How to restore an object in Silverlight 5 - aop

I have created an application by using Silverlight 5. There are many two-way databind in it. I want to retore a change in UI by restoring the object behind. For example:
I have an object behind which contains properties double Left, Right, I inherited it from INotifyPropertyChanged. In UI, I created tow button (ButtonLeft and ButtonRight) and their parent a Canvas Control, ButtonLeft bind Left property in two-way mode and ButtonRight bind Right property in two-way mode. It works very well, if I drag ButtonLeft, then the Left property will be updated with the new Left Value, same for ButtonRight.
Is there any way to restore the old value after the change of UI. Actually, the relation of class in my application is very complicated, I have already knew that retore the value of property in object will restore the UI, so is there any way (more general and loose-coupling) to restore all the objects that need to be restored.
I have thought of creating an interface IRestorable (inside Store(), Restore()) for objects that need to save and restore state. An attribute Restorable for property which need to be restored. For me, the use of AOP could be a good idea, each time when an instance of IRestorable is created, AOP will call a method for saving the current state (properties which is marked an [Restorable]) of object. I don't know if I was on the right way. If not, any advice will be appreciated.

Use of memeno design pattern.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18025/Generic-Memento-Pattern-for-Undo-Redo-in-C

Related

In static method bindings that exist inside DataTemplates, is it possible to pass in the instance of the entity?

Example:
<DataTemplate x:DataType="FooEntity">
<Grid Background="{x:Bind MyClass.MyStaticBindingMethod(???)}" />
</DataTemplate>
It’s easy enough to pass in properties of the entity, but I can’t see a way to pass in the instance itself. Is this feature not supported? I could store a reference to this in FooEntity with a property called Instance (for example), and then go MyClass.MyStaticBindingMethod(Instance), but just want to make sure there isn't a cleaner way.
Relevant docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/xaml-platform/x-bind-markup-extension
You cannot pass the instance itself onto a DataTemplate.
The DataTemplate is only responsible for describing the visual structure of a data object and therefore its not part of its job to hold a explicit reference to any CLR object.
DataTemplate is defined to extend the visual structure of data objects, such as GridView/ListView, and those already handle the possibility of referencing to Collections, by setting the ItemsSource dependency property. Taking advantage of this, the DataTemplate simply exposes the customization of your visual structure. However this visual structure should be followed with the necessary bindings, to achieve your desired custom behavior.
If you are dealing with x:Bind, you will have to set the x:DataType, to the type of the Collection which you are setting as the Control ItemsSource, because the compiler needs that information at compile-time.
That is not a problem for Binding because those are evaluated at runtime, with the help of reflection.
I am not sure if I understand correctly, but to bind this, meaning the entity directly, you can just use empty binding:
Background="{x:Bind}"
or
Background="{Binding}"
This however means that FooEntity should derive from Brush so that it is compatible with Background type.

Reacting to changes within observed object's unobserved properties

I have an external library with TypeScript class instances in observed variable of my app's store:
class Store:
#observable active_obj:ExternalClass;
This instance has a method which, when called, updates its internal state leaving the object as is:
store.active_obj.change()
Now, since Mobx is not observing this object itself nor its (I assume) properties, only changes happening directly on the field active_obj (like new value assigned to it). Since instances of MyClass are provided by external library and ultimately get rendered inside this library's components I can't add observables and observers to its class structure nor React components. Mind you, this is only what I think is the reason that changing the object's properties doesn't trigger re-render...
I had to cheat a bit by using other, observed variable I change directly with nonsense data at the same time I'm calling to unobserved instance for change. Adding references to this variable on components higher up the tree, I can trigger re-render that produces updates on the (unobserving) components of the external library.
My question is, how best to make Mobx aware of change so it can notify observers of store.active_obj instance?
I think this part of Mobx documentation warns about this, but there's no workarounds or solutions for it:
** If likes where objects instead of strings, and if they were rendered by their own Like component, the Likes component would not rerender for changes happening inside a specific like.
from here, at end of the page
Edit
As per #mweststrate's question, I provide some context:
My app controls its data, but it has to create external class' instances from that
Instance's data is encapsulated and mutated in place, but it's done by asking from my app's side through user triggered events (meaning, I know when data is updated)
Basically class uses app's data to provide different views into data based on user selection and renders it with its React components
I also use this changed data elsewhere in the app in components I control
Changed data is part of external class' internals and I can't depend on it
Since Mobx tracks mutations it can see, using Observable doesn't directly work
Some possible solutions I thought:
manually notify observers that observable active_object has changed when I have called the instance it references to change
have a container object that Mobx can track and when I change its sentinel property, that update is noticed and actual instance with it

Changing a oneway bound TextBlock value from code behind.

