If you bind the Text-Property of a TextBox to something, the “something” is updated when the TextBox loses focus. This is the Default-UpdateSourceTrigger defined in the Metadata for the TextBox.TextProperty. In a Data Binding you can specify another UpdateSourceTrigger, like e.g. PropertyChanged.

If a TextBox has LostFocus as UpdateSourceTrigger, which is the default, you can get problems if the TextBox is inside of a Dialog that contains a OK-Button with the IsDefault-Property set to true. When the TextBox has the Focus, the user can press Enter and the Button is clicked, but the TextBox still keeps the Focus. The LostFocus-Event doesn’t occur, so the Source of a Data Binding isn’t updated with the value of the TextBoxs Text-Property. You need to update the source explicit. Let’s take an example and use the Person-class of my previous post:

public class Person : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
  private string _name;
  public string Name
  {
    get { return _name; }
    set
    {
      _name = value;
      if (PropertyChanged != null)
        PropertyChanged(this,
          new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name"));
    }
  }
  public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

The Window below just contains a TextBox and a Button. The Text-Property of the TextBox is bound to the Name of the data in the DataContext. This would be a Person-instance, as you’ll see below in the codebehind-file. The Button has it’s IsDefault-Property set to true and defines an eventhandler for the Click-Event.

<Window x:Class="LostFocusTest.Window1" ...
  xmlns:local="clr-namespace:LostFocusTest"
  Title="Focus/IsDefault" Width="200" SizeToContent="Height">
  <StackPanel>
    <TextBox Margin="5" Text="{Binding Name}"/>
    <Button Content="OK" IsDefault="True"
       Click="Button_Click"/>
  </StackPanel>
</Window>

In the Constructor in the Codebehind-file a Person-instance is created. It’s assigned to the Windows DataContext-Property, so the TextBox above will display the Persons name, which is set to “Thomas”. The Click-Eventhandler for the Button simply displays the name of the Person in a MessageBox.

public partial class Window1 : Window
{
  private Person _pers;
  public Window1()
  {
    InitializeComponent();
    _pers = new Person();
    _pers.Name = "Thomas";
    this.DataContext = _pers;
  }

  private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
  {
    MessageBox.Show(_pers.Name);
  }
}

If I start the application and type “Urs” into the TextBox and press Enter, the Button is clicked but the TextBox keeps the focus. So the Source, which is the Person-Instance, isn’t updated and the MessageBox still displays the old value (“Thomas”), as you can see in the Image below:

For such a scenario, you have to update the source explicit. You could do this in the Click-Eventhandler. To update the source, you have to get the BindingExpression for the TextProperty. You get the BindingExpression by calling the GetBindingExpression-Method on the TextBox. Pass in the Text-Property as parameter. On the BindingExpression call the UpdateSource-Method to update the Person-instance explicitly with the value defined in the Text-Property of the TextBox. With the Eventhandler below the Person-Instance would always be actualized when the Button is clicked. The MessageBox would display the right value:

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
  TextBox textBox = Keyboard.FocusedElement as TextBox;
  if (textBox != null)
  {
    BindingExpression be =
      textBox.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty);
    if (be != null)
      be.UpdateSource();
  }
  MessageBox.Show(_pers.Name);
}

Just kick it for me: