silverlight combobox template binding - silverlight

Question

I am trying to bind a combobox from a static resource(added on code behind) and add an image beside each item. The best solution I have so far is the following:
<ComboBox x:Name="cmbGroup"
Width="150" Height="32" ItemsSource="{StaticResource Groups}" >
<ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Source="Question.jpg" Height="30" MouseEnter="Image_MouseEnter" ></Image>
<ComboBoxItem Content="{Binding Source={StaticResource Groups}}" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
</ComboBox>
This is not working, although I can see the image on each item, but instead a text, I got a "Systems.Collection.GenericList". Any ideas how to solve this? Thanks

Answer 1

When you have a control using Binding inside your datatemplate, it is bound to each item in the ItemsSource collection. Also, if you want to display just the string you can use the TextBlock control instead of ComboboxItem. So, if your code looks like:
<ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Source="Question.jpg" Height="30" MouseEnter="Image_MouseEnter" ></Image>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding}" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
</ComboBox>
I think you will achieve the effect you are looking for.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I guess your "Groups" is a a List?
So you configure your template to display an image, and your object Groups by default.
Thus it displays your groups object: ie the toString() of your Groups, which for a List is "Systems.Collection.GenericList".
My guess is that you bind the bad thing? You want to bind an item of your list, which should have a more suitable toString() version.
Let's say you have some Users item in your Groups List. Thus you binding should look like this:
<ComboBox x:Name="cmbGroup"
Width="150" Height="32" ItemsSource="{StaticResource Groups}" >
<ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Source="Question.jpg" Height="30" MouseEnter="Image_MouseEnter" ></Image>
<ComboBoxItem Content="{Binding Source={StaticResource Users}}" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
</ComboBox>
Hope it helps