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Dynamic or indexed property bindings in the the PropertyGrid.

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PropertyGrid

This is a migrated thread and some comments may be shown as answers.

Ari asked on 18 Jun 2012, 06:42 PM

Hi...

I'm trying to build out a dynamic editor using the PropertyGrid. I have had success getting the hierarchy working, but I'm running into trouble when I try to bind the data. So far, I've tried it two different ways: first, by exposing a Dictionary<string, string> (I'll leave out any type issues, and just pretend that all my non-hierarchical fields are strings, for now), and second using dynamic types. So, I set up the PropertyGrid, pretty simply in the xaml:

<telerik:RadPropertyGrid x:Name="propertyGrid1" Grid.Column="1"
                                 SearchInNestedProperties="True"
                                 Width="620" Height="400"
                                 AutoGenerateBindingPaths="False"
                                 AutoGeneratePropertyDefinitions="False"
                                 NestedPropertiesVisibility="{Binding IsChecked, ElementName=CheckBox1, Converter={StaticResource converter}}"
                                 DescriptionPanelVisibility="Collapsed"/>

Then, so that I can play with things, I'm adding PropertyDefinitions to propertyGrid1.PropertyDefinitions when a button is clicked. I created a simple class with a dictionary of strings in it called MyEntity:

        public class MyEntity : INotifyPropertyChanged
        {
            public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

            public void AddString(string key, string value)
            {
                _stringVal.Add(key, value);
            }

            private Dictionary<string, string> _stringVal = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            public Dictionary<string, string> StringVal
            {
                get
                {
                    return _stringVal;
                }

                set
                {
                    if (value != _stringVal)
                    {
                        _stringVal = value;
                        NotifyPropertyChanged("StringVal");
                    }
                }
            }

            private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string name)
            {
                if (PropertyChanged != null)
                    PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
            }
        }

Here's the class that corresponds to the xaml above:

public partial class Example : UserControl, INotifyPropertyChanged
{
        private MyEntity _ent = new MyEntity();

        public Example()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            _ent.AddString("Item0", "000");
            _ent.AddString("Item1", "111");
            _ent.AddString("Item2", "222");
            DataContext = _ent;
        }

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
              var topDef = new PropertyDefinition()
                {
                    DisplayName = "Top Item " + propertyGrid1.PropertyDefinitions.Count.ToString(),
                    Binding = new Binding("StringVal[Item0]")
                    {
                        Path = new PropertyPath("StringVal[Item0]")
                    },
                    OrderIndex = propertyGrid1.PropertyDefinitions.Count,
                    IsReadOnly = false
                };
            propertyGrid1.PropertyDefinitions.Add(topDef);
        }
}

I can't get the data to bind though. The PropertyGrid comes up, with no errors, but the properties seem to be considered null. I can get bindings to work with paths like "StringVal[Item0]" using other controls, but not PropertyDefinitions.

I've also tried this using a dynamic type (i.e. derived from DynamicObject), instead of the MyEntity class that contains the dictionary, and gotten the same result. I prefer that approach, but thought that showing it this way would be simpler to understand.

Am I way off base here, or just missing something simple?

Thanks,

-Ari

6 Answers, 1 is accepted

Accepted

answered on 20 Jun 2012, 03:37 PM

I'm not sure. Can I create those on the fly? In other words, if I iterate through my dictionary of strings, can I create something to bind to for each element on the fly as I iterate, rather than name a property on a hard-coded property on an object that already exists? It's hard to state this clearly.

I guess what I'm getting at is, can I show a Dictionary<string, string>{{"a", "aaa"}, {"b", "bbb"}}, rather than an object with fields named "a" and "b"? What I've already done shows "a" and "b", but I can't figure a way to bind the data.

It sounds like what your suggesting will work, but what do I pass to the Binding of the PropertyDefinitions?

Thanks,

-Ari

answered on 20 Jun 2012, 04:06 PM

Actually, another alternative is that I use a dynamic, rather than a dictionary. So, instead of having

Dictionary<string, string>{{"a", "aaa"}, {"b", "bbb"}}

I'd do something like

dynamic myObjToBindWith = new MyDynamic();
myObjToBindWith["a"] = "aaa";
myObjToBindWith["b"] = "bbb";

At that point, myObjToBindWith will have properties called "a" and "b" (if I derive MyDynamic from DynamicObject correctly). Shouldn't I be able to bind to those properties? It hasn't worked when I tried it that way either, but I'm wondering if I did something wrong, or if that isn't supported either.

Thanks,

-Ari

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Dynamic or indexed property bindings in the the PropertyGrid.

6 Answers, 1 is accepted