Wpf – Good way to refresh databinding on all properties of a ViewModel when Model changes

data-bindinginotifypropertychangedmvvmwpf

Short Version

If I update the Model object that my ViewModel wraps, what's a good way to fire property-change notifications for all the model's properties that my ViewModel exposes?

Detailed Version

I'm developing a WPF client following the MVVM pattern, and am attempting to handle incoming updates, from a service, to data being displayed in my Views. When the client receives an update, the update appears in the form of a DTO which I use as a Model.

If this model is an update to an existing model being shown in the View, I want the associated ViewModel to update its databound properties so that the View reflects the changes.

Let me illustrate with an example. Consider my Model:

class FooModel
{
  public int FooModelProperty { get; set; }
}

Wrapped in a ViewModel:

class FooViewModel
{
  private FooModel _model;

  public FooModel Model 
  { 
    get { return _model; }
    set 
    { 
      _model = value; 
      OnPropertyChanged("Model"); 
    }
  }

  public int FooViewModelProperty
  {
    get { return Model.FooModelProperty; }
    set 
    {
      Model.FooModelProperty = value;
      OnPropertyChanged("FooViewModelProperty");
    }    
}

The Problem:

When an updated model arrives, I set the ViewModel's Model property, like so:

instanceOfFooVM.Model = newModel;

This causes OnPropertyChanged("Model") to fire, but not OnPropertyChanged("FooViewModelProperty"), unless I call the latter explicitly from Model's setter. So a View bound to FooViewModelProperty won't update to display that property's new value when I change the Model.

Explicitly calling OnPropertyChanged for every exposed Model property is obviously not a desirable solution, and neither is taking the newModel and iterating through its properties to update the ViewModel's properties one-by-one.

What's a better approach to this problem of updating a whole model and needing to fire change notifications for all its exposed properties?

Best Answer

According to the docs:

The PropertyChanged event can indicate all properties on the object have changed by using either null or String.Empty as the property name in the PropertyChangedEventArgs.

Related Solutions

C# – Binding a WPF ComboBox to a custom list

You set the DisplayMemberPath and the SelectedValuePath to "Name", so I assume that you have a class PhoneBookEntry with a public property Name.

Have you set the DataContext to your ConnectionViewModel object?

I copied you code and made some minor modifications, and it seems to work fine. I can set the viewmodels PhoneBookEnty property and the selected item in the combobox changes, and I can change the selected item in the combobox and the view models PhoneBookEntry property is set correctly.

Here is my XAML content:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication6.Window1"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Grid>
    <StackPanel>
        <Button Click="Button_Click">asdf</Button>
        <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Path=PhonebookEntries}"
                  DisplayMemberPath="Name"
                  SelectedValuePath="Name"
                  SelectedValue="{Binding Path=PhonebookEntry}" />
    </StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Window>

And here is my code-behind:

namespace WpfApplication6
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for Window1.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            ConnectionViewModel vm = new ConnectionViewModel();
            DataContext = vm;
        }

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            ((ConnectionViewModel)DataContext).PhonebookEntry = "test";
        }
    }

    public class PhoneBookEntry
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public PhoneBookEntry(string name)
        {
            Name = name;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return Name;
        }
    }

    public class ConnectionViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        public ConnectionViewModel()
        {
            IList<PhoneBookEntry> list = new List<PhoneBookEntry>();
            list.Add(new PhoneBookEntry("test"));
            list.Add(new PhoneBookEntry("test2"));
            _phonebookEntries = new CollectionView(list);
        }

        private readonly CollectionView _phonebookEntries;
        private string _phonebookEntry;

        public CollectionView PhonebookEntries
        {
            get { return _phonebookEntries; }
        }

        public string PhonebookEntry
        {
            get { return _phonebookEntry; }
            set
            {
                if (_phonebookEntry == value) return;
                _phonebookEntry = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("PhonebookEntry");
            }
        }

        private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
    }
}

Edit: Geoffs second example does not seem to work, which seems a bit odd to me. If I change the PhonebookEntries property on the ConnectionViewModel to be of type ReadOnlyCollection, the TwoWay binding of the SelectedValue property on the combobox works fine.

Maybe there is an issue with the CollectionView? I noticed a warning in the output console:

System.Windows.Data Warning: 50 : Using CollectionView directly is not fully supported. The basic features work, although with some inefficiencies, but advanced features may encounter known bugs. Consider using a derived class to avoid these problems.

Edit2 (.NET 4.5): The content of the DropDownList can be based on ToString() and not of DisplayMemberPath, while DisplayMemberPath specifies the member for the selected and displayed item only.

R – WPF: refreshing a control with a bound property using Model View View-Model

Is that your ViewModel's actual code? If so, your problem is that your ViewModel doesn't implement INotifyPropertyChanged. WPF can't know that your "Editing" VM property has changed so it's not updating the button's binding.