Home / Community & Support / Developer Productivity Tools Forums / Silverlight > GridView > GridViewDataColumn Header from RIA MetaData?

• Scott

  Posted on Aug 31, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi All,
  
  Is there currently (or will there be in the future) support for a GridViewDataColumn populating its Header from the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute which adorns an Entity's properties in the metadata "buddy" class in a RIA Service implementation?
  
  I'm just getting familiar with the RadGridView, so sorry if I've overlooked something obvious.
  
  Cheers,
  Scott
  

  Reply

• Answer Vlad Vlad

  Posted on Sep 1, 2009 (permalink)

  Hello Scott,
  
  This will be available in our next internal build (this Friday).
  
  Sincerely yours,
  Vlad
  the Telerik team

  
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  Reply

• Scott

  Posted on Sep 1, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi Vlad,
  
  Excellent--thanks for the quick response!
  
  Scott
  

  Reply

• Scott

  Posted on Sep 6, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi Vlad,
  
  I see that Build 2_904 has DisplayAttribute support for auto-generated columns--thanks. Any chance you will add this for explicitly-defined (in XAML at least) columns?
  
  Cheers,
  Scott
  

  Reply

• Vlad Vlad

  Posted on Sep 7, 2009 (permalink)

  Hello Scott,
  
  This was implemented exactly in the same way as in standard MS DataGrid and will work only for auto-generated columns. With declared column in XAML or dynamic columns creation you have full control to specify the column header using Header property.
  
  All the best,
  Vlad
  the Telerik team

  
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• Scott

  Posted on Sep 7, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi Vlad,
  
  Yes, if your grid is implemented the same way as the MS SL3 RTM DataGrid, that will be excellent. The MS DataGrid code in the snippet below results in the Headers automatically being populated from the DisplayAttribute in our meta data--no Header="..." required. We are going to generate meta data from a localised meta-data provider, and the auto-populated Header behaviour would greatly reduce the number of places we need to explicitly provide a localised Header.
  
  

  <DataControls:DataGrid x:Name="ListDataGrid"

  ItemsSource="{Binding Path=BookingItemsSource}"

  SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedBooking, Mode=TwoWay}"

  Width="Auto"

  Height="Auto"

  AutoGenerateColumns="False"

  SelectionMode="Single"

  HeadersVisibility="All"

  CanUserResizeColumns="True"

  CanUserReorderColumns="True"

  CanUserSortColumns="True"

  HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"

  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"

  VerticalContentAlignment="Top"

  IsReadOnly="True"

  >

  <DataControls:DataGrid.Columns>

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding book_id}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding book_summary}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding book_start}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding book_end}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding Job}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding CostCentre}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding Priority}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding book_actual_end}" />

  <DataControls:DataGridTextColumn  Binding="{Binding Address}" />

  </DataControls:DataGrid.Columns>

  </DataControls:DataGrid>

  
  Cheers,
  Scott
  
  
  
  
  

  Reply

• Vlad Vlad

  Posted on Sep 8, 2009 (permalink)

  Hello Scott,
  
  I've tried MS DataGrid with declared columns however this didn't worked for me - I've attached small project.
  
  Best wishes,
  Vlad
  the Telerik team

  
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  Attached files

  • silverlightapplication.zip

  Reply

• Scott

  Posted on Sep 8, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi Vlad,
  
  Interesting! It appears to be the DomainDataSource that makes the difference. If you bind the DataGrid's ItemsSource directly to the RIA DomainContext's .Customers (EntityList<Customer>) property (as we are doing in our solution using a MVVM pattern), the Headers get auto-populated from the DisplayAttribute. If the DataGrid is bound to an intermediate DomainDataSource, the Headers are lost.
  
  I've updated your sample project with a example of what I mean. Can I upload here?
  
  Basically the altered sample looks like this:
  
  MainPage.xaml (Note the DataGrid1.ItemsSource binding):
  

  <UserControl x:Class="SilverlightApplication.MainPage"

  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

  xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

  xmlns:web="clr-namespace:WebApplication"

  xmlns:ria="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Ria.Controls"

  xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"

  xmlns:telerikInput="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.Input"

  xmlns:telerikGridView="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridView"

  mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480">

  <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">

  <!--        <ria:DomainDataSource x:Name="DomainDataSource1" AutoLoad="True" QueryName="GetCustomers">-->

  <!--            <ria:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>-->

  <!--                <web:DomainService1 />-->

  <!--            </ria:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>-->

  <!--        </ria:DomainDataSource>-->

  <data:DataGrid x:Name="DataGrid1" ItemsSource="{Binding Customers, Mode=OneWay}"

  Width="Auto" Height="Auto" AutoGenerateColumns="False" SelectionMode="Single" HeadersVisibility="All"

  CanUserResizeColumns="True" CanUserReorderColumns="True" CanUserSortColumns="True" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"

