I need my textbox to be read-only. However, when I set the IsReadOnly to true, then the user can no longer interact with the textbox using the keyboard since the cursor no longer appears.
In .NET 4 there is a IsReadOnlyCaretVisible property, however, I am forced to use .NET 3.5.
Is there a good solution?
Thanks!
use both of these in your XAML
IsReadOnly="True"
IsReadOnlyCaretVisible="True"
IsReadOnlyCaretVisible only works when the first property is being used.
I've ended it doing it myself using an attached property, it does the following:
- Disables all input and modification to the textbox using keyboard
- Sets the context menu to have Copy only
- Disables cut/paste commands
- Disables modification using mouse selection & dragging
- Changes the bacgrkound color of the textbox to notify it being read-only.
Usage:
<TextBox AttachedProperties:ReadOnlyModeWithCursor.IsModeEnabled="True">
This textbox has some long text and it can't be edited.
</TextBox>
The class:
public static class ReadOnlyModeWithCursor
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty IsModeEnabledProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("IsModeEnabled",
typeof(bool),
typeof(ReadOnlyModeWithCursor),
new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(OnModeEnabledChanged));
private static ContextMenu _contextMenuWithCopyOnly = new ContextMenu();
static ReadOnlyModeWithCursor()
{
_contextMenuWithCopyOnly.Items.Add(new MenuItem { Command = ApplicationCommands.Copy });
}
public static bool GetIsModeEnabled(TextBox textBox)
{
if (textBox == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("textBox");
}
return (bool)textBox.GetValue(IsModeEnabledProperty);
}
public static void SetIsModeEnabled(TextBox textBox, bool value)
{
if (textBox == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("textBox");
}
textBox.SetValue(IsModeEnabledProperty, value);
}
private static void NoCutting(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Command == ApplicationCommands.Cut)
{
e.Handled = true;
}
}
private static void NoDragCopy(object sender, DataObjectCopyingEventArgs e)
{
if (e.IsDragDrop)
{
e.CancelCommand();
}
}
private static void OnModeEnabledChanged(DependencyObject dependencyObject, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
var textBox = (TextBox)dependencyObject;
var isEnabled = (bool)e.NewValue;
if (isEnabled)
{
textBox.PreviewTextInput += textBox_PreviewTextInput;
textBox.PreviewKeyDown += textBox_PreviewKeyDown;
DataObject.AddPastingHandler(textBox, Pasting);
DataObject.AddCopyingHandler(textBox, NoDragCopy);
CommandManager.AddPreviewExecutedHandler(textBox, NoCutting);
// Default context menu has cut & paste, we want only copy.
textBox.ContextMenu = _contextMenuWithCopyOnly;
// Remove if you want to set the style of readonly textboxes via styles
textBox.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Color.FromRgb(240, 240, 240));
}
else
{
textBox.PreviewTextInput -= textBox_PreviewTextInput;
textBox.PreviewKeyDown -= textBox_PreviewKeyDown;
DataObject.RemovePastingHandler(textBox, Pasting);
DataObject.RemoveCopyingHandler(textBox, NoDragCopy);
CommandManager.RemovePreviewExecutedHandler(textBox, NoCutting);
textBox.ClearValue(TextBox.ContextMenuProperty);
textBox.ClearValue(TextBox.BackgroundProperty);
}
}
private static void Pasting(object sender, DataObjectPastingEventArgs e)
{
e.CancelCommand();
}
private static void textBox_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
//pressing space doesn't raise PreviewTextInput, reasons here http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/446ec083-04c8-43f2-89dc-1e2521a31f6b?prof=required
if (e.Key == Key.Space || e.Key == Key.Back || e.Key == Key.Delete)
{
e.Handled = true;
}
}
private static void textBox_PreviewTextInput(object sender, TextCompositionEventArgs e)
{
e.Handled = true;
}
}
You could try extracting the templates from .NET 4.0, and use them in your .NET 3.5 application.
Hopefully you can use it without too many adjustments.