How to enable scrolling when listbox is disabled in Silverlight? - silverlight

Question

I want to disable listbox (not allow user to selected) but scrollable in Silverlight, how can I do that?

Answer 1

How about not using a ListBox. Despite it being the defacto means for displaying a list of items the true purpose of the ListBox is to select something from a list.
A scrollable list can be delivered by styleing the ItemsControl like this:-
<Grid.Resources>
<Style x:Key="ScrollableItemsControl" TargetType="ItemsControl">
<Setter Property="ItemsPanel">
<Setter.Value>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<VirtualizingStackPanel />
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="ItemsControl">
<Border CornerRadius="2" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}">
<ScrollViewer x:Name="ScrollViewer" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" BorderBrush="Transparent" BorderThickness="0" TabNavigation="{TemplateBinding TabNavigation}">
<ItemsPresenter />
</ScrollViewer>
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
Now you apply this style to an ItemsControl:-
<ItemsControl Style="{StaticResource ScrollableItemsControl}" ItemsSource="{Binding SomeData}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding SomeProperty}" Margin="5" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding SomeOtherProperty}" Margin="5" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
This is a scrollable list but with none of the selection semanitics of the ListBox. Note there are fewer intermediatory elements in the visual tree doing this way than fiddling around with the ListBox control.
Edit
In light of your comment there is an easy way to toggle the selection behaviour of a ListBox without disabling it. You disable the ListBoxItems it contains instead.
<Grid.Resources>
<Style x:Key="DisabledItem" TargetType="ListBoxItem">
<Setter Property="IsEnabled" Value="False" />
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
<ListBox x:Name="lst" ItemsSource="{StaticResource TestData}" ItemContainerStyle="{StaticResource DisabledItem}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" Margin="5" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Age}" Margin="5" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
In this case the ListBox starts of with disabled items. Scrolling however is still possible. But the items appear dimmed and there is no hover or selected highlighting going on.
The code below is able to toggle the "disabled" state on and off.
private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (lst.ItemContainerStyle == null)
lst.ItemContainerStyle = (Style)LayoutRoot.Resources["DisabledItem"];
else
lst.ItemContainerStyle = null;
}