  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" VerticalContentAlignment="Top" IsReadOnly="True">

  <data:DataGrid.Columns>

  <data:DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding Address}" />

  <data:DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding City}" />

  </data:DataGrid.Columns>

  </data:DataGrid>

  </Grid>

  </UserControl>

  
  MainPage.xaml.cs:
  
  

  namespace SilverlightApplication

  {

  public partial class MainPage : UserControl

  {

  private WebApplication.DomainService1 _domainServiceClient;

  public MainPage()

  {

  InitializeComponent();

  _domainServiceClient = new WebApplication.DomainService1();

  DataContext = _domainServiceClient;

  _domainServiceClient.Load(_domainServiceClient.GetCustomersQuery());

  }

  }

  }

  
  So I know it would make us happy if the RadGridView worked as the DataGrid does above, but I don't know how many others will use it in this way (binding directly to EntityList). Let me know if you want to see the whole modified test solution.
  
  Cheers,
  Scott
  
  
  

  Reply

• Vlad Vlad

  Posted on Sep 11, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi Scott,
  
  Display attribute support for declared columns will be available in our latest internal build (today).
  
  All the best,
  Vlad
  the Telerik team

  
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  Reply

• Scott

  Posted on Sep 13, 2009 (permalink)

  Hi Vlad & Team,
  
  The new build works like a charm. Thanks very much for the prompt and helpful support. Keep up the great work!
  
  Scott
  

  Reply

• Kasimier Buchcik

  Posted on Oct 18, 2009 (permalink)

  How was this implemented by Telerik? Does is retrieve the [Display] information of a relevant property via an instance of the object in context? If yes, then this has the same flaw as the default DataForm in Silverlight: If there is no instance, i.e. if the collection bound to the grid is empty, then there won't be any column headers displayed. The same goes for the DataForm: it becomes quite invisible, when there's no instance to bind to. This constitutes a major UI flaw - but I don't know how to fix this either, without resorting to explicitely binding the headers to localized resources.
  
  Regards,
  Kasimier

  Reply

• Stefan Dobrev Stefan Dobrev

  Posted on Oct 22, 2009 (permalink)

  Hello Kasimier,
  
  We try to resolve the type, which donates the attributes on several step. First we check to see if you have passed a generic enumerable as ItemsSource if so we take its type. If the type is object (rear cases when you bind to IEnumerable<object>) we resolve the type from the first instance. If you have passed a non generic collection we also fall back to resolve the type from the first element.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Sincerely yours,
  Stefan Dobrev
  the Telerik team

  
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• Kasimier Buchcik

  Posted on Oct 28, 2009 (permalink)

  Sounds great!
  Regards & thanks,
  Kasimier
  

  Reply

• Manuel Felício

  Posted on Jan 25, 2010 (permalink)

  It sounds great but it's not working like MS Datagrid, at least not in my version (using SP2).
  
  I'm binding my itemssource property to a collection that implements IEnumerable<T>, ICollectionView and IPagedCollectionView. The items in the collection are entities from WCF RIA Services and they have DisplayAttribute applied to its properties.
  
  When the view loads the collection is empty (not null, just empty) and then I fetch my data asynchronously (using WCF RIA Services), the collection gets items added to it (INotifyCollectionChanged event fires) and only then the headers are displayed.
  
  The problem is that (besides the delay when displaying the headers) is that in some cases I might not have data to display and the grid will not show any headers at all..
  
  With MS Datagrid the headers are automatically displayed when the view loads, even if the collection is empty, so when my data is fetched the grid already has the headers displayed, even if there is no data to return.
  
  I'd really like to know if I'm doing anything wrong or if this is supposed to work with empty collections.
  
  Best regards,
  
  Manuel Felício

  Reply

• Stefan Dobrev Stefan Dobrev

  Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (permalink)

  Hello Manuel,
  
  You have hit a corner case. The problem is that when RadGridView is bound to IPagedCollectionView it delays its columns creation until there are items in the view. We do this because we will generate columns based on the first item type in the view. However in your case we can generate columns based on the generic type of your collection, bypassing the IPagedCollectionView. We will do our best to change this behavior in one of the next internal builds of the control.
  
  Thanks for pointing out this issue. I have updated your Telerik points.
  
  All the best,
  Stefan Dobrev
  the Telerik team

  
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• Kasimier Buchcik

  Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (permalink)

  Thank you Manuel for reporting this.
  I'm not yet using Telerik's stuff so great to know that this will also work with the RadGridView in the (hopefully) near future.
  
  Regards,
  Kasimier
  

  Reply

• KOG

  Posted on Feb 23, 2010 (permalink)

  Stefan,
  Have an observation similar to Manuel's... and a question. Two-way binding is in place on a collection in a telerikGrid in our Silverlight app.
  
