How can a Caliburn.Micro sub menuitem click call an action on the containing view's viewmodel?

Question

I have a top level menu in my ShellView and when selecting a sub MenuItem, I would like to call the following method on the ShellViewModel (a Conductor.Collection.AllActive). ``` public void SelectServer(string pServerName) { mDefaultClaimServer = pServerName; } ``` The following does not work as no method gets called (I have tried various signatures and action parameters) - ``` ``` The following does call the ShellViewModel SelectServer method but I get null for the text of the clicked sub MenuItem (I also tried many other signatures and action parameters) - ```

Accepted Answer

I got what I was trying to do working, per a post from Rob Eisenberg describing a "special trick to get the text from bound submenus" here - http://caliburnmicro.codeplex.com/discussions/287228

I would still love to know how to do what I was trying to do with standard OOTB logic if anyone has suggestions, so that I am able to understand CM better.

Basically I added this to the bootstrapper Configure() overide -

```
        MessageBinder.SpecialValues.Add("$originalsourcecontext", context =>
        {
            var args = context.EventArgs as RoutedEventArgs;
            if (args == null)
                return null;

var fe = args.OriginalSource as FrameworkElement;
            if (fe == null)
                return null;

return fe.DataContext;
        });
```

and added this to the xaml -

```
        <MenuItem Header="_Select Server" Name="ClaimServers" cal:Message.Attach="SelectServer($originalsourcecontext)" />
```

and then I was passed the header text of the sub menuitem which is what I wanted.

How can a Caliburn.Micro sub menuitem click call an action on the containing view's viewmodel?

Solution

Problem