How to create unique instance for duplicate usercontrols in MainView using MVVMLight and viewmodelocator,

Question

This might be trivial question, but just can't find good solution to solve this. I do have a usercontrol(MyUserControl) that is duplicated in the mainview. One instance of usercontrol presents source object and one presents target object. Views are similar, but I need to know which is source and which is target in the usercontrol's viewmodel. MainView has SourcenContent and TargetContent.So question is that how I can separate SourcenContent and TargetContent in the usercontrol's viewmodel?

MainWindow `

    <DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
        <Border Height="400" DockPanel.Dock="Top">
            <Grid>
                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <Grid.RowDefinitions>
                    <RowDefinition Height="400"></RowDefinition>
                    <RowDefinition Height="50"></RowDefinition>
                </Grid.RowDefinitions>
                <GroupBox Header="Source Database" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">
                    <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" >
                        <ContentControl Content="{Binding SourcenContent}" Name="source" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"/>
                    </StackPanel>
                </GroupBox>
                <GroupBox Header="Target Database" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1">
                    <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
                        <ContentControl  Content="{Binding TargetContent}" Name="Target" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"/>
                    </StackPanel>
                </GroupBox>
            </Grid>
        </Border>
    ...
</DockPanel>

`

MainViewModel

 public class MainViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    private UserControl _sourcenContent;
    private UserControl _targetContent;
    private MyUserControl _sourcenContentUserControl;
    private MyUserControl _targetContentUserControl;

    public MainViewModel()
    {

        _sourcenContentUserControl = new MyUserControl();
        _sourcenContent = _sourcenContentUserControl;
        _targetContentUserControl = new MyUserControl();
        _targetContent = _targetContentUserControl;
    }
...

public UserControl SourcenContent
    {
        get { return _sourcenContent; }
        set
        {
            if (_sourcenContent != value)
            {
                _sourcenContent = value;
                RaisePropertyChanged("SourcenContent");
            }
        }
    }

    public UserControl TargetContent
    {
        get { return _targetContent; }
        set
        {
            if (_targetContent != value)
            {
                _targetContent = value;
                RaisePropertyChanged("TargetDatabaseConnectionContent");
            }

ViewModelLocator

public class ViewModelLocator
{
    public ViewModelLocator()
    {
        ServiceLocator.SetLocatorProvider(() => SimpleIoc.Default);


        SimpleIoc.Default.Register<MainViewModel>();
        SimpleIoc.Default.Register<MyUserControl>();
    }


    public MainViewModel MainViewModel
    {
        get
        {
            return ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<MainViewModel>();
        }
    }

    public MyUserControlViewModel MyUserControlVM 
    {

        get
        {
            return ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<MyUserControlViewModel>(Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
        }
    }
}

Usercontrol

<Grid Margin="8">
    <Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
        <RowDefinition Height="75"/>
    </Grid.RowDefinitions>

    <Grid Grid.Row="0" >
        ... Textboxes and other input controls
enter code here

MyUserControlViewModel

public class MyUserControlViewModel : ViewModelBase
{


    public MyUserControlViewModel(IService service, ...)
    {
        **/* How do I know which user control created this SourcenContent or TargetContent*/**
    }

Answer 1

Yes xaml binding is/was confusing me and the answer to my question was very trivial. If I access viewModelLocator from code side and not try to do binding in XAML MainViewModel:

public MainViewModel()

{ //Get access to the ViewModelLocator ViewModelLocator viewModelLocator = System.Windows.Application.Current.Resources["Locator"] as ViewModelLocator;

_sourcenContentUserControl = new MyUserControl();
_sourcenContentUserControl.DataContext = viewModelLocator.MyUserControlSourceVM;
var dataContext = _sourcenContentUserControl.DataContext as MyUserControlViewModel ;
dataContext.SetSource; 
_sourcenContent = _sourcenContentUserControl;    

_targetContentUserControl = new MyUserControl();
_targetContentUserControl.DataContext = viewModelLocator.MyUserControlTargetVM;
dataContext = _targetContentUserControl.DataContext as MyUserControlViewModel ;
dataContext.SetTarget; 
_targetContent = _targetContentUserControl;

}

ViewModelLocator

public MyUserControlViewModel MyUserControlSourceVM
{
    get
    {
        return ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<MyUserControlViewModel>(Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
    }


public MyUserControlViewModel MyUserControlTargetVM
{
    get
    {
        return ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<MyUserControlViewModel>(Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
    }
}