c# - WPF MVVM: how to bind GridViewColumn to ViewModel-Collection?

Question

In my View I got a ListView bound to a CollectionView in my ViewModel, for example like this:

<ListView ItemsSource="{Binding MyCollection}" IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="true">
  <ListView.View>
    <GridView>
      <GridViewColumn Header="Title" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=Title}"/>
      <GridViewColumn Header="Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=Name}"/>
      <GridViewColumn Header="Phone" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=Phone}"/>
      <GridViewColumn Header="E-mail" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=EMail}"/>
    </GridView>
  </ListView.View>
</ListView>

Right now these GridViewColumns are fixed, but I'd like to be able to change them from the ViewModel. I'd guess I'll have to bind the GridViewColumn-collection to something in the ViewModel, but what, and how?
The ViewModel does know nothing of WPF, so I got no clue how to achieve this in MVVM.

any help here?

Answer 1

The Columns property is not a dependency property, so you can't bind it. However, it might be possible to create an attached property that you could bind to a collection in your ViewModel. This attached property would then create the columns for you.

---

UPDATE

OK, here's a basic implementation...

Attached properties

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;

namespace TestPadWPF
{
    public static class GridViewColumns
    {
        [AttachedPropertyBrowsableForType(typeof(GridView))]
        public static object GetColumnsSource(DependencyObject obj)
        {
            return (object)obj.GetValue(ColumnsSourceProperty);
        }

        public static void SetColumnsSource(DependencyObject obj, object value)
        {
            obj.SetValue(ColumnsSourceProperty, value);
        }

        // Using a DependencyProperty as the backing store for ColumnsSource.  This enables animation, styling, binding, etc...
        public static readonly DependencyProperty ColumnsSourceProperty =
            DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached(
                "ColumnsSource",
                typeof(object),
                typeof(GridViewColumns),
                new UIPropertyMetadata(
                    null,
                    ColumnsSourceChanged));


        [AttachedPropertyBrowsableForType(typeof(GridView))]
        public static string GetHeaderTextMember(DependencyObject obj)
        {
            return (string)obj.GetValue(HeaderTextMemberProperty);
        }

        public static void SetHeaderTextMember(DependencyObject obj, string value)
        {
            obj.SetValue(HeaderTextMemberProperty, value);
        }

        // Using a DependencyProperty as the backing store for HeaderTextMember.  This enables animation, styling, binding, etc...
        public static readonly DependencyProperty HeaderTextMemberProperty =
            DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("HeaderTextMember", typeof(string), typeof(GridViewColumns), new UIPropertyMetadata(null));


        [AttachedPropertyBrowsableForType(typeof(GridView))]
        public static string GetDisplayMemberMember(DependencyObject obj)
        {
            return (string)obj.GetValue(DisplayMemberMemberProperty);
        }

        public static void SetDisplayMemberMember(DependencyObject obj, string value)
        {
            obj.SetValue(DisplayMemberMemberProperty, value);
        }

        // Using a DependencyProperty as the backing store for DisplayMember.  This enables animation, styling, binding, etc...
        public static readonly DependencyProperty DisplayMemberMemberProperty =
            DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("DisplayMemberMember", typeof(string), typeof(GridViewColumns), new UIPropertyMetadata(null));


        private static void ColumnsSourceChanged(DependencyObject obj, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            GridView gridView = obj as GridView;
            if (gridView != null)
            {
                gridView.Columns.Clear();

                if (e.OldValue != null)
                {
                    ICollectionView view = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(e.OldValue);
                    if (view != null)
                        RemoveHandlers(gridView, view);
                }

                if (e.NewValue != null)
                {
                    ICollectionView view = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(e.NewValue);
                    if (view != null)
                    {
                        AddHandlers(gridView, view);
                        CreateColumns(gridView, view);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        private static IDictionary<ICollectionView, List<GridView>> _gridViewsByColumnsSource =
            new Dictionary<ICollectionView, List<GridView>>();

        private static List<GridView> GetGridViewsForColumnSource(ICollectionView columnSource)
        {
            List<GridView> gridViews;
            if (!_gridViewsByColumnsSource.TryGetValue(columnSource, out gridViews))
            {
                gridViews = new List<GridView>();
                _gridViewsByColumnsSource.Add(columnSource, gridViews);
            }
            return gridViews;
        }

        private static void AddHandlers(GridView gridView, ICollectionView view)
        {
            GetGridViewsForColumnSource(view).Add(gridView);
            view.CollectionChanged += ColumnsSource_CollectionChanged;
        }

        private static void CreateColumns(GridView gridView, ICollectionView view)
        {
            foreach (var item in view)
            {
                GridViewColumn column = CreateColumn(gridView, item);
                gridView.Columns.Add(column);
            }
        }

