Wpf – cannot write in textbox wpf

First of all, thanks for answers! 9 total answers. Thank you.

Bad news: all of the answers had some quirks or didn't work quite right (or at all). I've added a comment to each of your posts.

Good news: I've found a way to make it work. This solution is pretty straightforward and seems to work in all the scenarios (mousing down, selecting text, tabbing focus, etc.)

bool alreadyFocused;

...

textBox1.GotFocus += textBox1_GotFocus;
textBox1.MouseUp += textBox1_MouseUp;
textBox1.Leave += textBox1_Leave;

...

void textBox1_Leave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    alreadyFocused = false;
}


void textBox1_GotFocus(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Select all text only if the mouse isn't down.
    // This makes tabbing to the textbox give focus.
    if (MouseButtons == MouseButtons.None)
    {
        this.textBox1.SelectAll();
        alreadyFocused = true;
    }
}

void textBox1_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    // Web browsers like Google Chrome select the text on mouse up.
    // They only do it if the textbox isn't already focused,
    // and if the user hasn't selected all text.
    if (!alreadyFocused && this.textBox1.SelectionLength == 0)
    {
        alreadyFocused = true;
        this.textBox1.SelectAll();
    }
}

As far as I can tell, this causes a textbox to behave exactly like a web browser's address bar.

Hopefully this helps the next guy who tries to solve this deceptively simple problem.

Thanks again, guys, for all your answers that helped lead me towards the correct path.

I finally figured it out after 2 days of head scatching...

The MFC Dialog window was taking the WM_CHAR messages and preventing the control from handling the input. So in order to prevent this, I hook the HwndSource and whenever I receive the WM_GETDLGCODE message I respond back with the types of input to accept, and then mark the event as handled.

I created my own TextBox in order to prevent having to fix every textbox (see Below):

    /// <summary>
    /// Interop Enabled TextBox : This TextBox will properly handle WM_GETDLGCODE Messages allowing Key Input
    /// </summary>
    class IOTextBox : TextBox
    {
        private const UInt32 DLGC_WANTARROWS = 0x0001;
        private const UInt32 DLGC_WANTTAB = 0x0002;
        private const UInt32 DLGC_WANTALLKEYS = 0x0004;
        private const UInt32 DLGC_HASSETSEL = 0x0008;
        private const UInt32 DLGC_WANTCHARS = 0x0080;
        private const UInt32 WM_GETDLGCODE = 0x0087;

        public IOTextBox() : base()
        {
            Loaded += delegate
                          {
                              HwndSource s = HwndSource.FromVisual(this) as HwndSource;
                              if (s != null)
                                  s.AddHook(new HwndSourceHook(ChildHwndSourceHook));
                          };
        }

        IntPtr ChildHwndSourceHook(IntPtr hwnd, int msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, ref bool handled)
        {
            if (msg == WM_GETDLGCODE)
            {
                handled = true;
                return new IntPtr(DLGC_WANTCHARS | DLGC_WANTARROWS | DLGC_HASSETSEL);
            }
            return IntPtr.Zero;
        }
    }