ComboBox doesn't raise keyboard and mouse events as expected

Question

I use Silverlight 4.0 and have got problems with ComboBox control. I want to implement a popup menu which will show and hide itself without clicking mouse. It should show when I place cursor on its region - this prt works well. Then it should hide whenever mouse pointer is placed outside of its region for a while. I implemented it with MouseEnter and MouseLeave events. My problem is ComboBox - this control behaves weirdly, in my opinion. Normally I would expect it to raise MouseEnter event when I put the cursor on it and MouseLeave when I put the mouse cursor anywhere else. The real situation is different: Whenever I click the combobox, it opens and shows the list of options, and immediately sends LostFocus and MouseLeave events. So it seems like the control lost keyboard focus and mouse pointer has been moved out of its region, while actually the combobox list of optins is open and active and has keyboard focus in it.

So the question is how can I know in my program what is happening in comboboxes? In order to correctly hide my popup menu, I need to know when the list of options in a combobox is open or closed. I can't see any events for this or any other documentation. (Wanted behavior is: If a combobox is closed, I hide my popup menu based on the position of mouse cursor. If a combobox is open, I never hide my popup menu until user either selects something in the combobox, or closes the combobox.)

Also, if you have got a good experience with a third party combobox replacement, which looks and works similarly AND raises events I need, please let me know.

Answer 1

MSDN has two events listed for ComboBox that you might want to look at.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.combobox_events(v=VS.95).aspx

DropDownClosed Occurs when the drop-down portion of the combo box closes.
DropDownOpened Occurs when the drop-down portion of the combo box opens.