Silverlight: how to bind List<T> to data grid - silverlight

Question

MVVM pattern is implemented in my Silverlight4 application.
Originally, I worked with ObservableCollection of objects in my ViewModel:
public class SquadViewModel : ViewModelBase<ISquadModel>
{
public SquadViewModel(...) : base(...)
{
SquadPlayers = new ObservableCollection<SquadPlayerViewModel>();
...
_model.DataReceivedEvent += _model_DataReceivedEvent;
_model.RequestData(...);
}
private void _model_DataReceivedEvent(ObservableCollection<TeamPlayerData> allReadyPlayers, ...)
{
foreach (TeamPlayerData tpd in allReadyPlayers)
{
SquadPlayerViewModel sp = new SquadPlayerViewModel(...);
SquadPlayers.Add(sp);
}
}
...
}
Here is a peacie of XAML code for grid displaying:
xmlns:DataControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;
assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"
...
<DataControls:DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding SquadPlayers}">
...</DataControls:DataGrid>
and my ViewModel is bound to DataContext property of the view.
This collection (SquadPlayers) is not changed after its creation so I would like to change its type to
List<SquadPlayerViewModel>
. When I did that, I also added
RaisePropertyChanged("SquadPlayers")
in the end of '_model_DataReceivedEvent' method (to notify the grid that list data are changed.
The problem is that on initial displaying grid doesn't show any record... Only when I click on any column header it will do 'sorting' and display all items from the list...
Question1: Why datagrid doesn't contain items initially?
Q2: How to make them displayed automatically?
Thanks.
P.S. Here is a declaration of the new List object in my view-model:
public List<SquadPlayerViewModel> SquadPlayers { get; set; }

Answer 1

You can't use List as a binding source, because List not implement INotifyCollectionChanged it is require for WPF/Silverlight to have knowledge for whether the content of collection is change or not. WPF/Sivlerlight than can take further action.
I don't know why you need List<> on your view model, but If for abstraction reason you can use IList<> instead. but make sure you put instance of ObservableCollection<> on it, not the List<>. No matter what Type you used in your ViewModel Binding Only care about runtime type.
so your code should like this:
//Your declaration
public IList<SquadPlayerViewModel> SquadPlayers { get; set; }
//in your implementation for WPF/Silverlight you should do
SquadPlayers = new ObservableCollection<SquadPlayerViewModel>();
//but for other reason (for non WPF binding) you can do
SquadPlayers = new List<SquadPlayerViewModel>();
I usually used this approach to abstract my "Proxied" Domain Model that returned by NHibernate.

Answer 2

You'll need to have your SquadPlayers List defined something like this:
private ObservableCollection<SquadPlayerViewModel> _SquadPlayers;
public ObservableCollection<SquadPlayerViewModel> SquadPlayers
{
get
{
return _SquadPlayers;
}
set
{
if (_SquadPlayers== value)
{
return;
}
_SquadPlayers= value;
// Update bindings, no broadcast
RaisePropertyChanged("SquadPlayers");
}
}

Answer 3

The problem is that whilst the PropertyChanged event informs the binding of a "change" the value hasn't actually changed, the collection object is still the same object. Some controls save themselves some percieved unnecessary work if they believe the value hasn't really changed.
Try creating a new instance of the ObservableCollection and assigning to the property. In that case the currently assigned object will differ from the new one you create when data is available.