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c#wpfxamlreactiveuicommunity-toolkit-mvvm

WPF Toggle Combo Box Item Text Colour MVVM ReactiveUI

OK so this is definitely a newbie question that unfortunately could not figure/find the answer to.

Essentially binding a list of objects to a Combobox, when the Disabled property on the object is set to true I want the text colour of the Combobox item to be set to gray.

This is what I have so far:

Combobox item datatype

public class ListItem
{
    public ListItem(string text)
    {
        Text = text;
    }

    public string Text { get; set; }
    public bool Disabled { get; set; }
}

Viewmodel setup


public class MainPageViewModel : ReactiveObject
{
    // In ReactiveUI, this is the syntax to declare a read-write property
    // that will notify Observers, as well as WPF, that a property has 
    // changed. If we declared this as a normal property, we couldn't tell 
    // when it has changed!
    private ListItem _selectedItem;
    public ListItem SelectedItem
    {
        get => _selectedItem;
        set => this.RaiseAndSetIfChanged(ref _selectedItem, value);
    }

    public List<ListItem> Items { get; set; }

    public MainPageViewModel()
    {
        Items = new List<ListItem>
        {
            new ListItem ("A Cat"),
            new ListItem ("A Dog"),
            new ListItem ("A Mouse"),
            new ListItem ("A Frog") { Disabled = true }
        };
    }
}

ReactiveUI Binding

public MainPage()
{
  InitializeComponent();

  ViewModel = new MainPageViewModel();
  
  this.WhenActivated(d =>
  {
    this.OneWayBind(ViewModel, vm => vm.Items, v => v.MyComboBox.ItemsSource)
                    .DisposeWith(d);

    this.Bind(ViewModel, vm => vm.SelectedItem, v => v.MyComboBox.SelectedItem)
                    .DisposeWith(d);

  });
}

Xaml markup

<ComboBox
 Name="MyComboBox"
 Margin="0,0,0,20"
 Foreground="black">
   <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
     <DataTemplate>
       <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" />
     </DataTemplate>
   </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>

   <ComboBox.ItemContainerStyle>
     <Style TargetType="ComboBoxItem">
       <Style.Triggers>
         <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=Disabled}" Value="True">
           <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Gray" />
         </DataTrigger>
       </Style.Triggers>
     </Style>
    </ComboBox.ItemContainerStyle>

 </ComboBox>

Any help is appreciated let me know if you need more information.

Solution: It looks like in future I need to test the example code before puttin it up - our actual code had the Disabled property set as a readonly which must mess with WPF binding. Changing it to public set and get solved the first issue of not seeing it greyed out! It would seem staring at a problem for so long blinds you and it really is that simple. As for graying out the selected item I will try it out and see.

Solution

  • The last item in the dropdown already has its text grayed out, so I assume you're asking about the selected item. The ComboBox uses separate data templates for the selected item and the items in the dropdown. You can use a DataTemplateSelector to set both.

    public class ComboBoxTemplateSelector : DataTemplateSelector
{
    public DataTemplate SelectedItemTemplate { get; set; }
    public DataTemplate DropdownItemsTemplate { get; set; }

    public override DataTemplate SelectTemplate(object item, DependencyObject container)
    {
        var itemToCheck = container;

        // Search up the visual tree, stopping at either a ComboBox or a ComboBoxItem (or null).
        // This will determine which template to use.
        while (itemToCheck is not null and not ComboBox and not ComboBoxItem)
            itemToCheck = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(itemToCheck);

        // If you stopped at a ComboBoxItem, you're in the dropdown.
        return itemToCheck is ComboBoxItem ? DropdownItemsTemplate : SelectedItemTemplate;
    }
}
    Xaml markup
    <StackPanel>
    <StackPanel.Resources>
        <Style x:Key="GrayedOutText" TargetType="TextBlock">
            <Style.Triggers>
                <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Disabled}" Value="True">
                    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Gray" />
                </DataTrigger>
            </Style.Triggers>
        </Style>
        <local:ComboBoxTemplateSelector x:Key="ComboBoxTemplateSelector">
            <local:ComboBoxTemplateSelector.SelectedItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}" Style="{StaticResource GrayedOutText}" />
                </DataTemplate>
            </local:ComboBoxTemplateSelector.SelectedItemTemplate>
            <local:ComboBoxTemplateSelector.DropdownItemsTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}" Style="{StaticResource GrayedOutText}" />
                </DataTemplate>
            </local:ComboBoxTemplateSelector.DropdownItemsTemplate>
        </local:ComboBoxTemplateSelector>
    </StackPanel.Resources>
    <ComboBox
         Name="MyComboBox"
         Margin="0,0,0,20"
         ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource ComboBoxTemplateSelector}">
    </ComboBox>
</StackPanel>

    We have some repetition in the DataTemplate definitions, but these tend to grow apart in production code.

    Resources