How to bind UserControl to ViewModel - wpf

Question

I'm having a bit of a trouble connecting both components:
View:
<UserControl x:Class="CoolPlaces.Views.ListItem"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"
Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"
d:DesignHeight="480" d:DesignWidth="480">
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding ListViewModel}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name, Mode=OneWay}" />
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Description, Mode=OneWay}" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
</UserControl>
Part of Main Page View: in which I include above user control:
<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
<views:ListItem Height="300" />
</Grid>
ViewModel:
namespace CoolPlaces.ViewModels
{
public class ListViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private ObservableCollection<BasicModel> _places;
public ObservableCollection<BasicModel> Places {
get {
return _places;
}
set {
_places = value;
RaisePropertyChanged("Places");
}
}
public ListViewModel() {
Places = new ObservableCollection<BasicModel>(_loadPlaces());
}
private IEnumerable<BasicModel> _loadPlaces() {
return //some hard coded objects
}
}
}
MainPage
namespace CoolPlaces
{
public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
{
private ListViewModel vm;
// Constructor
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent();
vm = new ListViewModel();
}
}
}

Answer 1

You're close. You need to set the DataContext equal to your ViewModel.
public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
{
private ListViewModel vm;
// Constructor
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent();
DataContext = vm = new ListViewModel();
}
}
Then your ListBox doesn't need to be bound to it. Instead, bind it to your Places property on your ViewModel:
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Places}">