        private static void RemoveHandlers(GridView gridView, ICollectionView view)
        {
            view.CollectionChanged -= ColumnsSource_CollectionChanged;
            GetGridViewsForColumnSource(view).Remove(gridView);
        }

        private static void ColumnsSource_CollectionChanged(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            ICollectionView view = sender as ICollectionView;
            var gridViews = GetGridViewsForColumnSource(view);
            if (gridViews == null || gridViews.Count == 0)
                return;

            switch (e.Action)
            {
                case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add:
                    foreach (var gridView in gridViews)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < e.NewItems.Count; i++)
                        {
                            GridViewColumn column = CreateColumn(gridView, e.NewItems[i]);
                            gridView.Columns.Insert(e.NewStartingIndex + i, column);
                        }
                    }
                    break;
                case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Move:
                    foreach (var gridView in gridViews)
                    {
                        List<GridViewColumn> columns = new List<GridViewColumn>();
                        for (int i = 0; i < e.OldItems.Count; i++)
                        {
                            GridViewColumn column = gridView.Columns[e.OldStartingIndex + i];
                            columns.Add(column);
                        }
                        for (int i = 0; i < e.NewItems.Count; i++)
                        {
                            GridViewColumn column = columns[i];
                            gridView.Columns.Insert(e.NewStartingIndex + i, column);
                        }
                    }
                    break;
                case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove:
                    foreach (var gridView in gridViews)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < e.OldItems.Count; i++)
                        {
                            gridView.Columns.RemoveAt(e.OldStartingIndex);
                        }
                    }
                    break;
                case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Replace:
                    foreach (var gridView in gridViews)
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < e.NewItems.Count; i++)
                        {
                            GridViewColumn column = CreateColumn(gridView, e.NewItems[i]);
                            gridView.Columns[e.NewStartingIndex + i] = column;
                        }
                    }
                    break;
                case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset:
                    foreach (var gridView in gridViews)
                    {
                        gridView.Columns.Clear();
                        CreateColumns(gridView, sender as ICollectionView);
                    }
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
            }
        }

        private static GridViewColumn CreateColumn(GridView gridView, object columnSource)
        {
            GridViewColumn column = new GridViewColumn();
            string headerTextMember = GetHeaderTextMember(gridView);
            string displayMemberMember = GetDisplayMemberMember(gridView);
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(headerTextMember))
            {
                column.Header = GetPropertyValue(columnSource, headerTextMember);
            }
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(displayMemberMember))
            {
                string propertyName = GetPropertyValue(columnSource, displayMemberMember) as string;
                column.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding(propertyName);
            }
            return column;
        }

        private static object GetPropertyValue(object obj, string propertyName)
        {
            if (obj != null)
            {
                PropertyInfo prop = obj.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName);
                if (prop != null)
                    return prop.GetValue(obj, null);
            }
            return null;
        }
    }
}

ViewModel

class PersonsViewModel
{
    public PersonsViewModel()
    {
        this.Persons = new ObservableCollection<Person>
        {
            new Person
            {
                Name = "Doe",
                FirstName = "John",
                DateOfBirth = new DateTime(1981, 9, 12)
            },
            new Person
            {
                Name = "Black",
                FirstName = "Jack",
                DateOfBirth = new DateTime(1950, 1, 15)
            },
            new Person
            {
                Name = "Smith",
                FirstName = "Jane",
                DateOfBirth = new DateTime(1987, 7, 23)
            }
        };

        this.Columns = new ObservableCollection<ColumnDescriptor>
        {
            new ColumnDescriptor { HeaderText = "Last name", DisplayMember = "Name" },
            new ColumnDescriptor { HeaderText = "First name", DisplayMember = "FirstName" },
            new ColumnDescriptor { HeaderText = "Date of birth", DisplayMember = "DateOfBirth" }
        };
    }

    public ObservableCollection<Person> Persons { get; private set; }

    public ObservableCollection<ColumnDescriptor> Columns { get; private set; }

    private ICommand _addColumnCommand;
    public ICommand AddColumnCommand
    {
        get
        {
            if (_addColumnCommand == null)
            {
                _addColumnCommand = new DelegateCommand<string>(
                    s =>
                    {
                        this.Columns.Add(new ColumnDescriptor { HeaderText = s, DisplayMember = s });
                    });
            }
            return _addColumnCommand;
        }
    }

    private ICommand _removeColumnCommand;
    public ICommand RemoveColumnCommand
    {
        get
        {
            if (_removeColumnCommand == null)
            {
                _removeColumnCommand = new DelegateCommand<string>(
                    s =>
                    {
                        this.Columns.Remove(this.Columns.FirstOrDefault(d => d.DisplayMember == s));
                    });
            }
            return _removeColumnCommand;
        }
    }
}

XAML :

    <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Persons}" Grid.Row="0">
        &