Disable Save button in WPF if validation fails

Question

I've adopted what appears to be the standard way of validating textboxes in WPF using the IDataErrorInfo interface and styles as shown below. However, how can I disable the Save button when the page becomes invalid? Is this done somehow through triggers?

Default Public ReadOnly Property Item(ByVal propertyName As String) As String Implements IDataErrorInfo.Item
    Get
        Dim valid As Boolean = True
        If propertyName = "IncidentCategory" Then
            valid = True
            If Len(IncidentCategory) = 0 Then
                valid = False
            End If
            If Not valid Then
                Return "Incident category is required"
            End If
        End If

        Return Nothing

    End Get
End Property

<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
    <Setter Property="Margin" Value="3" />
    <Setter Property="Height" Value="23" />
    <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Left" />
    <Setter Property="Validation.ErrorTemplate">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate>
                <DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
                    <Border BorderBrush="Red" BorderThickness="1">
                        <AdornedElementPlaceholder Name="MyAdorner" />
                    </Border>
                </DockPanel>
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
    <Style.Triggers>
        <Trigger Property="Validation.HasError" Value="true">
            <Setter Property="ToolTip"  Value="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=(Validation.Errors)[0].ErrorContent}" />
        </Trigger>
    </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

Josh G · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-20 13:12:11Z

41

A couple of things:

First, I would recommend using the RoutedCommand ApplicationCommands.Save for implementing the handling of the save button.

If you haven't checked out the WPF Command model, you can get the scoop here.

<Button Content="Save" Command="Save">

Now, to implement the functionality, you can add a command binding to the Window/UserControl or to the Button itself:

    <Button.CommandBindings>
        <CommandBinding Command="Save" 
                        Executed="Save_Executed" CanExecute="Save_CanExecute"/>
    </Button.CommandBindings>
</Button>

Implement these in code behind:

private void Save_Executed(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
{
}

private void Save_CanExecute(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e)
{
}

In Save_CanExecute, set e.CanExecute based on the validity of the binding on the text box.

If you want to implement using the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) design pattern, check out Josh Smith's post on CommandSinkBinding.

One final note: If you want the enable/disable to be updated as soon as the value in the TextBox is changed, set UpdateSourceTrigger="PropertyChanged" on the binding for the TextBox.

EDIT: If you want to validate/invalidate based on all of the bindings in the control, here are a few suggestions.

1) You are already implementing IDataErrorInfo. Try implementing the IDataErrorInfo.Error property such that it returns the string that is invalid for all of the properties that you are binding to. This will only work if your whole control is binding to a single data object. Set e.CanExecute = string.IsNullOrEmpty(data.Error);

2) Use reflection to get all of the public static DependencyProperties on the relevant controls. Then call BindingOperations.GetBindingExpression(relevantControl, DependencyProperty) in a loop on each property so you can test the validation.

3) In the constructor, manually create a collection of all bound properties on nested controls. In CanExecute, iterate through this collection and validate each DependencyObject/DepencyProperty combination by using BindingOperation.GetBindingExpression() to get expressions and then examining BindingExpression.HasError.

edited Apr 20, 2009 at 13:12

answered Apr 16, 2009 at 19:22

Josh G

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3 Comments

Mitch Over a year ago

Works great many thanks. One other thing though. I can check individual controls with the following code If Validation.GetHasError(myTextbox) Then e.CanExecute = False Is there a way to check the validity of all the controls rather than individually?

Greg D Over a year ago

+1 for suggested command usage. Commands are what made WPF start to genuinely click for me.

Mitch Over a year ago

Like the simplicity of your first suggestion Josh. I'll give it a try. Thanks again

ghord · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 11:20:45Z

I've created attached property just for this:

public static class DataErrorInfoHelper
{
    public static object GetDataErrorInfo(ButtonBase obj)
    {
        return (object)obj.GetValue(DataErrorInfoProperty);
    }

    public static void SetDataErrorInfo(ButtonBase obj, object value)
    {
        obj.SetValue(DataErrorInfoProperty, value);
    }

    // Using a DependencyProperty as the backing store for DataErrorInfo.  This enables animation, styling, binding, etc...
    public static readonly DependencyProperty DataErrorInfoProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("DataErrorInfo", typeof(object), typeof(DataErrorInfoHelper), new PropertyMetadata(null, OnDataErrorInfoChanged));

    private static void OnDataErrorInfoChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        var button = d as ButtonBase;

        if (button.Tag == null)
            button.Tag = new DataErrorInfoContext { Button = button };

        var context = button.Tag as DataErrorInfoContext;

        if(e.OldValue != null)
        {
            PropertyChangedEventManager.RemoveHandler(((INotifyPropertyChanged)e.OldValue), context.Handler, string.Empty);
        }

        var inotify = e.NewValue as INotifyPropertyChanged;
        if (inotify != null)
        {
            PropertyChangedEventManager.AddHandler(inotify, context.Handler, string.Empty);
            context.Handler(inotify, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(string.Empty));
        }
    }

    private class DataErrorInfoContext
    {
        public ButtonBase Button { get; set; }

        public void Handler(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            var dei = sender as IDataErrorInfo;

            foreach (var property in dei.GetType().GetProperties())
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(dei[property.Name]))
                {
                    Button.IsEnabled = false;
                    return;
                }
            }
            Button.IsEnabled = string.IsNullOrEmpty(dei.Error);
        }
    }
}

I'm using it like this on my forms:

<TextBlock  Margin="2">e-mail:</TextBlock>
<TextBox  Margin="2" Text="{Binding Email, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged, ValidatesOnDataErrors=True}"/>
<!-- other databindings--->
<Button Margin="2" local:DataErrorInfoHelper.DataErrorInfo="{Binding}"  Commands="{Binding SaveCommand}">Create account</Button>

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