Data binding to SelectedItem in a WPF Treeview

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 but apparently that does not exist is readonly and therefore unusable.

This is what I want to do:

<TreeView ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Model.Clusters}" 
            ItemTemplate="{StaticResource ClusterTemplate}"
            SelectedItem="{Binding Path=Model.SelectedCluster}" />

I want to bind the SelectedItem to a property on my Model.

But this gives me the error:

'SelectedItem' property is read-only and cannot be set from markup.

Edit: Ok, this is the way that I solved this:

<TreeView
          ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Model.Clusters}" 
          ItemTemplate="{StaticResource HoofdCLusterTemplate}"
          SelectedItemChanged="TreeView_OnSelectedItemChanged" />

and in the codebehindfile of my xaml:

private void TreeView_OnSelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
{
    Model.SelectedCluster = (Cluster)e.NewValue;
}

Solution 1:

I realise this has already had an answer accepted, but I put this together to solve the problem. It uses a similar idea to Delta's solution, but without the need to subclass the TreeView:

public class BindableSelectedItemBehavior : Behavior<TreeView>
{
    #region SelectedItem Property

    public object SelectedItem
    {
        get { return (object)GetValue(SelectedItemProperty); }
        set { SetValue(SelectedItemProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedItemProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("SelectedItem", typeof(object), typeof(BindableSelectedItemBehavior), new UIPropertyMetadata(null, OnSelectedItemChanged));

    private static void OnSelectedItemChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        var item = e.NewValue as TreeViewItem;
        if (item != null)
        {
            item.SetValue(TreeViewItem.IsSelectedProperty, true);
        }
    }

    #endregion

    protected override void OnAttached()
    {
        base.OnAttached();

        this.AssociatedObject.SelectedItemChanged += OnTreeViewSelectedItemChanged;
    }

    protected override void OnDetaching()
    {
        base.OnDetaching();

        if (this.AssociatedObject != null)
        {
            this.AssociatedObject.SelectedItemChanged -= OnTreeViewSelectedItemChanged;
        }
    }

    private void OnTreeViewSelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
    {
        this.SelectedItem = e.NewValue;
    }
}

You can then use this in your XAML as:

<TreeView>
    <e:Interaction.Behaviors>
        <behaviours:BindableSelectedItemBehavior SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}" />
    </e:Interaction.Behaviors>
</TreeView>

Hopefully it will help someone!

Solution 2:

This property exists : TreeView.SelectedItem

But it is readonly, so you cannot assign it through a binding, only retrieve it

Solution 3:

Well, I found a solution. It moves the mess, so that MVVM works.

First add this class:

public class ExtendedTreeView : TreeView
{
    public ExtendedTreeView()
        : base()
    {
        this.SelectedItemChanged += new RoutedPropertyChangedEventHandler<object>(___ICH);
    }

    void ___ICH(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
    {
        if (SelectedItem != null)
        {
            SetValue(SelectedItem_Property, SelectedItem);
        }
    }

    public object SelectedItem_
    {
        get { return (object)GetValue(SelectedItem_Property); }
        set { SetValue(SelectedItem_Property, value); }
    }
    public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedItem_Property = DependencyProperty.Register("SelectedItem_", typeof(object), typeof(ExtendedTreeView), new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
}

and add this to your xaml:

 <local:ExtendedTreeView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" SelectedItem_="{Binding Item, Mode=TwoWay}">
 .....
 </local:ExtendedTreeView>

Solution 4:

It answers a little more than the OP is expecting... But I hope it could help some one at least.

If you want to execute a ICommand whenever the SelectedItem changed, you can bind a command on an event and the use of a property SelectedItem in the ViewModel isn't needed anymore.

To do so:

1- Add reference to System.Windows.Interactivity

xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity"

2- Bind the command to the event SelectedItemChanged

<TreeView x:Name="myTreeView" Margin="1"
            ItemsSource="{Binding Directories}">
    <i:Interaction.Triggers>
        <i:EventTrigger EventName="SelectedItemChanged">
            <i:InvokeCommandAction Command="{Binding SomeCommand}"
                                   CommandParameter="
                                            {Binding ElementName=myTreeView
                                             ,Path=SelectedItem}"/>
        </i:EventTrigger>
    </i:Interaction.Triggers>
    <TreeView.ItemTemplate>
           <!-- ... -->
    </TreeView.ItemTemplate>
</TreeView>