How to get TreeViewItem from HierarchicalDataTemplate item?

Question

I have a TreeView which uses a HierarchicalDataTemplate to bind its data.

It looks like this:

<TreeView x:Name="mainTreeList" ItemsSource="{Binding MyCollection}>
  <TreeView.Resources>
    <HierarchicalDataTemplate 
     DataType="{x:Type local:MyTreeViewItemViewModel}" 
     ItemsSource="{Binding Children}">
      <!-- code code code -->
    </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
  </TreeView.Resources>
</TreeView>

Now, from the code-behind of say the main window, I want to get the current selected TreeViewItem. However, if I use:

this.mainTreeList.SelectedItem;

The selectedItem is of type MyTreeViewItemViewModel. But I want to get the 'parent' or 'bound' TreeViewItem. I do not pass that to my TreeViewItemModel object (wouldn't even know how).

How can I do this?

Answer 1

From Bea Stollnitz's blog entry about this, try

TreeViewItem item = (TreeViewItem)(mainTreeList
    .ItemContainerGenerator
    .ContainerFromIndex(mainTreeList.Items.CurrentPosition));

Answer 2

Do you need the TreeViewItem because you're going to modify what is being displayed? If that is the case, I'd recommend using a Style to change how the item is being displayed instead of using code-behind instead of directly modifying the TreeViewItem. It should hopefully be cleaner.

Answer 3

TreeViewItem item = (TreeViewItem)(mainTreeList
    .ItemContainerGenerator
    .ContainerFromIndex(mainTreeList.Items.CurrentPosition));

DOES NOT WORK (for me) as mainTreeList.Items.CurrentPosition in a treeview using a HierarchicalDataTemplate will always be -1.

NEITHER DOES below as as mainTreeList.Items.CurrentPosition in a treeview using a HierarchicalDataTemplate will always be null.

TreeViewItem item = (TreeViewItem)mainTreeList
    .ItemContainerGenerator
    .ContainerFromItem(mainTreeList.Items.CurrentItem);

INSTEAD I had to set a the last selected TreeViewItem in the routed TreeViewItem.Selected event which bubbles up to the tree view (the TreeViewItem's themselves do not exist at design time as we are using a HierarchicalDataTemplate).

The event can be captured in XAML as so:

<TreeView TreeViewItem.Selected="TreeViewItemSelected" .../> 

Then the last TreeViewItem selected can be set in the event as so:

    private void TreeViewItemSelected(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        TreeViewItem tvi = e.OriginalSource as TreeViewItem;

        // set the last tree view item selected variable which may be used elsewhere as there is no other way I have found to obtain the TreeViewItem container (may be null)
        this.lastSelectedTreeViewItem = tvi;

        ...
     }