You should only use a DependencyProperty
when you want to be able to bind its value to something through XAML, e.g.
<local:MyObject MyDependencyProperty="{Binding ...}" />
Update: as mentioned by Ian below, dependency properties are also required if you want to be able to animate your property or set it through a style
If you do not need to work in this way then it is unnecessary. e.g. If you just want to be able to set the value to a constant through XAML (as below) this will work without using a DependencyProperty
<local:MyObject MyRegularProperty="Some Value" />
Similarly, if you want to bind to the value of a property on (for example) your view model:
<TextBlock Text="{Binding MyViewModelProperty}" />
then you do not need to use a DependencyProperty
. Provided that you implement INotifyPropertyChanged
then the Text
will still be updated when the property changes.
Edit: on re-reading your question, I am not sure whether or not your situation will be affected by whether or not you use a DependencyProperty
- if I'm reading it correctly, all you want to do is cause a number of properties to be updated on the UI when any one of those properties changes, right?
I don't think there is anything wrong with how you are implementing things at the moment (i.e. raising a lot of PropertyChanged
events in each setter), but if you aren't keen on in then you could try having a single property that exposes relevant child properties to bind to that are all calculated:
class ColorWrapper
{
public Color Color { get; set; }
public byte Hue
{
get { return this.Color.Hue; } //or however this is calculated
}
Then have a Color
property on your ViewModel that raises the PropertyChanged
event and bind to that through the View:
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Color.Hue}" />
As I said, I wouldn't say that this is particularly an improvement on what you have already though.
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