How to bind Close command to a button

Question

The easiest way is to implement ButtonClick event handler and invoke Window.Close() method, but how doing this through a Command binding?

Answer 1

In the beginning I was also having a bit of trouble figuring out how this works so I wanted to post a better explanation of what is actually going on.

According to my research the best way to handle things like this is using the Command Bindings. What happens is a "Message" is broadcast to everything in the program. So what you have to do is use the CommandBinding. What this essentially does is say "When you hear this Message do this".

So in the Question the User is trying to Close the Window. The first thing we need to do is setup our Functions that will be called when the SystemCommand.CloseWindowCommand is broadcast. Optionally you can assign a Function that determines if the Command should be executed. An example would be closing a Form and checking if the User has saved.

MainWindow.xaml.cs (Or other Code-Behind)

void CloseApp( object target, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e ) {
    /*** Code to check for State before Closing ***/
    this.Close();
}

void CloseAppCanExecute( object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e ) {
    /*** Logic to Determine if it is safe to Close the Window ***/
    e.CanExecute = true;
}

Now we need to setup the "Connection" between the SystemCommands.CloseWindowCommand and the CloseApp and CloseAppCanExecute

MainWindow.xaml (Or anything that implements CommandBindings)

<Window.CommandBindings>
    <CommandBinding Command="SystemCommands.CloseWindowCommand"
                    Executed="CloseApp"
                    CanExecute="CloseAppCanExecute"/>
</Window.CommandBindings>

You can omit the CanExecute if you know that the Command should be able to always be executed Save might be a good example depending on the Application. Here is a Example:

<Window.CommandBindings>
    <CommandBinding Command="SystemCommands.CloseWindowCommand"
                    Executed="CloseApp"/>
</Window.CommandBindings>

Finally you need to tell the UIElement to send out the CloseWindowCommand.

<Button Command="SystemCommands.CloseWindowCommand">

Its actually a very simple thing to do, just setup the link between the Command and the actual Function to Execute then tell the Control to send out the Command to the rest of your program saying "Ok everyone run your Functions for the Command CloseWindowCommand".

This is actually a very nice way of handing this because, you can reuse the Executed Function all over without having a wrapper like you would with say WinForms (using a ClickEvent and calling a function within the Event Function) like:

protected override void OnClick(EventArgs e){
    /*** Function to Execute ***/
}

In WPF you attach the Function to a Command and tell the UIElement to execute the Function attached to the Command instead.

I hope this clears things up...