Bind a Silverlight TabControl to a Collection - silverlight

Question

I have a Collection of Model-objects in my ViewModel. I would like to be able to bind a TabControl to these and use a DataTemplate to extract the information from the Model-objects. When I try to do this I get the errormessage: Unable to cast object of type Model to object of type TabItem. After spending some time looking for a solution I found the following:
The Silverlight TabControl is
broken. Use a combination of ListBox
and ContentControl to mimic the
behaviour of a TabControl. (Means
that I have to skin the ListBox to
look like a TabControl)
TabControl does not override
PrepareContainerForItemOverride and
the solution is to make a
Converter. (Not so good because I
then need to specify the type of the
convertee in the Converter)
Anyone know any better solution?
XAML
<sdk:TabControl ItemsSource="{Binding Items, ElementName=MyControl}">
<sdk:TabControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
</DataTemplate>
</sdk:TabControl.ItemTemplate>
</sdk:TabControl>
C#
public ObservableCollection<Model> Items { get; set; }
public ViewModel()
Items = new ObservableCollection<Model>{
new Model { Name = "1"},
new Model { Name = "2"},
new Model { Name = "3"},
new Model { Name = "4"}
};
}
Suggested Converter:
public class TabConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
List<TabSource> source = value as List<TabSource>;
if (source != null)
{
List<TabItem> result = new List<TabItem>();
foreach (TabSource tab in source)
{
result.Add(new TabItem()
{
Header = tab.Header,
Content = tab.Content
});
}
return result;
}
return null;
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}

Answer 1

Create converter
public class SourceToTabItemsConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
try
{
var source = (IEnumerable)value;
if (source != null)
{
var controlTemplate = (ControlTemplate)parameter;
var tabItems = new List<TabItem>();
foreach (object item in source)
{
PropertyInfo[] propertyInfos = item.GetType().GetProperties();
//тут мы выбираем, то поле которое будет Header. Вы должны сами вводить это значение.
var propertyInfo = propertyInfos.First(x => x.Name == "name");
string headerText = null;
if (propertyInfo != null)
{
object propValue = propertyInfo.GetValue(item, null);
headerText = (propValue ?? string.Empty).ToString();
}
var tabItem = new TabItem
{
DataContext = item,
Header = headerText,
Content =
controlTemplate == null
? item
: new ContentControl { Template = controlTemplate }
};
tabItems.Add(tabItem);
}
return tabItems;
}
return null;
}
catch (Exception)
{
return null;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// ConvertBack method is not supported
/// </summary>
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotSupportedException("ConvertBack method is not supported");
}
Create ControlTemplate:
<ControlTemplate x:Key="MyTabItemContentTemplate">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=name}" />
</StackPanel>
</ControlTemplate>
And binding convert, controltemplate
<controls:TabControl x:Name="tabControl"
ItemsSource="{Binding ElementName=tabControl,
Path=DataContext,
Converter={StaticResource ConverterCollectionToTabItems},
ConverterParameter={StaticResource MyTabItemContentTemplate}}">
</controls:TabControl>
taken from the blog binding-tabcontrol