CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netwpfmvvmdatatemplate
bsh152s
bsh152s

Reputation: 3218

How do I set view/view model data template at runtime?

This MVVM stuff is making my head hurt. I have an application which has a list of editors in a left pane. On the right is a tab control where the editors will be displayed. I have a main application view model that contains a collection of view models. I call this collection Workspaces. This is borrowed from the MvvmDemoApp that Microsoft provides here.

public ObservableCollection<WorkspaceViewModel> Workspaces
{
  get
  {
    ...
  }
}

These workspaces are bound to a tab control in the main application window like so:

<DataTemplate x:Key "WorkspacesTemplate">
  <TabControl
     IsSynchonizedWithCurrentItem="True"
     ItemSource="{Binding Workspaces}"
     SelectedItem="{Binding ActiveWorkspace}"/>
</DataTemplate>
...
<ContentControl
  Content="{Binding}"
  ContentTemplate="{StaticResource WorkspacesTemplate}"/>

The view models are tied to a view using DataTemplates like so:

<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:MessageLogViewModel}">
  <vw:MessageLogView/>
</DataTemplate>

This works fine. However, now I need to make the application configurable where the list of editors are read from a config file. I imagine this config file will contain the view and view model components for each editor. But, how do I tie the two together so that when someone binds to a view model (or a collection of view models), the correct view gets displayed (similar to what the DataTemplate does but in code, not XAML)?

I'm trying to stay away for Inversion of Control (IoC) techniques. I'm not sure our team is ready for that must sophistication.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1040

Answers (1)

Dave S
Dave S

Reputation: 775

IoC is the perfect solution for this however without this option you could creating the XAML data template in the view model using an XmlWriter and expose it as a property to bind to.

Edit: Bindings

You have your list of view models. Create and expose this XamlTemplate property in each view model (in a base view model class). The property should create Xaml along the lines of:

<DataTemplate xmlns:vw="...">
  <vw:MessageLogView/>
</DataTemplate>

Then use a ContentControl to bind to:

<ContentControl Content="{Binding ViewModel}"
                ContentTemplate="{Binding ViewModel.XamlTemplate}" />

Upvotes: 1

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