  We use 3 lines to bind (this will be a VB rendering): 
  

   

  
  Dim oCollectionViewSource As New Data.CollectionViewSource

   

  oCollectionViewSource.Source = our_collection

  grdShowCollection.ItemsSource = oCollectionViewSource.View
  
  The grid has a dropdown but that is working fine. You called Manuel's description a corner case.
  
  If the collection is empty, we cannot insert items into the grid that does not break the two-way binding. Is there a way to preserve the two-way binding and insert a blank row into the grid when the Source of CollectionViewSource is empty?
  
  Keefe

  Reply

• Stefan Dobrev Stefan Dobrev

  Posted on Feb 24, 2010 (permalink)

  Hello Keefe,
  
  I'm not sure that I can understand your scenario thoroughly. Can you please open a new support ticket and attach your application there?
  
  Best wishes,
  Stefan Dobrev
  the Telerik team

  
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• KOG

  Posted on Feb 24, 2010 (permalink)

  Stefan,
  
  Thanks for your quick response. We have solved our issue and we wanted to spare others the effort by discussing the technique here. It applies to Manuel's question as well. The code we offered earlier in the thread worked for a two-way binding of a collection to a grid object, but seemed not to work when the collection was empty.
  
  In our example we have a combo and a textbox inside our telerik grid. The combo binds a collection wonderfully using the telerik controls and the methods described. But if the collection were empty how would we preserve two-way binding and get our control to recognize new items. The clue was given by Manuel himself, although he was concerned about auto-generating the headers. When the INotifyCollectionChanged event is wired up correctly in the objects behind it will 'wake up' the control when you add a stub member to the underlying collection. All you have to do is determine the default values for the collection members and add an object to the collection. The control recognizes the internal binding and restores the column integrity (or the headers), keeping the two-way binding. This is great when several events are adding and removing items from collections that affect this collection, because you can be sure that the grid will always have the latest contents.
  
  We spent 3 peoples' work of 2 days effort to get this right! The first big step was getting to the CollectionViewSource and understanding that implementation completely; the second was wiring up the INotifyCollectionChanged event to get the two-way binding in place and the third was realizing that if the wire-up were correct, the collection would force the controls to respond.
  
  Hope this helps others.
  
  Keefe

  Reply

• Manuel Felício

  Posted on Apr 26, 2010 (permalink)

  Is this fixed yet? The bug was column headers not being set automatically with DisplayAttribute when the collection implemented ICollectionView, IEnumerable<T> and was empty.
  
  Thanks.

  Reply

• Ross Ross

  Posted on Apr 26, 2010 (permalink)

  Hello Manuel Felício,
  
  If this is the same as this PITS issue, then it was fixed. But I am not sure that it is the same.
  
  I would strongly recommend downloading the latest version (it's free)  and testing against your specific scenario.
  
  Please, let us know if problems still occur. It would be even better if you send us your sample project, since you might have hit another bug that is different from the one above.
  
  Thank you in advance.
  
  Sincerely yours,
  Ross
  the Telerik team

  
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  Reply

• Manuel Felício

  Posted on Apr 26, 2010 (permalink)

  Hi, nope it's not that one.
  
  The issue I'm talking about is this: http://www.telerik.com/community/forums/silverlight/gridview/issues-regarding-radgridview-column-headers-and-displayattribute.aspx . ColumnHeaders, DisplayAttribute, ICollectionView and IEnumerable<T>. Its an old issue that I've been tracking since Q3.
  
  Best regards,
  
  MF.

  Reply

• Ross Ross

  Posted on Apr 26, 2010 (permalink)

  Hello Manuel Felício,
  
  Just to make sure, could you simply try your project with the latest version -- 2010 Q1 SP1.
  
  Let us know if your project is still not working.
  
  Greetings,
  Ross
  the Telerik team

  
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• Manuel Felício

  Posted on Apr 26, 2010 (permalink)

  I just tested it and everything is working great! Thank you very much!! :)

  Reply

• Chris Howle

  Posted on Mar 19, 2012 (permalink)

  Does this only work with the Silverlight version of the controls? I'm trying to get this to work with the latest WPF RadGridView, and have a collection of object with DisplayAttribute set, and the collection supports IEnumerable<T> and ICollection<T>.
  
  I have noticed that this appears to not work on the sample application for WPF or Silverlight (http://www.telerik.com/help/silverlight/gridview-columns-defining-columns.html ) .  I'm trying to get this example to work, following forum posts that indicate that it is now fixed.
  
  I'f it is working, could you please post some sample code.
  
  Regards,
  
  Chris.

  Reply

• Vlad Vlad

  Posted on Mar 19, 2012 (permalink)

  Hello,

   This is available for WPF 4 version of our assemblies as well. Please make sure that you are using our .NET 4 version!

  Greetings,
  Vlad
  the Telerik team

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