How can I have recursive Data Template for my Custom Control - wpf

Question

I have a Custom Control, which is basically a kind of a TreeView. Now the thing is I need to have any level of detail in my TreeView control so I came up with the following data template
I have the following Generic.xaml
<DataTemplate x:Key="treetemplate">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Label}" ></TextBlock>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Children}" ItemTemplate="{DynamicResource treetemplate}" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:CustomControl1}" x:Key="testkey">
<ControlTemplate.Resources>
<local:AnythingToListConverter x:Key="anyconv"></local:AnythingToListConverter>
</ControlTemplate.Resources>
<Border Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Root, Converter={StaticResource anyconv}}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource treetemplate}" />
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type local:CustomControl1}">
<Setter Property="Template" Value="{StaticResource testkey}" />
</Style>
Here is my custom control constructor
this.Root = new Node();
this.Root.Label = "Root";
this.Root.Children = new List<Node>();
this.Root.Children.Add(new Node(){Label="Child1"});
this.DataContext = this;
And this is how control looks like
Here is what I think the problem is
For the Recursive call of same template, I am using DynamicResource. Which never worked on my and the actual resource never got called. If I change that to StaticResource, it will not compile, because it won't see itself. How do I fix it ?
Full solution can be downloaded here.

Answer 1

What you need is HierarchicalDataTemplate. It's designed to pinpoint exactly this scenario.
Here is how you use it:
<HierarchicalDataTemplate ItemsSource="{Binding Children}"
DataType="{x:Type local:Node}">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Label}" ></TextBlock>
</HierarchicalDataTemplate>
Note that using this template, we have to set its DataType to the Type of your data item (in this case I guess it's Node). Also I guess you don't need any custom control for this, just use the default TreeView with this template defined as some resource like this:
<TreeView ItemsSource="{Binding Root, Converter={StaticResource anyconv}}">
</TreeView>
If you still want to keep your code, try just replacing your ItemsControl with TreeView or some HeaderedItemsControl. The HierarchicalDataTemplate is used only for HeaderedItemsControl (TreeView is also just a kind of HeaderedItemsControl).