NavigationView - When selected settings item there is no way to unselect it from code

Question

I've found some strange behavior. If SelectedItem is SettingsItem then cannot deselect it from code

XAML:

<NavigationView Name="nv">
    <NavigationView.MenuItems>
        <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
        <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
        <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
        <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
    </NavigationView.MenuItems>
    <Button Click="Button_Click" Content="de select" />
</NavigationView>

CS:

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    nv.SelectedItem = null;
}

And that is all. I don't understand why code doesn't work for Settings Item and how to deal with this problem.

Answer 1

Extending @Martin-Zikmund answer. Code handling now situation if ItemsSource is set.

public static class NavigationViewExtension
{
    public static void ClearSelection(this NavigationView navigationView)
    {
        var temporaryItem = new NavigationViewItem();

        if (navigationView.MenuItemsSource != null)
        {
            var existingList = ((IList)(navigationView.MenuItemsSource));
            existingList.Add(temporaryItem);
            navigationView.SelectedItem = temporaryItem;
            navigationView.SelectedItem = null;
            existingList.Remove(temporaryItem);
        }
        else
        {
            navigationView.MenuItems.Add(temporaryItem);
            navigationView.SelectedItem = temporaryItem;
            navigationView.SelectedItem = null;
            navigationView.MenuItems.Remove(temporaryItem);
        }
    }
}

This works for me completely

Answer 2

This is very interesting bug in the NavigationView , I have created a GitHub repro and reported it via Feedback Hub .

As a workaround I have created the following "hack" extension method:

public static class NavigationViewExtensions
{
    public static void ClearSelection(this NavigationView navigationView)
    {
        var temporaryItem = new NavigationViewItem();
        navigationView.MenuItems.Add(temporaryItem);
        navigationView.SelectedItem = temporaryItem;
        navigationView.SelectedItem = null;
        navigationView.MenuItems.Remove(temporaryItem);
    }
}

How does it work? The code temporarily adds a new NavigationViewItem to the control and selects it (thus deselecting the Settings item). Then it clears the selection and a removes the temporary item right away. Because the view is updated on the UI thread, you will never be able to notice the new item being added and removed again.

Answer 3

I found another way to solve it.

You need to add hidden item to NavigationView:

<NavigationView Name="nv">
  <NavigationView.MenuItems>
    <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
    <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
    <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
    <NavigationViewItem Content="dsadas" />
    <NavigationViewItem x:Name="HiddenItem" Visibility="Collapsed" />
  </NavigationView.MenuItems>
<Button Click="Button_Click" Content="de select" />

And then you can clear selection:

nv.SelectedItem = HiddenItem;