Simple Windows Phone User Control Databinding Does Not Work - silverlight

Question

I have an issue with something that should be very simple databinding scenario. I want to bind a list of items. I want to create a user control put it in a ItemsControl's template and bind the ItemsControl to some data. I am perfectly happy with one time databinding so I was kind of hoping to avoid learning about dependency properties and all the databinding stuff for this simple scenario.
Here is the XAML for the user control:
<TextBlock>Just Something</TextBlock>
And the code behind:
namespace TestWindowsPhoneApplication
{
public partial class TestControl : UserControl
{
public TestData SomeProperty { get; set; }
public String SomeStringProperty { get; set; }
public TestControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
}
}
MainPage.xaml:
<ItemsControl Name="itemsList" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<t:TestControl SomeStringProperty="{Binding Path=SomeString}"></t:TestControl>
<!--<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=SomeString}"></TextBlock>-->
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
Here is MainPage.xaml.cs:
namespace TestWindowsPhoneApplication
{
public class TestData
{
public string SomeString { get; set; }
}
public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
{
// Constructor
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent();
itemsList.DataContext = new TestData[] { new TestData { SomeString = "Test1" }, new TestData { SomeString = "Test2" } };
}
}
}
When I run the project I get an error "the parameter is incorrect". I also tried binding directly to the item with SomeProperty={Binding} since that is what I actually want to do but this causes the same error. If I try doing the same thing with the TextBlock control (the commented line) everything works fine.
How can I implement this simple scenario?

Answer 1

To make a property on your custom control "bindable" you have to make it a dependency property. Check out my answer here for a nice simple example of doing just this on a custom control: passing a gridview selected item value to a different ViewModel of different Usercontrol
public string SomeString
{
get { return (string)GetValue(SomeStringProperty); }
set { SetValue(SomeStringProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty SomeStringProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("SomeString", typeof(string), typeof(TestControl),
new PropertyMetadata(string.Empty, new PropertyChangedCallback(OnSomeStringChanged)));
private static void OnSomeStringChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
((TestControl)d).OnSomeStringChanged(e);
}
protected virtual void OnSomeStringChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
//here you can do whatever you'd like with the updated value of SomeString
string updatedSomeStringValue = e.NewValue;
}