I am trying the master-detail presentation in my app: when an item in a listbox is selected, its details are displayed in an adjacent control.
This control will have a list of measurements such as height, width, weight, etc. It will also have some small graphics such as a green or red dot or a medium sized image. It will also have some rich text.
Which STANDARD WPF control should I use to contain all these elements. I am thinking of using a listbox but wonder if there are better controls to use.
My main consideration is ease of coding, then possibly efficiency of the code.
Thanks.
A listbox indicates a list of items that can be tailored using a DataTemplate for appearence. In this case you are showing the details of a selected item. I would actually use a container such as a Grid nested in your current UI and have a set of stackpanel including the details of the selected item.
<Grid>
<StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<TextBlock>Detail1</TextBlock>
<TextBox></TextBox>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<TextBlock>Detail2</TextBlock>
<TextBox></TextBox>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
This is only one suggestion but the point is to use a container and use a set of controls in the containers - textblock,textbox,checkboxes(boolean details), etc... this will allow you to use any control type necessary to represent the specific data field of the selected item.
You don't want to use a listbox unless you have a collection of similar items, and you want one or more items to be 'selected' at some point. It sounds like that is not what you want for the details part.
You do have a collection, which is shown in your master list. You should bind the SelectedItem in your master list to a property in your viewmodel. Then you can bind that same property to the details section of your UI. When the selection in the master list changes, your details UI will automatically update to reflect the changes.
<ListBox x:Name="masterList" ItemsSource="{Binding MyItems}" SelectedItem="{Binding MySelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}"></ListBox>
<UserControl x:Name="detailsControl" DataContext="{Binding MySelectedItem}"> </UserControl >
Related
I have created search option using combobox, for example
In combobox1 items are m1,m2,m3,m4,m5 based on that, if m1 item selected then
another combobox2 displays with items a,b,c,d and if a item is selected another
combobox3 dispalys, based on last combobox it searches on the datagrid.
I think it is long process, use of many combobox makes it lenghty. Is any
other way is their to implement this. plz help
<ComboBox Grid.Column="1"
Grid.Row="1"
x:Name="cmbType"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
IsEnabled="{Binding IsOther}"
ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource enumTypeOfType}}"
SelectedItem="{Binding SearchType,Mode=TwoWay}"
SelectedIndex="{Binding CmdResIndex,Mode=TwoWay}"
IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True"
SelectionChanged="DataSource1"
Margin="0,0,1,0">
</ComboBox>
So if i get this right, you have a collection a, which goes to collection b,etc, and the second collection will change based on the selected item of the first? You have to remember, that since the data will change for each selection, hard coding the value is out of the question.
Knowing this, WPF provides you with a great mechanism for this. Using a stackpanel, with a list view will actually work.
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{binding collections}" ItemTemplate="{binding TemplateForListViewItems}" ItemPanelTemplate="{binding itemPanelTemplate}"></ItemsControl>
Now, with the items control, one can simply set an ItemTemplate/DataTemplate, to set the styling of each control. Linking to the onclick event, or using interactions, you can simply do collections.Add to add your new list view with generated data for the selection, and done.
I want to change the graphical UI elements in WPF.
For example, I want to use a kind of a stack panel, but on the other hand I want to show my details in a star, or circle, etc.
Maybe setting a bitmap as a background, but I am working with lots of Data using zoom tool.
I found tutorials, documentation only for changing attributes of "old components", but nothing to make new ones.
Great resource for WPF beginners is www.wpftutorial.net
One of the best idea of WPF is separation of concerns:
UI Control = Logic in Code/XAML + Template
Using templates in XAML we can vary representation without modifying the control.
For example, if there is a need in creation of list of items. Then we can use ListBox control:
<ListBox>
<ListBoxItem>USA</ListBoxItem>
<ListBoxItem>UK</ListBoxItem>
</ListBox>
By default LisboxItem internal part is just binded TextBlock.
Now making UI modification without changing control source code:
<ListBox ImageSource="{Binding PathToSource}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="{StaticResource ProjectIcon}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=PropertyName}" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
there appears image and text.
If there is a need in creating exclusive control then you can always use Custom Control.
Using raster images (e.g. PNG) is not good point, especially with zoom behaviour. If it is possible better to use vector images, that can be created in XAML or imported from SVG.
Any help on this really appreciated. In summary I'm trying to databind to properties of a custom class instantiated in xaml that then forms the content of a templated listboxitem (phew!).
I have a simple c# class called MenuItem. It has two properties:
- Heading
- Icon
Concentrating on just one of those menu items (i.e. to provide a simple example of where I am stuck) If I do this (with the values hard coded) it works fine:
<ListBox>
<ListBoxItem ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MenuItemTemplate}">
<myclasses:MenuItem Heading="News" IconImage="News.png"/>
</ListBoxItem>
</Listbox>
Where MenuItemTemplate is an appropriate DataTemplate in the resources section binding each property) containing lines such as:
<TextBlock x:Name="tbHeading" Text="{Binding Heading}">
Wheareas when I try to use binding to set the Heading property it falls over (AG_E_PARSER_BAD_PROPERTY_VALUE error)- e.g.:
<ListBox>
<ListBoxItem ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MenuItemTemplate}">
<myclasses:MenuItem Heading="{Binding NewsHeading, Mode=OneWay}" Icon="News.png"/>
</ListBoxItem>
<Listbox>
I've wondered if it is because I'm doing some kind of double binding (i.e. the template is binding to a value on the MenuItem class that needs to be bound) and that's not possible? I've tried having the properties declared as dependency properties but no difference (although I only learned about those today so I may be missing something).
