Binding to the selected TabItem content

Question

I have a Window with two controls: control1 is a control that has a bunch of buttons that execute RoutedCommands; the second control is a TabControl that is bound to a list of documents. The TabControl ContentTemplate is a user control, control2, that has a ListView. I would like to bind the DataContext of control1 to the ListView of control2 of the selected tab. Here is the code:

<Window x:Class="deleteme.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:deleteme"
    xmlns:sc="clr-namespace:System.Collections;assembly=mscorlib"
    xmlns:s="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
    Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Window.Resources>
     <sc:ArrayList x:Key="Tabs">
      <local:Document Name="doc1" />
      <local:Document Name="doc2" />
      <local:Document Name="doc3" />
     </sc:ArrayList>
    </Window.Resources>
    <DockPanel>
     <local:control1 DockPanel.Dock="Left" />
     <TabControl DockPanel.Dock="Left" ItemsSource="{StaticResource Tabs}" SelectionChanged="TabControl_SelectionChanged">
      <TabControl.ItemTemplate>
       <DataTemplate>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />
       </DataTemplate>
      </TabControl.ItemTemplate>
      <TabControl.ContentTemplate>
       <DataTemplate>
        <local:control2 />
       </DataTemplate>
      </TabControl.ContentTemplate>
     </TabControl>
    </DockPanel>
</Window>

<UserControl x:Class="deleteme.control1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:deleteme"
    x:Name="control">
    <StackPanel>
     <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{DynamicResource Actions}">
      <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
       <DataTemplate>
        <Button x:Name="actionButton" Content="{Binding Path=Text}" IsEnabled="{Binding Path=actionButton_IsEnabled}" Command="{Binding Path=Command}" CommandTarget="{Binding ElementName=control, Path=DataContext}" Click="actionButton_Click" />
       </DataTemplate>
      </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
     </ItemsControl>
    </StackPanel>
</UserControl>

<UserControl x:Class="deleteme.control2"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"&gt;
    <Grid>
     <ScrollViewer>
      <ListView x:Name="listView" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" >
       <ListView.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
         <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" />
        </DataTemplate>
       </ListView.ItemTemplate>
      </ListView>
     </ScrollViewer>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

The reason that I want to bind the ListView of control2 to control1 is twofold: I can use ListView.SelectedItem as the parameter to RoutedCommand.Execute, and I can use the ListView as the CommandTarget so that I can handle actions that pertain to a document in control2.

My problem is that I cannot figure out how to bind the ListView of control2 to control1. Actually, its more likely that I am approaching the problem incorrectly as I'm new to WPF. If anyone has a suggestion, I would appreciate it.

Answer 1

Don't think in terms of binding the listview, think in terms of binding to the data instead. I assume that you are intending the data to be used between the two user controls; in which case, as long as you have the DataContext higher up the tree then both controls can get access to it.