Two dynamically assigned ContentControls in single view in Caliburn.Micro

Question

I have a UserControl that contains two ContentControls that need to have different UserControl Views bound to them at runtime. The attached-Property solution noted here does not seem to work in Silverlight. Or, I am doing something wrong. I also, found this, but it did not bring any joy either.

I had a single ContentControl working by naming it 'ActiveItem'. But, of course, I cannot have two ContentControls with the same name.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Jim

The example posted in the answer pretty much covers it. Thanks — Jim Reineri, Aug 01 '11 at 15:46

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '11 at 12:34

Just expose two public properties on your main view model, each one being an instance of the type of view model you wish to display. Then, in your view have a ContentControl with the corresponding name. E.g:

public class MyMainViewModel
{
  private NavigationViewModel navigation;
  private MyContentViewModel main;

  public MyMainViewModel()
  {
    // better to inject factories using constructor injection here
    this.Navigation = new NavigationViewModel();
    this.Main = new MyContentViewModel();
  }

  public NavigationViewModel Navigation
  {
    get { return navigation; }
    set { navigation= value; NotifyOfPropertyChanged(() => this.Navigation); }
  }

  public MyContentViewModel Main
  {
    get { return main; }
    set { main= value; NotifyOfPropertyChanged(() => this.Main); }
  }

  ...
}

<ContentControl x:Name="Navigation" />
...
<ContentControl x:Name="Main" />

Thank you. Seems almost too simple. – Jim Reineri Aug 01 '11 at 15:44 — Jim Reineri, Aug 01 '11 at 15:44

Amir Maleki · Answer 2 · 2020-05-30T16:48:10.183

This is an old question, but in case anyone is having the same issue, I post here my way of handling it from the beginning and in a more thorough manner:

Your main window that contain both (or even more than two) of your User Controls must be inherited from Caliburn.Micro.Conductor<Screen>.Collection.AllActive;
Your User Controls must be inherited from Caliburn.Micro.Screen;
You must also keep naming conventions in mind. If you use MenuUC as the name of a ContentControl in your View, also create a property named MenuUC in your ViewModel;
Initialize your UserControl as I do in Constructor;
Now you can use ActivateItem(MenuUC) and DeactivateItem(MenuUC) everywhere in your code. Caliburn.Micro automatically detects which one you want to work with.

Example XAML View code:

<Window x:Class="YourProject.Views.YourView"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="YourViewTitle" Width="900" Height="480">

    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="4*"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="auto"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <!-- Menu Side Bar -->
        <ContentControl Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" x:Name="MenuUC" />

        <!-- Panel -->
        <Border Grid.Column="1" Grid.RowSpan="2" BorderThickness="1,0,0,0" BorderBrush="#FF707070" >
            <ContentControl x:Name="PanelUC" />
        </Border>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Example C# ViewModel code:

class YourViewModel : Conductor<Screen>.Collection.AllActive
{
    // Menu Side Bar
    private MenuUCViewModel _menuUC;
    public MenuUCViewModel MenuUC
    {
        get { return _menuUC; }
        set { _menuUC = value; NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => MenuUC); }
    }

    // Panel
    private Screen _panelUC;
    public Screen PanelUC
    {
        get { return _panelUC; }
        set { _panelUC = value; NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => PanelUC); }
    }

    // Constructor
    public YourViewModel()
    {
        MenuUC = new MenuUCViewModel();
        ActivateItem(MenuUC);

        PanelUC = new FirstPanelUCViewModel();
        ActivateItem(PanelUC);
    }

    // Some method that changes PanelUC (previously FirstPanelUCViewModel) to SecondPanelUCViewModel
    public void ChangePanels()
    {
        DeactivateItem(PanelUC);
        PanelUC = new SecondPanelUCViewModel();
        ActivateItem(PanelUC);
    }
}

In the above example, ChangePanels() acts as a method to load new User Control into your ContentControl.

Also read this question, it might be help you further.

Two dynamically assigned ContentControls in single view in Caliburn.Micro

2 Answers2