Scrollbar in Listbox not working - wpf

Question

I have a ListBox that displays a list of WPF controls.
My problem is that the vertical scrollbar is show but is disabled even when there are enough items that the ListBox should be scrollable.
One other possibly relevant fact is that this is contained in an Integration.ElementHost.
WPF noobie, Jim
Here is the XAML for the ListBox:
// for brevity I removed the Margin and Tooltip attributes
<Grid x:Class="Xyzzy.NoteListDisplay"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<StackPanel Name="stackPanel" Orientation="Vertical"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<CheckBox Name="AllRecent" IsChecked="False" >View All Recent</CheckBox>
<CheckBox Name="AscendingOrder" IsChecked="False">Descending Order</CheckBox>
<Button Name="btnTextCopy" Click="btnCopyText_Click">Copy All</Button>
</StackPanel>
<ListBox Name="NoteList"
ScrollViewer.CanContentScroll="True"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible">
</ListBox>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
And the XAML for the control displayed in each ListBox item:
<UserControl x:Class="Xyzzy.NoteDisplay"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Grid>
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Name="Heading" FontSize="10">Note Heading</TextBlock>
<Button Name="btnCopyText" Height="20" FontSize="12"
Click="btnCopyText_Click">Copy
</Button>
</StackPanel>
<TextBlock Name="Body" FontSize="14">Note Body</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</UserControl>

Answer 1

I have had problems with scroll bar visibility when using a StackPanel. I think it is because the StackPanel is always as big as it needs to be to contain all of its children. Try reorganizing the layout to remove the StackPanel (use a Grid instead) and see if that helps.

Answer 2

You just need to introduce Height property, like this:
<ListBox Height="200"
Name="NoteList"
ScrollViewer.CanContentScroll="True"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible">
</ListBox>

Answer 3

Heya, I suspect what might be happening is that your ListBox is expanding enough for every item however the ListBox is actually disappearing off the bottom of the Containing Control.
Does the ListBox actually stop properly or does it just seem to disappear? Try setting a MaxHeight on the ListBox and see if that makes the scrollbar appear. You should be able to set the VerticalScrollBarVisibility to Auto to have it only appear when needed.

Answer 4

If the list box is inside a StackPanel, try these steps for your ListBox
Set ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
Setting the Height property of a ListBox to some height that you expect to see.
That should force the scroll bar to show up.

Answer 5

This is pretty late, but anyone using ListBox probably shouldn't have it in a StackPanel. Once I switched the parent control of my Listbox from StackPanel to DockPanel with LastChildFill=True (Where the listbox was the last control), my scrollbar worked perfectly.
Hope this helps someone who's problem was not solved by the above answer.

Answer 6

Another solution to this problem that works well is to put a ScrollViewer around the StackPanel.

Answer 7

Another solution with a modification to Dave's is to use the ScrollViewer only. You only be able to scroll by placing your mouse on the ScrollView's ScrollBar. I use it this way because I don't like how ListBox jumps from item to item and sometimes missing items from the Top. Little bit hard on the eyes too. I like ScrollViewer's smooth scrolling.

Answer 8

I just ran into the same issue, and here's a little code demo on code project that visually shows it.
(If you want to save yourself the time of writing the code to see the differences yourself :) )
http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/659066/ListBox-and-Panels-in-WPF