WPF: How do I set the Owner Window of a Dialog shown by a UserControl?

Question

I've got a WPF application with these three types of things...

WindowMain
UserControlZack
WindowModal

UserControlZack1 sits on my WindowMain...

<Window x:Class="WindowMain" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ProjectName" ... Name="WindowMain"> <Grid> ... <local:UserControlZack x:Name="UserControlZack1" ... /> ... </Grid> </Window>

UserControlZack1 displays a WindowModal dailog box...

 Partial Public Class UserControlZack ... Private Sub SomeButton_Click(...) 'instantiate the dialog box and open modally... Dim box As WindowModal = New WindowModal() box.Owner = ????? box.ShowDialog() 'process data entered by user if dialog box is accepted... If (box.DialogResult.GetValueOrDefault = True) Then _SomeVar = box.SomeVar ... End If End Sub End Class

How do I set box.Owner to the correct Window, my running instance of WindowMain?

I cannot use box.Owner = Me.Owner, because "'Owner' is not a member of 'ProjectName.UserControlZack'."

I cannot use box.Owner = Me.Parent, because that returns a Grid, not the Window.

I cannot use box.Owner = WindowMain, because "'WindowMain' is a type and cannot be used as an expression."

slavoo · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-13 18:42:37Z

139

Try to use

.Owner = Window.GetWindow(this)

edited Nov 13, 2014 at 18:42

slavoo

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answered Mar 4, 2009 at 8:11

Martin Moser

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2 Comments

Gabriel Magana Over a year ago

Works great, thanks. And is also exactly the answer to this question :-).

Tomáš Zato Over a year ago

Another answer missing using refference on an ambiguous object name.

Nir · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-04 08:08:09Z

48

To get the top level window your control is in, assuming there is one:

(Window)PresentationSource.FromVisual(this).RootVisual

To get the main window:

Application.Current.MainWindow

answered Mar 4, 2009 at 8:08

Nir

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1 Comment

D'Hag Over a year ago

Application.Current.MainWindow gave me exactly what I needed. I need to access the controls in the parent window from a child window opened using ShowDialog().

slavoo · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-13 18:41:41Z

11

MyWpfDialog dialog = new MyWpfDialog(); //remember, this is WinForms UserControl and its Handle property is //actually IntPtr containing Win32 HWND. new System.Windows.Interop.WindowInteropHelper(dialog).Owner = this.Handle; dialog.ShowDialog();

edited Nov 13, 2014 at 18:41

slavoo

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answered Oct 3, 2011 at 14:28

JRL1283

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2 Comments

itsho Over a year ago

beware with this one. I had weird issues when running in VMWare Fusion on a Macintosh - window appeared for a sec then vanished.

itsho Over a year ago

Heads up: if you have another window (Splash window, etc.) displayed - you'll must set the Owner for it as well! otherwise you'll get some weird behaviors - your main window won't get OnActivated event / will stay in background / will suddenly vanish, etc.

Andrew Barrett · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-05 17:54:52Z

Updating to try and help Greg from the comments. The command works in the main windows menu, the button in the user control and the context menu in the user control.

I'd do it with commands. So have a class Commands.cs something like:

public static class Commands { public static RoutedUICommand TestShowDialogCommand = new RoutedUICommand("Test command", "TestShowDialog", typeof(Commands)); }

Register these in your main window: (you don't need the canshow it defaults to true)

 public Window1() { InitializeComponent(); CommandManager.RegisterClassCommandBinding(typeof(System.Windows.Controls.Control), new CommandBinding(Commands.TestShowDialogCommand, ShowDialogCommand, CanShowDialogCommand)); } private void ShowDialogCommand(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e) { var box = new Window(); box.Owner = this; box.ShowDialog(); } private void CanShowDialogCommand(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e) { e.CanExecute = true; }

This is my xaml for the main window:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:WpfApplication1="clr-namespace:WpfApplication1" Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="322"> <Grid> <StackPanel> <Menu> <MenuItem Header="Test"> <MenuItem Header="ShowDialog" Command="{x:Static WpfApplication1:Commands.TestShowDialogCommand}"/> </MenuItem> </Menu> <WpfApplication1:BazUserControl /> </StackPanel> </Grid> </Window>

This is the xaml for my user control (default code behind only)

<UserControl x:Class="WpfApplication1.BazUserControl" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:WpfApplication1="clr-namespace:WpfApplication1" Height="300" Width="300"> <Grid> <StackPanel> <Button Command="{x:Static WpfApplication1:Commands.TestShowDialogCommand}" Content="ClickMe" ></Button> <TextBox> <TextBox.ContextMenu> <ContextMenu> <MenuItem Header="ShowDialog" Command="{x:Static WpfApplication1:Commands.TestShowDialogCommand}" /> </ContextMenu> </TextBox.ContextMenu> </TextBox> </StackPanel> </Grid> </UserControl>

You could take it a bit further and handle the command in a controller class instead and make it that bit more MVC.

When I use this technique, the CanExecute event isn't called for the reference from the UserControl. CanExecute seems to default to false, disabling the Element that the command is on (a context menuitem, in my case). A MenuItem in the parent window has no problems and is enabled.
It has something to do with the command routing. My UserControl does not get focus, but has a context menu. If no Element is selected/focused when I try to view the UserControl's context menu, the command event isn't routed.
If you want to post more info in a question I'll see if I can help you out. I use commands throughout the WPF app I'm making, and I'm really loving them at the moment.
Thanks, Andrew. I think I've figured it out, but I won't know 'til I try it. I believe I simply need to set CommandTarget="{Binding ElementName=This}" (This is the x:Name of the UserControl). That ought to source the command event from my usercontrol instead of whatever button has focus. :)
Greg, I've updated, hopefully it might help you. Probably will need more info from you though to help you better.

Zack Peterson · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-03 17:44:04Z

I got it to work by crawling all the way back up through my XAML...

 box.Owner = DirectCast(DirectCast(DirectCast(Me.Parent, Grid).Parent, Grid).Parent, Window)

But this seems quite inelegant. Is there a better way?

See below on using a RoutedUICommand which I think is the more elegant way. Apologies for the C#, I'm not a VB guy!

David Ly · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-03 17:47:34Z

0

What about changing the name of the window to WindowMain1 or something, and setting the owner to that?

answered Mar 3, 2009 at 17:47

David Ly

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2 Comments

Zack Peterson Over a year ago

"Name 'WindowMain1' is not declared."

David Ly Over a year ago

Ah, I see, didn't read the question carefully enough, you're doing this inside the user control class rather than the main form class

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