Binding to data sources in WPF applications can be done in three main ways: 1) Binding item controls like ListBox to lists by setting the ItemsSource property to the data source and DisplayMemberPath to the specific property to display. 2) Navigating collections using the ICollectionView interface and its navigation methods like CurrentItem and MoveCurrentTo. 3) Binding to hierarchical and XML data using data binding providers like ObjectDataProvider and XmlDataProvider that retrieve data from objects and XML files respectively.

1. Windows Application Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
Configuring Data Binding
1. Binding to Data Sources
2. Manipulating and Displaying Data
by Oleksiy Korotchyn

2. Binding to a List
There are two scenarios to binding to list:
 Binding a single element to a list and enabling navigation of that list
 Binding a collection (such as the items in ListBox) to a list so that the list’s elements are all displayed at one time.
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3. Binding an Item Control to a List
Item controls have built-in properties that enable data binding (Data-Related Properties).
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4. Binding an Item Control to a List
Data-Related Properties of Item control:
1) ItemsSource – Represents the collection that contains the items that make up the source of the list. You set this
property to a Binding object that is bound to the appropriate collection.
2) DisplayMemberPath – indicates the property of the bound collection that will be used to create the display text
for each item.
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5. Binding an Item Control to a List
Data-Related Property of Item control:
3) IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem – determines whether the selected item is kept synchronized with the
CurrentItem property in the Items collection.
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6. Binding an Item Control to a List
Data-Related Property of Item control:
4) ItemTemplate – the data template used to create the visual appearance of each item.
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7. Binding an Item Control to a List
<ListBox
ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource myList}}"
DisplayMemberPath="FirstName"
/>
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8. Binding an Item Control to a List
Bind a ListBox control to an object that is created at run time:
grid1.DataContext = myCustomers;
<Grid Name="grid1">
<ListBox
ItemsSource="{Binding}"
DisplayMemberPath="CustomerName"
/>
</Grid>
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9. Binding an Item Control to a List
 Let’s see example
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10. Binding a Single Property to a List
grid1.DataContext = myCustomers;
<Grid Name="grid1">
<Label Content="{Binding /FirstName}"/>
<Label Content="{Binding Path = FirstName}"/>
</Grid>
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11. Navigating a Collection or List
 WPF has a built-in navigation mechanism for data and collections.
 When a collection is bound to a WPF binding, an ICollectionView interface is created behind the scenes.
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12. Navigating a Collection or List
ICollectionView Members Involved in Navigation:
1) CurrentItem – this property returns the current item.
2) CurrentPosition – this property returns the numeric position of the current item.
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13. Navigating a Collection or List
ICollectionView Members Involved in Navigation:
3) IsCurrentAfterLast – this property indicates whether the current item is after the last item in the collection.
4) IsCurrentBeforeFirst – this property indicates whether the current item is before the first item in the collection.
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14. Navigating a Collection or List
ICollectionView Members Involved in Navigation:
5) MoveCurrentToFirst – this method sets the current item to the first item in the collection.
6) MoveCurrentToLast – this method sets the current item to the last item in the collection.
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15. Navigating a Collection or List
ICollectionView Members Involved in Navigation:
7) MoveCurrentTo – this method sets the current item to the indicated item.
8) MoveCurrentToPosition – this method sets the current item to the item at the designated position.
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16. Navigating a Collection or List
To get a reference to ICollectionView:
System.ComponentModel.ICollectionView myView;
myView = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(myCollection);
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17. Navigating a Collection or List
CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView returns an ICollectionView object that is actually one of three classes,
depending on the class of the source collection:
 If the source collection implements IBindingList, the view returned is a BindingListCollectionView object.
 If the source collection implements IList but not I BindingList, the view returned is a ListCollectionView object.
 If the source collection implements IEnumerable but not IList or IBindingList, the view returned is a
CollectionView object.
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18. Navigating a Collection or List
 Let’s see example
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19. Binding to ADO.NET Objects
Binding to ADO.NET objects is basically the same as binding to any other collection or list.
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20. Binding to Hierarchical Data (Binding to Related ADO.NET Tables)
 When binding to lists of complex objects, you might want to create a master-detail view that enables the user to
select one item from an upper-level list and view the details about the selected object.
 When hierarchical data is retrieved from databases, it typically is presented in related tables.
{Binding Path=ParentTable/Relation/Relation2}
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21. Binding to Hierarchical Data (Binding to Related ADO.NET Tables)
 Let’s see example
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22. Binding to an Object with ObjectDataProvider
 The ObjectDataProvider class enables you to bind a WPF element or property to a method called on an object.
 You can specify an object type and a method on that type, then bind to the results of that method call.
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23. Binding to an Object with ObjectDataProvider
Important Properties of ObjectDataProvider
1) ConstructorParameters – represents the list of parameters to pass to the constructor.
2) MethodParameters – represents the list of parameters to pass to the method specified by the MethodName property.
3) MethodName – represents the name of the method of the source object to call.
4) ObjectType – gets or sets the type of object of which to create an instance.
5) IsAsynchronous – indicates whether object creation and method calls are performed on the foreground thread or on a
background thread.
6) ObjectInstance – gets or sets the object used as the binding source.
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24. Binding to an Object with ObjectDataProvider
 Let’s see example
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25. Binding to XML using XmlDataProvider
 The XmlDataProvider class enables you to bind WPF elements to data in the XML format
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26. Binding to XML using XmlDataProvider
Important Properties of XmlDataProvider
1) Document – gets or sets the XmlDocument object to be used as the binding source.
2) Source – gets or sets the Uniform Resource Indicator (URI) of the XML file to be used as the binding source.
3) XPath – gets or sets the XPath query used to generate the XML data.
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27. Binding to XML using XmlDataProvider
<Window.Resources>
<XmlDataProvider x:Key="Items">
<x:XData>
<Workspace xmlns="" Name="Workspace">
<Project Name="Project 1" />
<Project Name="Project 2" />
<Project Name="Project 3" />
</Workspace>
</x:XData>
</XmlDataProvider>
</Window.Resources>
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28. Binding to XML using XmlDataProvider
Using XPath with XmlDataProvider
<Window.Resources>
<XmlDataProvider x:Key="Items" Source="Items.xml" XPath="Items/ExpensiveItems" />
</Window.Resources>
<ListBox
ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource Items} XPath=Diamond}"
DisplayMemberPath="ItemName"
/>
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29. Binding to XML using XmlDataProvider
 Let’s see example
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