirection="Rows" Background="Gray" 
            Height="4" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
            Style="{StaticResource gridSplitterStyle}"/>

        <RichTextBox x:Name="rowView" Grid.Row="2" 
            BorderBrush="Bisque" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
            IsReadOnly="True" Background="YellowGreen"
            FontFamily="Comic Sans Serif"/>


        <ToggleButton x:Name="rbWorkingCopy"
            Template="{StaticResource ToggleButtonControlTemplate}"
            Grid.Row="3" Width="100" Height="22"
            Content="{StaticResource WorkingCopyTitle}"
            HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"
            Command="repoManager:AppCommands.GetWorkingCopyInfoCommand" />
        <ToggleButton x:Name="rbRepository"
            Template="{StaticResource ToggleButtonControlTemplate}"
            Grid.Row="3"  Width="100" Height="22"
            Content="{StaticResource  RepositoryTitle}"
            HorizontalAlignment="Left"
            VerticalAlignment="Bottom"  Margin="120,0,0,0" 
            Command="repoManager:AppCommands.GetRepoInfoCommand" />
        <ProgressBar x:Name="checkRepositoryProgress" Grid.Row="3"
            Width="220" Height="22" HorizontalAlignment="Right"  
            VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Margin="250,0,10,0"
            IsIndeterminate="True"
            IsEnabled="{Binding repoManager:ExecutingCommand}"  />
    </Grid>
</DataTemplate>

This code is porgrammatically applied to the given TabItem object in following way :

this.ContentTemplate = FindResource("TabItemDataTemplate") as DataTemplate;

After I need access to the ListView element declared in DataTemplate, so I execute the codes found around in internet, and also on this site. Here is a short example:

/* Getting the ContentPresenter of myListBoxItem*/          
ContentPresenter myContentPresenter =
    FindVisualChild<ContentPresenter>(this);

// this.GetVisualChild(0)
/* Finding textBlock from the DataTemplate that is set on that ContentPresenter*/
DataTemplate myDataTemplate = myContentPresenter.ContentTemplate;

ListView repoListView = (ListView)myDataTemplate.FindName("repoView", 
    myContentPresenter);

Problem1: In this case ContentTemplate of ContentPresenter is Null, so code execution crashes. Prolem2: Ok, I think, may be I need to navigate throw TabItem content directly, so the code becomes, more or less:

/* Getting the ContentPresenter of myListBoxItem*/          
ContentPresenter myContentPresenter =
    FindVisualChild<ContentPresenter>(this);

// this.GetVisualChild(0)
/* Finding textBlock from the DataTemplate that is set on that ContentPresenter*/
DataTemplate myDataTemplate = this.ContentTemplate;

ListView repoListView = (ListView)myDataTemplate.FindName("repoView", 
    myContentPresenter);

this is TabItem object. But the strage things, that the ContentTemplate of this is completely different from that one assigned above. I'm sure that I missed something somewhere, can you help me to figure out the problem ? Thank you.

Answer 1

Ok, here we come :) I resolve the problem, in not very nice way, but it seems that works correctly. As I mentioned above I used LoadContent method and it returns me the ListView object, but by the way it wasn't the ListView that UI actually uses. So to resolve that problem I add static property to hold my REAL ListView object (static as I have single DataTemplate that contains ListView shared across multiple TabItems, so the ListView shared too) and add event handler to my DataTemplate -> Loaded. Catching this event, that in my case raises only ones in lifetime of application, in RoutedEvent's OriginalSource I got the REAL ListView object that WPF engine uses for rendering on UI. Hope my solution will help someone. Thank you all.