Gorgeously simple – part 2

Remember how easy it is to display ‘something’ in WPF? Well, what if you’ve got a whole list of stuff? no probs…

1. Create a real simple DataTemplate, similar to last time…

        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Book}" x:Key="bookListItemTemplate">
            <DockPanel>
                <TextBlock DockPanel.Dock="Right" Width="60" Text="{Binding StringFormat={}{0:yyyy}, Path=FirstPublished}" />
                <TextBlock>
                    <TextBlock.Text>
                        <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}{0}, {1}">
                            <Binding Path="Title" />
                            <Binding Path="Author" />
                        </MultiBinding>
                    </TextBlock.Text>
                </TextBlock>
            </DockPanel>
        </DataTemplate>

2. Set the DataContext to be a list of our stuff… anything that implements the IList interface will do… List<T> is the easiest for demonstration purposes (more on this later)

            IList Books = new List<Book>
            {
                new Book
                {
                    Author = "Orson Scott Card",
                    Title = "Ender's Game",
                    FirstPublished = new DateTime(1977, 08, 01),
                    Publisher = "Tor books"
                },
                new Book
                {
                    Author = "Terry Pratchett",
                    Title = "Mort",
                    FirstPublished = new DateTime(1987, 01, 01),
                    Publisher = "Victor Gollancz"
                },
                new Book
                {
                    Author = "Truman Capote",
                    Title = "In Cold Blood",
                    FirstPublished = new DateTime(1966, 01, 01),
                    Publisher = "Random House"
                }
            };
            this.DataContext = Books;

3. Throw the list onto the View in an items presenter…

    <ListBox
        ItemsSource="{Binding}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource bookListItemTemplate}"
        HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" />

Seriously, what could be simpler? Isn’t WPF stunning? notice how I have deliberately not introduced glimmering shadow effects or animations to spin the controls into place? WPF is not (only) ‘eye-candy’… the aesthetic beauty comes from the delicious simplicity with which we can generate ultra-powerful user interfaces, in order to deliver pleasurable user-experiences…

I just love it

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