Changing Conent Control template on Menu Item click?

Question

Can you please tell me how to change content template when, in WPF, when it is clicked on different Menu Item headers. I've defined user control that I can put it as a template.

For example: Menu Items are: Home, Players, Team . when i click on Home I want that specific template in my Content Control to pop up, tehen when I click on Players I want another template (list of players) to pop in Content Control as template.

How to do that with triggers in XAML?

Thank you very much :)

Answer 1

You can use a ContentControl to host whatever your content will be, and set the ContentControl.ContentTemplate based on how you want to draw your content.

As a very basic example,

<ContentControl x:Name="MyContentControl">
    <ContentControl.Style>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type ContentControl}">
            <Style.Triggers>
                <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding }" Value="Home">
                    <Setter Property="ContentTemplate">
                        <Setter.Value>
                            <DataTemplate>
                                <local:MyHomeUsercontrol />
                            </DataTemplate>
                        </Setter.Value>
                    </Setter>
                </DataTrigger>
                <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding }" Value="Players">
                    <Setter Property="ContentTemplate">
                        <Setter.Value>
                            <DataTemplate>
                                <local:MyPlayersUsercontrol />
                            </DataTemplate>
                        </Setter.Value>
                    </Setter>
                </DataTrigger>
                <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding }" Value="Team">
                    <Setter Property="ContentTemplate">
                        <Setter.Value>
                            <DataTemplate>
                                <local:MyTeamUsercontrol />
                            </DataTemplate>
                        </Setter.Value>
                    </Setter>
                </DataTrigger>
        </Style>
    </ContentControl.Style>
</ContentControl>

And on MenuItem.Click

MyContentControl.Content = "Home"; // or "Players" or "Team"

In this example I'm using a string for the ContentControl.Content, however if you were to use a class object such as a HomeViewModel or PlayersViewModel, your XAML could be simplified to use implicit data templates, which are templates that automatically get used whenever WPF tries to draw a specific class

<Window.Resources>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type HomeViewModel}">
        <local:MyHomeUserControl />
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type PlayersViewModel}">
        <local:MyPlayersUserControl />
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type TeamViewmModel}">
        <local:MyTeamUserControl />
    </DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>

<ContentControl x:Name="MyContentControl" />

and

MyContentControl.Content = new HomeViewModel();

Answer 2

How about using a tab control with tab placement at the top? it would be much cleaner that way..

Edit; Example:

  <TabControl>
        <TabItem>
            <TabItem.Header>
                <TextBlock Text="Football header!"/>
            </TabItem.Header>
            <TabItem.Content>
                <Button Content="Push for football!"/>
            </TabItem.Content>
        </TabItem>
    </TabControl>

this might help also; http://www.switchonthecode.com/tutorials/the-wpf-tab-control-inside-and-out