Binding a static method / function to the Func <T> property in XAML

Question

I am working on using XAML to create an object tree, and one of the nodes looks like this:

public class ExecuteMethod : INode { #region Implementation of INode public bool Evaluate() { return Function != null && Function(); } public string Name { get; set; } private string _type; public string Type { get { if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_type)) { _type = GetType().Name; } return _type; } } #endregion public Func<bool> Function { get; set; } } 

My goal is very important in order to make XAML and the code behind as clean as possible, which is not the case now when I create shell properties for each function:

 public static Func<bool> Func1 { get { return Method1; } } public static bool Method1() { //Do stuff here return true; } 

and xaml is as follows:

 <Root xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns="clr-namespace:XamlBT;assembly=XamlBT" xmlns:d="clr-namespace:TestBT;assembly=TestBT"> <Root.Child> <Sequence Name="sequence1" > <ExecuteMethod Name="e1.1" Function="{x:Static d:Program.Func1}" /> <Selector Name="selector1" > <ExecuteMethod Name="e2.1" Function="{x:Static d:Program.Func1}" /> </Selector> </Sequence> </Root.Child> 

I would like to know if there is a quick and easy way to bind methods / functions to the Func property, I'm talking about a method here is NOT the value of the executed method / function. (I might think about using some reflection magic in the valueConverter or inside the ExecuteMethod node / class, but it just seems dirty and weird) An example of how I would like the XAML to look:

 <Root xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns="clr-namespace:XamlBT;assembly=XamlBT" xmlns:d="clr-namespace:TestBT;assembly=TestBT"> <Root.Child> <Sequence Name="sequence1" > <ExecuteMethod Name="e1.1" Function="{x:Static d:Program.Method1}" /> <Selector Name="selector1" > <ExecuteMethod Name="e2.1" Function="{x:Static d:Program.Method1}" /> </Selector> </Sequence> </Root.Child> 

Thanks for any help in advance and sorry for the poor grammar of the English language, this is not my native language :)

Answer 1

I can come up with a couple of ways to make it cleaner, but there is no syntax for binding to what you are asking. I assume that you would be most happy to write your own markup extension so that you can look like {d:StaticMethod Program.Method1} , but you would definitely have to use reflection, but it would be trivial to cache and would look better than the converter values.

Answer 2

Thanks jbtule!

here's the solution if someone needs this:

 [MarkupExtensionReturnType(typeof (Func<bool>))] public class StaticMethodExtension : MarkupExtension { public StaticMethodExtension(string method) { Method = method; } [ConstructorArgument("method")] public string Method { get; set; } private Func<bool> _func; #region Overrides of MarkupExtension public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider) { if (_func == null) { int index = Method.IndexOf('.'); if (index < 0) { throw new ArgumentException("MarkupExtensionBadStatic"); } string qualifiedTypeName = this.Method.Substring(0, index); if (qualifiedTypeName == string.Empty) { throw new ArgumentException("MarkupExtensionBadStatic"); } IXamlTypeResolver service = serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IXamlTypeResolver)) as IXamlTypeResolver; if (service == null) { throw new ArgumentException("MarkupExtensionNoContext"); } var memberType = service.Resolve(qualifiedTypeName); var str = this.Method.Substring(index + 1, (this.Method.Length - index) - 1); if (str == string.Empty) { throw new ArgumentException("MarkupExtensionBadStatic"); } var reflectedFunc = memberType.GetMethod(str, BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static); if (reflectedFunc != null) { if (reflectedFunc.ReturnType == typeof(bool)) { var v = Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<bool>), reflectedFunc, true); _func = (Func<bool>) v; } } } return _func; } #endregion }