printdialogue from view model in wpf - mvvm

Question

I have a requirement as follows, I want to print the screen elements present on the screen to printer. Implementation is done through MVVM. so If I click on print button on the screen it should display a print dialogue and selecting the printer should proceed with printing all the UI elemnts with their data . I have tried with solution present at print WPF visual from viewmodel but its missing the margings and not displaying properly
Also I have another button Print Preview which should display print preview dialogue to see the preiview.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Krishna.

Answer 1

In my opinion the printing of the View in an MVVM application is not the responsiblity or concern of the ViewModel. I believe you are better of doing this from the View.
How I've achieved this before is to use a WPF Behavior on a button - I use a Behavior because I'm using DataTemplates for the View and there isn't a 'code behind' file.
The Behavior exposes a DependencyProperty, this is a binding to what is to be printed or contains what is going to be printed.
XAML:
<Button Margin="0,2,5,2"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
Content="PRINT"
ToolTip="Prints the current report">
<i:Interaction.Behaviors>
<b:ReportPrintClickBehavior Content="{Binding ElementName=SelectedReportContent, Mode=OneWay}" />
</i:Interaction.Behaviors>
</Button>
To reference the Behavior in the XAML you'll need to reference System.Windows.Interactivity, this can be found on NuGet here.
Code-Behind (Behavior):
In this case I'm printing a FlowDocument hosted inside a FlowDocumentReader.
public sealed class ReportPrintClickBehavior : Behavior<Button>
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty ContentProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Content",
typeof(DependencyObject),
typeof(ReportPrintClickBehavior),
new PropertyMetadata(null));
public DependencyObject Content
{
get { return (DependencyObject)GetValue(ContentProperty); }
set { SetValue(ContentProperty, value); }
}
protected override void OnAttached()
{
base.OnAttached();
AssociatedObject.Loaded += OnLoaded;
AssociatedObject.Unloaded += OnUnloaded;
}
protected override void OnDetaching()
{
base.OnDetaching();
AssociatedObject.Loaded -= OnLoaded;
AssociatedObject.Unloaded -= OnUnloaded;
}
private void OnLoaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
{
AssociatedObject.Click += OnClick;
}
private void OnUnloaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
{
AssociatedObject.Click -= OnClick;
}
private void OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
{
var flowDocumentReader = Content.GetVisualDescendent<FlowDocumentReader>();
if (flowDocumentReader != null)
{
flowDocumentReader.Print();
}
}
}