Input binding for docked document in another monitor

Hello,

Yes WPF input bindings in general only work in the same visual hierarchy and don't cross Window or Popup bounds.  Since a floating docking window is hosted by a separate WPF Window, that's why the input bindings defined on the main Window aren't found in that scenario.

One workaround for this issue would be to define the input bindings on the docking window controls themselves, but that's not ideal.

Another option would be to create a class that inherits DockSite and override the InitializeFloatingWindow method.  That method is passed the WPF Window that is used to hold a new floating dock host when it is first created.  Therefore you could clone your input bindings to that Window as it's created so that they are available to all docking windows that are in that floating dock host.  That's probably the best approach for this scenario.

I use MEF container defined in App.xaml.cs for my services, one of the services keeps the Input bindings, so the bindings are avaiable everywhere through constructor/property injection and can modify the input bindings collection. I am trying to get this service from the container in my new CustomDocksite (that inherits from Docksite) but it is always null. It seems because it was defined in App.xaml.cs and is not available elsewhere?

For the moment I solved this making 'static' the respective service input bindings, so these input bindings are now available everywhere and can be passed to the new window:

protected override void InitializeFloatingWindow(Window window)
{
foreach (InputBinding inputBinding in AppInputBindings.InputBindings)
{
window.InputBindings.Add(inputBinding);
}
base.InitializeFloatingWindow(window);
}}

Do you know another way how to 'clone' the main window Input bindings? Or how can I get the main window from inside the CustomDockSite?

Hello,

I'm not sure what to suggest in terms of MEF not finding the service in your scenario.  But as far as getting the main Window from your CustomDockSite, any of these lines would work in your InitializeFloatingWindow method:

var mainWindow1 = Window.GetWindow(this);
var mainWindow2 = ActiproSoftware.Windows.Media.VisualTreeHelperExtended.GetAncestor<Window>(this);
var mainWindow3 = ActiproSoftware.Windows.Media.VisualTreeHelperExtended.GetRoot(this) as Window;

Then once you have that main Window, you can clone the input bindings to the "window" passed in to the method.