#343 – Associating Multiple Controls with the Same Command

One benefit of using commands in WPF, as opposed to writing event handlers, is that it’s easier to link multiple controls to a single command.  With commands, you can create a single command object, bind it to a method, and then associate the command with more than one control by setting the Command property of each control.

In the example below, we associate the ApplicationCommands.Open command with both a Button and a MenuItem.

    <Window.ContextMenu>
        <ContextMenu>
            <MenuItem Header="Open" Command="ApplicationCommands.Open"/>
        </ContextMenu>
    </Window.ContextMenu>

    <StackPanel>
        <Button Content="Open" Command="ApplicationCommands.Open" HorizontalAlignment="Center" />
    </StackPanel>

In the code-behind, we still only have to create a single CommandBinding instance.

		public MainWindow()
		{
			this.InitializeComponent();

            CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(ApplicationCommands.Open, Open_Executed, Open_CanExecute));
        }

        public void Open_Executed(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Open file code goes here");
        }

        public void Open_CanExecute(object sender, CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            e.CanExecute = true;   // Can we open file?
        }