Enable/Disable TabItem when Data Binding

[Keith Pelletier]

Let's say I have a Tab Control Bound to a collection on a ViewModel like so:

 <telnav:RadTabControl x:Name="Objectives"
                              Grid.Row="1"
                              DisplayMemberPath="Name"
                              ItemsSource="{Binding Path=PresentationElements}"
                              SelectedItem="{Binding Path=ActiveElement, Mode=TwoWay}"
                              ContentTemplateSelector="{StaticResource GenericViewSelector}"
                              Background="{x:Null}"
                              BorderBrush="{x:Null}"
                              ></telnav:RadTabControl>

In this case, PresentationElements is an ObservableCollection of ViewModels on a parent ViewModel, which is the DataContext for the View (and thus for the TabControl as well). As you can see, I'm using a ContentTemplate selector... this just unites a View with the ViewModel. 

This works quite happily. I get a set of tabs and appropriate content (Views) and headers. Now, I want to bind the IsEnabled property of each TabItem to a suitable property on the Data Context for that TabItem. Does that make sense?

Let's say I have ViewModelA, ViewModelB, and ViewModelC in my Observable. That will give me three TabItems (TabItem1, TabItem2, TabItem3, respectively) in the TabControl. I want to bind the IsEnabled property of TabItem1 to the IsEnabled property of ViewModelA, etc. I can't figure out how to do that.

I can't set it in the ItemsContainerStyle because you can use binding in Style Setters. I'm sure I'm missing something simple... any help would be quite helpful.

[Tina Stancheva]

Hello Keith Pelletier,

You can accomplish this with ContainerBinding. A telerik’s container binding for Silverlight is the same as a style binding in WPF. Basically it binds a property of the container (RadTabItem in this case) to a property from the business model:

<telerik:ContainerBindingCollection x:Key="ContainerBinding">
    <telerik:ContainerBinding PropertyName="IsEnabled" Binding="{Binding IsEnabled, Mode=TwoWay}"/>
</telerik:ContainerBindingCollection>

Also you will need to set the telerik:ContainerBinding.ContainerBindings property in the header template (ItemTemplate) of the RadTabItems.

I prepared a sample project illustrating this approach. Take a look at it and let me know if this is what you had in mind.

Regards,
Tina Stancheva
the Telerik team

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[Keith Pelletier]

Hello Tina...

This worked perfectly... thanks much...

Keith

[Andy Fry]

This example doesn't work for me. I downloaded it and converted it to a VS2010 project.

None of the tabs are ever disabled.

[Valentin.Stoychev]

Hi Andy Fry,

It seems like there is a problem in the conversion from VS2008 to VS10. I modified the new solution to work and and I'm attaching it here again.

Best wishes,
Valentin.Stoychev
the Telerik team