Using compiled bindings

A common scenario in UWP is to use x:Bind instead of Binding. This requires knowledge about the actual type of the view model.

There are 2 options to support this.

Use the VM property

Catel by default exposes the ViewModel property as IViewModel. However, there is a reserved VM property you can use that is typed:

public sealed partial class BikeSummaryView
{
    public BikeSummaryView()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
    
    internal BikeSummaryViewModel VM
    {
        get { return ViewModel as BikeSummaryViewModel; }
    }
}

Since this is a reserved keyword, Catel will automatically take care of the change notifications and x:Bind can be used directly against VM:

<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind VM.Title}" />

Note that the binding should either be set to Mode=OneWay per binding or for all bindings in a view by specifying x:DefaultBindMode="OneWay".

Cast every compiled bindings

Another option is to use casts everywhere in the view:

<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind ((vm:BikeSummaryView)VM).Title}" />

Contributions

We would like to thank the following contributors:

Want to contribute to the documentation? We have a guide for that!


Questions

Have a question about Catel? Use StackOverflow with the Catel tag!