I have a TextBlock and its Text property is bound to a ViewModel property. The binding is Oneway.
When I change the Text property of the Control from the xaml.cs the binding gets broken. If the binding is TwoWay I don't have this problem but the source property is updated too. Is it possible to have OneWay binding and change the target property value without braking the binding?
I suggest a workaround, like setting the Binding to TwoWay and ignore the update in the property. Something like this:
private string textValue;
public string TextValue
{
get { return textValue; }
set
{
:
}
}
Now the Property can no longer be set by the view.
Although no code is provided, this scenario typically occurs when you have bound a control to a view model and at a later stage your logic tries to update the value in the control programmatically.
You should not try to do this, that is define multiple sources of the value for a control. If you bind the control to a property on the view model, then to update the value in the control you should update the field in the view model.
If you were to set the value of a bound control programmatically at runtime so that it no longer matched the bound object value, when some other event causes the control binding to be re-evaluated, the value that you have provided programmatically would be overwritten again, you could easily end up with a scenario where the value you provided programmatically is never visible to the user.
In this scenario you should either:
Add a new property to the view model, bind this value to the control, then your program logic can set this value equal to the original property when the data is loaded, and updated when you need to
Not use bindings at all, always write to the control programatically that way you tightly control when the value is updated.
There is a workaround to this if you absolutely must have one. if you are using compiled bindings (x:Bind), then because the bindings are compiled it is possible to call SetValue on the bound dependency property at runtime and the previously compiled bindings will still be evaluated. However I advise against exploiting this because it makes your code a lot harder to follow and debug, when bindings are used, we tend not to look for code that directly addresses and sets control values.

Dynamically changing the ViewModel of a View in an MVVM, MEF implementation

I have a usercontrol that i want to use throughout my Silverlight MEF MVVM solution.
I want to be able to link it up with one of a number of ViewModels depending on which module i am in. What this control does is list the records of a given entity so i can Add, Edit or Delete. I realized i would be using this control in multiple locations - to update several lookup tables, so i decided to make it's ViewModel dynamic. As seen below, I am using the Galasoft MVVM plugin.
if (!GalaSoft.MvvmLight.ViewModelBase.IsInDesignModeStatic)
{
// set DataContext
DataContext = PluginCatalogService.Instance.FindSharedPlugin(ViewModelTypes.ViewModelMT, PluginType.ViewModel);
_viewModel = (ViewModelMT)DataContext;
}
My question is how can i dynamically change from ViewModelMT to ViewModelCT to allow me to independently display lookup tables e.g. Maintenance Types and Contract Types on an instance of this same usercontrol? I took a look at the Viewmodel locator, but I'm still not sure how to get this done.
Thank you
I don't think this is really a ViewModel thing. It's more of a Service problem.
Your ViewModel for the control will not change but you'll dynamically slot in the required service to maintain your list. ie. MaintenanceTypeService and ContractTypesService will implement IListMaintenanceService which exposes an list of items and Add,Delete and Edit commands.

MVVM combobox binding issue

I have a project with a number of comboboxes, all binding correctly. Since installing SL5 I started experiencing all sorts of binding issues as well as the debugger being crippled. The problem is that when you switch from SL4 to SL5 and then back to SL4, not all the references are reset. Long story sort, I had to reinstall vs2010 to fix those issues. Now I am testing the dev environment and although I can get a textbox to bind from the VM, I cannot get a combobox to bind.
What I would like to know is what is the absolute minimum requirements for a combobox to bind. My ViewModel's property SET is getting its data.I have the comboboxes ItemSource set and the DisplayMemberPath set.I have tried using the ItemTemplate syntax but nothing works. The RaisePropertyChanged is being fired. Could this be a UI threading issue? The only difference between this combobox and the others is that there is a call to the database that collects values that are then used in a second call to the database. Those results are then passed to the property in the VM which raises the RaisePropertychanged event, but the binding doesnt render. I have mocked an entity in the class constructor and the binding works, but when I load the entities from the database it doesnt work.
I found the issue. This might be helpful to others. I was instantiating a ViewModels ObservableCollecion in the Completed event of the method and then looping through the collection from the database and addng it to the collection. Binding was not happening. I moved the instantiation of the ObservableCollection to the ViewModels constructor instead and the Binding started working. Still a bit puzzled as to why the newing up of the ObservableCollection has to be in the ViewModels constructor and not in the Completed event of the method fetching the data.