I know I could set the menuitem objects up in the view model, and bind from there, but I would like to understand why the above doesn't work (as for my purposes there are advantages in constructing the menu items in the xaml).
Thank you!!!!
Ian
thanks for sticking with this. I agree the listbox might not be needed - but even if I reduce it to just one item in a contentcontrol:
<ContentControl ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MenuItemTemplate}">
<myclasses:MenuItem Heading="{Binding NewsHeading, Mode=OneWay}" IconImage="News.png"/>
</ContentControl>
I still have the same problem - which is that I can get databinding to work within the content of a contentcontrol (prior to it being presented by the datatemplate referred to in ContentTemplate) using purely xaml.
I.e. the above bit of xaml doesn't work - it throws an error on the bit that binds the NewsHeading:
Heading="{Binding NewsHeading, Mode=OneWay}
So I am trying to understand whether what I'm doing is impossible, or whether it is but I'm doing it wrong.
Thanks.
Assuming that you have multiple MenuItem classes (because you're putting them in a listbox and ti wouldn't make sense to do that if you just had one). You need to bind the collection to the ItemsSource property of the ListBox.
Somehting like this:
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding MyMenuItems}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Heading}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
Note that the above assumes you've set the DataContext on the page to an object with a property called MyMenuItems which is a collection of your MenuItem objects.
To see a full example of this, look at the default code created when you create a new "Windows Phone Databound Application".
Edit:
Based on your comments, it seems that a ListBox is not the most appropriate solution to your needs. A ListBox is designed/intended to take a collection of items and display them in a list.
If you have a number of different objects which you know about at design time and simply wish to have them one on top of another (giving the appearance of a list) you could simply put them inside a ScrollViewer and/or a StackPanel (or other appropriate container). Plus, you would still be able to databind if you did it this way.
I have a large number of ViewModel classes. For each of these classes, there is a corresponding .xaml file which is a 'UserControl'. In my App.xaml, I have them registered as DataTemplates, like so:
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewModel:MainMenuViewModel}">
<view:MainMenuView/>
</DataTemplate>
With the idea being that WPF will be able automatically swap in the necessary user controls at runtime. For example, this works:
<Grid>
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="SuperApp" />
<ItemsControl>
<ViewModels:MainMenuViewModel/>
</ItemsControl>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
In that the entry "MainMenuViewModel" is automatically replaced by the MainMenuView, bound to the MainMenuViewModel. Great. My current goal is now this: I want to have a button, on, say, a view embedded in the MainMenuView, which opens a popup window, which will have a new ViewModel inside. The idea is to set it up so that I have a single 'generic' popup form, in which I embed an arbitrary ViewModel, and let WPF handle actually rendering it with DataTemplates, similar to the above. So I have a command bound to a button, like so:
<Button Command="{Binding Path=LaunchInStandaloneForm}" Content="Rip Out"/>
Which successfully creates a new window, sets the dataContext equal to the appropriate ViewModel, and shows the window.
The question is: How do I set up the XAML of this popup window so that it will render the appropriate DataTemplate for the ViewModel which is the DataContext? I've tried:
<Grid>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Path=.}">
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>
, but it comes up blank. Any pointers?
To set the ItemsSource to the DataContext, use ItemsSource={Binding}. That assumes that the DataContext is an enumerable collection of your View Model objects.
Updating with correct answer:
Use a ContentControl :)
Hope that helps.
The accepted answer here shows how to change templates at runtime. You should be able to dig out the answer from that. Any questions just shout.
How to modify silverlight combobox data display
Hope that helps
I've got a WPF tab control that contain several duplicate controls as Tab Page content
<TabControl ItemsSource="{Binding}" Name="tabControl">
<TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<TabControl.ContentTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<local:InnerDataEntryControl DataContext="{Binding Data}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</TabControl.ContentTemplate>
</TabControl>
On the InnerDataEntry control there is a list box. I've got a command on the outer form that requires the selected items from the list box on the control. I can't figure out how to access the list box on the tab control itself. When I try to query the selected items, I get the bound items and not the list box itself.
I don't want to pollute the business layer with an 'IsSelected' property on my list items, and I suppose I could create a view model if necessary, but it just seems wrong that I can't get information about the actual content control of a tab page.
I hope that I'm just missing something obvious.
This was asked earlier in my WPF experience. To close the loop on the question, I'm going to post a link to the MSDN Magazine entry on the subject of MVVM.
Ultimately, the solution involves the creation of a view model that has the necessary properties bound to the parts of the tab control such that the view model doesn't need access in the way that I'm describing. Instead, the view model acts directly on the data that that is bound without having to reference the view directly.