TreeView auto-selecting parent after user selects child

Question

In my window I have a TreeView and TextBox. Pretend the TextBox is used for writing a custom script and the TreeView is a way to select a function to insert; think Crystal Report script editor.

My goal is for a user to click one of the children of the TreeView and that child inserts into the TextBox. The child is a function signature and resides under a Parent node. The user can then navigate to the TextBox, select one of the function parameters and replace it with another function signature. To accomplish this, I handle the TreeView's SelectedItemChanged event, set the TextBox's SelectedText, and then try to highlight the text after it's changed.

The SelectedText of the TextBox is properly being swapped. However, the text is not being highlighted and the scrollbar isn't scrolling to the selected text.

Here is my XAML from the test project I wrote to reproduce the behavior:

  <Window x:Class="SelectedTextWeirdness.MainWindow"
          xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
          xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:System="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
          xmlns:SelectedTextWeirdness="clr-namespace:SelectedTextWeirdness" Title="MainWindow" Width="600" Height="600"
          x:Name="Me">
     <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
           <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
           <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <TreeView Grid.Row="0" x:Name="treeView" ItemsSource="{Binding ElementName=Me, Path=TreeViewItems, Mode=TwoWay}" 
                  SelectedItemChanged="treeView_SelectedItemChanged" Margin="10">
           <TreeView.Resources>
              <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type SelectedTextWeirdness:Parent}" ItemsSource="{Binding Children}">
                 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
              </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
              <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type SelectedTextWeirdness:Child}">
                 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
              </DataTemplate>
           </TreeView.Resources>
        </TreeView>
        <TextBox Grid.Row="1" x:Name="scriptTextBox" Margin="10" Height="200" Width="Auto" FontFamily="Consolas, Courier New" 
                 HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
                 MaxLines="9999" AcceptsReturn="True" AcceptsTab="True" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 
                 Text="{Binding Path=Script, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
                 />
     </Grid>
  </Window>

And here is the code-behind:

  using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.Linq;
  using System.Text;
  using System.Windows;
  using System.Windows.Controls;
  using System.Windows.Data;
  using System.Windows.Documents;
  using System.Windows.Input;
  using System.Windows.Media;
  using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
  using System.Windows.Navigation;
  using System.Windows.Shapes;

  namespace SelectedTextWeirdness
  {
     public class Child
     {
        public string Name
        {
           get;
           set;
        }
     }

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

        public List<Child> Children
        {
           get;
           set;
        }   
     }

     /// <summary>
     /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
     /// </summary>
     public partial class MainWindow : Window
     {
        public List<Parent> TreeViewItems
        {
           get;
           set;
        }

        public MainWindow()
        {
           BuildTreeViewItems();

           InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void BuildTreeViewItems()
        {
           TreeViewItems = new List<Parent>()
                              {
                                 new Parent()
                                    {
                                       Name = "Parent1",
                                       Children =
                                          new List<Child>()
                                             {
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber1(ReallyLongLeft1, ReallyLongRight1)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber2(ReallyLongLeft2, ReallyLongRight2)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber3(ReallyLongLeft3, ReallyLongRight3)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber4(ReallyLongLeft4, ReallyLongRight4)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber5(ReallyLongLeft5, ReallyLongRight5)"}
                                             }
                                    },
                                 new Parent()
                                    {
                                       Name = "Parent2",
                                       Children =
                                          new List<Child>()
                                             {
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber1(ReallyLongLeft1, ReallyLongRight1)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber2(ReallyLongLeft2, ReallyLongRight2)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber3(ReallyLongLeft3, ReallyLongRight3)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber4(ReallyLongLeft4, ReallyLongRight4)"},
                                                new Child() {Name = "ReallyLongFunctionNameNumber5(ReallyLongLeft5, ReallyLongRight5)"}
                                             }
                                    }
                              };
        }

        private void treeView_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
        {
           var tree = (TreeView)sender;
           var selectedItem = tree.SelectedItem as Child;
           if (selectedItem != null)
           {
              int selectionStart = scriptTextBox.SelectionStart;
              string selectedText = selectedItem.Name;
              scriptTextBox.SelectedText = selectedText;
              scriptTextBox.Focus();            
              scriptTextBox.Select(selectionStart, selectedText.Length);
           }
        }
     }
  }

I have tried setting the SelectedItemChanged e.Handled = true. That didn't work. I've tried handling the LostFocus of the TextBox and setting e.Handled = true and that hasn't worked. This only seems to happen when I use the HierarchicalDateTemplate. If I change the data to be one level only, this setup works fine.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

The core issue is to have a Focus() change within an event handler. Postpone the Focus by calling it within a BeginInvoke.

Something like:

delegate void voidDelegate();

private void treeView_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
{
    var tree = (TreeView)sender;
    var selectedItem = tree.SelectedItem as Child;
    if (selectedItem != null)
    {
        int selectionStart = scriptTextBox.SelectionStart;
        string selectedText = selectedItem.Name;
        voidDelegate giveFocusDelegate = new  voidDelegate(giveFocus);  
        Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(giveFocusDelegate, new object[] { });
        scriptTextBox.SelectedText = selectedText;         
    }
}

private void giveFocus()
{
    scriptTextBox.Focus();
}    

Should get you closer from your goal.

Edit : How do we know this will work ?

As the documentation for Dispatcher.BeginInvoke says :

The operation is added to the event queue of the Dispatcher at the specified DispatcherPriority.

So whatever the priority of the task where you call beginInvoke, the nearest time when the call can happen is right after the execution of current operation ended : the beginInvoked operation is 'pushed' somewhere on the queue of the dispatcher, which works on a single thread.