Create a generic closewindow button in MVVM

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Am currently porting a GUI from Unix X11 XWindows to WPF/MVVM. This GUI has a main window, from which many other sub-windows can be opened. These sub windows have a standard set of buttons ("->Main" which brings the main window to the front, "Print", "Events" which will show all events related to that sub-window, …). One of these buttons is "Close", which will simply close that window.

Is there a way to create a button that maps to the Windows "x" button, that I could set up as a resource once and then just bind to it?

Or is there a generic way to create the button without having to update each window's code behind.

I'm using Foddy Weaver, and Ninject. Also, there is a master View Model that most sub-windows map to (as there is shared status info shown on many of the sub-windows), if that helps (or complicates!).

What I have tried:

Tried this method : Closing a WPF Window using MVVM and minimal code-behind - jkshay.com[^] but it wasn't compiling (might be conflicting with the way I am currently doing RelayCommands per Angel6 examples)

Could never get "GetTemplateChild", searching for PART_CloseWindow (and some other names, don't remember now) to work.

Many of the relay command examples tie to a single variable, but this doesn't work for one View Model shared among several sub-windows (would close all of them)

Posted 25-Nov-19 14:20pm

Member 12606650

Updated 20-Jun-20 12:42pm

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2 solutions

Solution 1

You could create a base window class with the appropriate event handler in it, and derive all your actual windows from that base class. At that point, you can add a Click event handler in the XAML and simply point it at the base class handler method.

If you want to make it possible to override the handler in specific windows, simply make the handler in the base class virtual.

Posted 25-Nov-19 23:35pm

#realJSOP

Updated 25-Nov-19 23:36pm

v2

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Member 12606650 · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20T12:43:00

I figured it out on my own, and here is what I did:

I created an Interface, called ICloseable, that will be used in the code-behind:

C#

namespace MyProgram.Interfaces
{
    public interface ICloseable
    {
        void Close();
    }
}

In my ApplicationViewModel.cs, I add a command to close the window:

C#

  ...
public ICommand CloseWindow_Command { get; private set; }
  ...
public ApplicationViewModel()
{
      ...
    CloseWindow_Command = new RelayCommand<ICloseable>(CloseWindow);
      ...
}
  ...
public void CloseWindow(ICloseable window)
{
    if (window != null)
    {
        window.Close();
    }
}
  ...

In a given window, I add the name of the window in the main declaration (unique value for each window), and add that name as a CommandParameter in the Close button (which calls the close command):

C#

<Window x:Class="MyProgram.Window1"
        x:Name="theWindow1"
        ... >

            ...
        <Button Height="16" Width="45" 
                Content="Close" FontSize="9"                           
                Command="{Binding AppVM.CloseWindow_Command}"
                CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=theWindow1}"
                ToolTip="Close this window"/>
            ...

And here is the code-behind for the given window, adding the Interface ICloseable:

C#

namespace MyProgram
{
    public partial class Window1 : Window, ICloseable
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            public ApplicationViewModel AppVM = ApplicationViewModel.Instance;
            InitializeComponent();
        }
    }
}