Showing or hiding a control in WPF template based on bindings - wpf

Question

I am new to WPF binding/templating. I have some basic questions about a templated TabControl I have as below :
<TabControl x:Name="tcTabs" ItemsSource="{Binding Rooms, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Grid.Row="1" Margin="5" BorderThickness="1" IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True">
<TabControl.ItemContainerStyle>
<Style TargetType="TabItem">
<Setter Property="Header" Value="{Binding Name}" />
<Setter Property="ContentTemplate">
<Setter.Value>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="130"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="22"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<ListBox Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" BorderThickness="0" ItemsSource="{Binding Messages}" DisplayMemberPath="Raw" />
<ListBox Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" BorderThickness="1,0,0,0" BorderBrush="#FFBBBBBB" ItemsSource="{Binding Users}" DisplayMemberPath="Nick" />
<TextBox Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" BorderThickness="0,1,0,0" BorderBrush="#FFBBBBBB" Height="22" />
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</TabControl.ItemContainerStyle>
</TabControl>
The TabControl contains in each tab 2 list boxes and a textbox. One of the listboxes contains user names is is not necessary all the time.
There are 3 kinds of tabs, Server tabs, room tabs and private tabs. In private and server tabs the user list should not exist or be hidden.
I have an enum on the bound room object :
public enum IRCRoomType
{
Server,
Channel,
Private
}
How do I automatically hide the user list based on the enum, I have seen samples of 2 approaches, the binding on visibility with a converter or a trigger. Which is the better approach and are there any more?
When there are no tabs, and the first tab is created it is not automatically selected, how do I select it?
Is there a way of impacting the item styles inside the listboxes depending on tab type? How would I acheive this?
I am just looking for links/hints and not for actual solutions, but if you can give code then that would be a bonus!

Answer 1

It depends on how complicated code. If it's simple I rather use Trigger (you have everything which belows to UI in XAML), but if code is much more complicated consider using Converters (It's actually simpler to use it)
Bind to SelectedIndex of List and set it to 0?
Yes, of course, you can use ContentControl with DataTemplate (Or just DataTemplate in some cases) Some code where I use it:
<ListBox>
<ListBox.Resources>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type your_namespace:your_type}">
... your code ...
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type system:String}">
... your code ...
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.Resources>
</ListBox>
Code you posted is actually a new Template, but you've changed the Style. Please consider override some Template.
Best regards