Binding to property on root element in DataTemplate through a ContentControl

Question

In my user interface I sometimes want to put titles above usercontrols.

I want to declare these titles in XAML for future localizability, so I want to keep them out of the datacontexts.

Can databinding fetch them from a property set on the root node of the usercontrol?

I have boiled the problem down to the following code example:

using System.Windows;

namespace WpfApplication12
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            this.Person = new Author { Name = "Guge" };

            this.DataContext = this;
        }

        public object Person { get; set; }
    }

    public class Author
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }
}

And:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication12.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfApplication12"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Author}">
        <Border AutomationProperties.Name="Author" BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="Black">
            <Label Content="{Binding Name}"/>
        </Border>
    </DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<StackPanel>
    <Label x:Name="Position" Content="Author"/>
    <ContentControl x:Name="presentation" Content="{Binding Person}"/>
</StackPanel>

And the practical problem is: how can I use databinding in the content property of the "Position" Label to fetch the word "Author" from the AutomationProperties.Name property of the Border in the DataTemplate?

Answer 1

How about going the route over your data object:

public class Author
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string TypeName { get; set; } // might be better in base class Person
}

And:

<Window.Resources>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Author}">
        <Border AutomationProperties.Name="{Binding TypeName}" 
                BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="Black">
            <Label Content="{Binding Name}"/>
        </Border>
    </DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<StackPanel>
    <Label x:Name="Position" Content="{Binding ElementName=presentation, Path=DataContext.TypeName}"/>
    <ContentControl x:Name="presentation" Content="{Binding Person}"/>
</StackPanel>

Answer 2

The solution so far is to add a string property for TypeName to the viewmodel and fill this with the contents of the AutomationProperties.Name in code-behind. And use the following binding:

<StackPanel>
    <Label x:Name="Position" Content="{Binding Person.TypeName}"/>
    <ContentControl x:Name="presentation" Content="{Binding Person}"/>
</StackPanel>

However, I still think it should be possible to do this without using the ViewModel, I hope to be able to revisit this issue when my databinding skills have improved.