Basically I have in my MainViewModel.cs:
ObservableCollection<TabItem> MyTabs { get; private set; }
However, I need to somehow be able to not only create the tabs, but have the tabs content be loaded and linked to their appropriate viewmodels while maintaining MVVM.
Basically, how can I get a usercontrol to be loaded as the content of a tabitem AND have that usercontrol wired up to an appropriate viewmodel. The part that makes this difficult is the ViewModel is not supposed to construct the actual view items, right? Or can it?
Basically, would this be MVVM appropriate:
UserControl address = new AddressControl();
NotificationObject vm = new AddressViewModel();
address.DataContext = vm;
MyTabs[0] = new TabItem()
{
Content = address;
}
I only ask because well, i'm constructing a View (AddressControl) from within a ViewModel, which to me sounds like a MVVM no-no.
Best Answer
This isn't MVVM. You should not be creating UI elements in your view model.
You should be binding the ItemsSource of the Tab to your ObservableCollection, and that should hold models with information about the tabs that should be created.
Here are the VM and the model which represents a tab page:
And here is how the bindings look in the window:
(Note, if you want different stuff in different tabs, use
DataTemplates
. Either each tab's view model should be its own class, or create a customDataTemplateSelector
to pick the correct template.)A UserControl inside the data template: