WPF converter and dictionary - wpf

Question

How do you properly implement a IValueConverter if you have a dictionary populated in another class?
I'm sure i'm doing something wrong here but to explain my problem properly, here are the code supporting the question.
iPresenter_IconLists.cs
public interface iPresenter_IconLists
{
Dictionary<string, IconPositionDetails> IconDetails { get; set; }
}
Presenter_IconLists.cs
public class Presenter_IconLists : iPresenter_IconLists, IValueConverter
{
public Presenter_IconLists()
{
}
public void PopulateDictionaryTest()
{
this.IconDetails.Add("test1", new IconPositionDetails()
{
x = 0,
y = 0
});
this.IconDetails.Add("test2", new IconPositionDetails()
{
x = 0,
y = 0
});
this.IconDetails.Add("test3", new IconPositionDetails()
{
x = 0,
y = 0
});
}
Dictionary<string, IconPositionDetails> _IconDetails = new Dictionary<string, IconPositionDetails>();
public Dictionary<string, IconPositionDetails> IconDetails
{
get { return this._IconDetails; }
set { this._IconDetails = value; }
}
// IValueConverter implementation
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
iPresenter_IconLists i = this;
IconPositionDetails ipd = i.IconDetails[value.ToString()];
// or
// IconPositionDetails ipd = this.IconDetails[value.ToString()];
return string.Format("x: {0}, y: {1}", ipd.x, ipd.y);
}
}
MainWindow.xaml
<Window.Resources>
<l:Presenter_IconLists x:Key="DictConvert" x:Name="DictConvert" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Converter={StaticResource DictConvert}, ConverterParameter=Value.x}" Height="28" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="60,49,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" FontSize="11" />
</Window.Resources>
MainWindow.xaml.cs
Presenter_IconLists iconlists;
void MainWindow_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
this.iconlists = new Presenter_IconLists();
this.iconlists.PopulateDictionaryTest();
lbIcons.ItemsSource = this.iconlists.IconDetails;
}
the problem here is, I always getting "The given key was not present in the dictionary." and when I check the this.IconDetails number of collection, it was zero.
How do I access my dictionary inside the Converter?

Answer 1

Your constructor doesn't add items to the dictionary, so there are no items in it. When you go to convert, the dictionary is empty.
You need to, at some point, populate the dictionary with values. This is not happening, as the dictionary is created by WPF (<l:Presenter_IconLists x:Key="DictConvert" />) and never has values added to it.

Answer 2

you use converter Parameter instead of Path in binding.
use Path in binding:
<DataTemplate x:Key="lbItems" x:Name="lbItems">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Value.name, Converter={StaticResource DictConvert}}" />
</DataTemplate>
or use parameter in Convert function:
IconPositionDetails ipd = i.IconDetails[parameter.ToString()];