Encapsulating repeated layout in WPF - wpf

Question

In a datatemplate that I am binding to a viewmodel I have a grid like so:
<Grid>
.
. <!--Row & Col Definitions...-->
.
<TextBlock Text="Some Label" Style="{DynamicResource TextBlockLabelStyle}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding SomeValue, Mode=OneWay}"/>
<Border Style="{DynamicResource SeparatorStyle}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Text="Some Label" Style="{DynamicResource TextBlockLabelStyle}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding SomeValue, Mode=OneWay}"/>
<Border Grid.Row="1" Style="{DynamicResource SeparatorStyle}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Text="Some Label" Style="{DynamicResource TextBlockLabelStyle}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding SomeValue, Mode=OneWay}"/>
<Border Grid.Row="2" Style="{DynamicResource SeparatorStyle}" />
</Grid>
I thought that adding this repeated pattern (TextBlock for label, TextBlock for value, horizontal rule) was getting tedious and thought it would be best to encapsulate it into a UserControl something like 'GridRow' e.g.:
<UserControl x:Class="GridRow">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding LabelText}" Style="{DynamicResource TextBlockLabelStyle}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding ValueText, Mode=OneWay}"/>
<Border Style="{DynamicResource SeparatorStyle}" />
</UserControl>
Then I could just go something like:
<Grid>
<GridRow LabelText="Some Label" ValueText="{Binding SomeValue}"/>
<GridRow Grid.Row="1" LabelText="Some Label2" ValueText="{Binding SomeValue2}"/>
<GridRow Grid.Row="2" LabelText="Some Label3" ValueText="{Binding SomeValue3}"/>
</Grid>
and have the user control bind to LabelText and ValueText properties, perhaps through template binding?
My question is how to do this, and if this is the right way of doing it, or if it is possible to use Styles or datatemplates to do this?

Answer 1

Unfortunately this is something that is not easy to achieve. A Grid layout looks at the Grid.Row and Grid.Column properties of its immediate children in order to create the required layout. Therefore, nesting your UI controls in another Grid will break the layout.
A few options, this blog post fixes the problem, but is complex:
http://www.scottlogic.co.uk/blog/colin/2010/11/using-a-grid-as-the-panel-for-an-itemscontrol/
There is a nice Auto-grid here, I have not used it, but it looks pretty good:
http://whydoidoit.com/2010/10/06/automatic-grid-layout-for-silverlight/
Regards,
Colin E.