Data binding to SelectedItem in a WPF Treeview

Question

How can I retrieve the item that is selected in a WPF-treeview? I want to do this in XAML, because I want to bind it.

You might think that it is SelectedItem

Answer 1

This can be accomplished in a 'nicer' way using only binding and the GalaSoft MVVM Light library's EventToCommand. In your VM add a command which will be called when the selected item is changed, and initialize the command to perform whatever action is necessary. In this example I used a RelayCommand and will just set the SelectedCluster property.

public class ViewModel
{
    public ViewModel()
    {
        SelectedClusterChanged = new RelayCommand<Cluster>( c => SelectedCluster = c );
    }

    public RelayCommand<Cluster> SelectedClusterChanged { get; private set; } 

    public Cluster SelectedCluster { get; private set; }
}

Then add the EventToCommand behavior in your xaml. This is really easy using blend.

<TreeView
      x:Name="lstClusters"
      ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Model.Clusters}" 
      ItemTemplate="{StaticResource HoofdCLusterTemplate}">
    <i:Interaction.Triggers>
        <i:EventTrigger EventName="SelectedItemChanged">
            <GalaSoft_MvvmLight_Command:EventToCommand Command="{Binding SelectedClusterChanged}" CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=lstClusters,Path=SelectedValue}"/>
        </i:EventTrigger>
    </i:Interaction.Triggers>
</TreeView>

Answer 2

There is also a way to create XAML bindable SelectedItem property without using Interaction.Behaviors.

public static class BindableSelectedItemHelper
{
    #region Properties

    public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedItemProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("SelectedItem", typeof(object), typeof(BindableSelectedItemHelper),
        new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(null, OnSelectedItemPropertyChanged));

    public static readonly DependencyProperty AttachProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("Attach", typeof(bool), typeof(BindableSelectedItemHelper), new PropertyMetadata(false, Attach));

    private static readonly DependencyProperty IsUpdatingProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("IsUpdating", typeof(bool), typeof(BindableSelectedItemHelper));

    #endregion

    #region Implementation

    public static void SetAttach(DependencyObject dp, bool value)
    {
        dp.SetValue(AttachProperty, value);
    }

    public static bool GetAttach(DependencyObject dp)
    {
        return (bool)dp.GetValue(AttachProperty);
    }

    public static string GetSelectedItem(DependencyObject dp)
    {
        return (string)dp.GetValue(SelectedItemProperty);
    }

    public static void SetSelectedItem(DependencyObject dp, object value)
    {
        dp.SetValue(SelectedItemProperty, value);
    }

    private static bool GetIsUpdating(DependencyObject dp)
    {
        return (bool)dp.GetValue(IsUpdatingProperty);
    }

    private static void SetIsUpdating(DependencyObject dp, bool value)
    {
        dp.SetValue(IsUpdatingProperty, value);
    }

    private static void Attach(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        TreeListView treeListView = sender as TreeListView;
        if (treeListView != null)
        {
            if ((bool)e.OldValue)
                treeListView.SelectedItemChanged -= SelectedItemChanged;

            if ((bool)e.NewValue)
                treeListView.SelectedItemChanged += SelectedItemChanged;
        }
    }

    private static void OnSelectedItemPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        TreeListView treeListView = sender as TreeListView;
        if (treeListView != null)
        {
            treeListView.SelectedItemChanged -= SelectedItemChanged;

            if (!(bool)GetIsUpdating(treeListView))
            {
                foreach (TreeViewItem item in treeListView.Items)
                {
                    if (item == e.NewValue)
                    {
                        item.IsSelected = true;
                        break;
                    }
                    else
                       item.IsSelected = false;                        
                }
            }

            treeListView.SelectedItemChanged += SelectedItemChanged;
        }
    }

    private static void SelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        TreeListView treeListView = sender as TreeListView;
        if (treeListView != null)
        {
            SetIsUpdating(treeListView, true);
            SetSelectedItem(treeListView, treeListView.SelectedItem);
            SetIsUpdating(treeListView, false);
        }
    }
    #endregion
}

You can then use this in your XAML as:

<TreeView  helper:BindableSelectedItemHelper.Attach="True" 
           helper:BindableSelectedItemHelper.SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}">