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Binding to XML

Updated on Sep 23, 2026

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to bind RadComboBox to data defined in a XML file. The operations you need to perform are to convert the XML to a collection of business objects and then bind that collection using the ItemsSource property of the ComboBox.

The final result

WPF RadComboBox Bound to XML Data

Define the data source as XML content.

Defining the XML data source

XML

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
	<Items>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Barcelona" Country="Spain"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Juventus" Country="Italy"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Inter" Country="Italy"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Ac Milan" Country="Italy"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Real M" Country="Spain"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Arsenal" Country="England"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Manchester U" Country="England"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Bayern" Country="Germany"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Porto" Country="Portugal"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Liverpool" Country="England"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Ajax" Country="Holland"/>
		<XmlNodeItem Team="Olimpic M" Country="France"/>
	</Items>

Add a new RadComboBox declaration in your XAML.

XAML

<DataTemplate x:Key="ComboBoxCustomTemplate">
    <StackPanel Margin="5" Orientation="Horizontal">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Team}" Foreground="Blue"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" ("/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Country}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=")"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

Create a new class named XmlNodeItem. This class is pretty simple and it represents a separate node from the XML document. Its properties are Team and Country. Both of the properties are of type string.

public class RadComboBoxXmlDataSource : XmlNodeItemList
{
    private string source;

    public string Source
    {
        get
        {
            return this.source;
        }
        set
        {
            this.source = value;
            AddRange(this.RetrieveData(Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri(value, UriKind.Relative)).Stream));
        }
    }

    private XmlNodeItemList RetrieveData(Stream xmlStream)
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlNodeItemList));
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(xmlStream);
        XmlNodeItemList list = (XmlNodeItemList)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
        return list;
    }
}

VB.NET

Public Class RadComboBoxXmlDataSource
	Inherits XmlNodeItemList
	Private m_source As String
		
	Public Property Source() As String
		Get
			Return Me.m_source
		End Get
		Set(ByVal value As String)
			Me.m_source = value
			AddRange(RetrieveData(Application.GetResourceStream(New Uri(value, UriKind.Relative)).Stream))
		End Set
	End Property
		
	Private Function RetrieveData(ByVal xmlStream As Stream) As XmlNodeItemList
		Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(XmlNodeItemList))
		Dim reader As New StreamReader(xmlStream)
		Dim list As XmlNodeItemList = DirectCast(serializer.Deserialize(reader), XmlNodeItemList)
		Return list
	End Function
End Class

Create a new class named XmlNodeItemList, which derives from ObservableCollection of XmlNodeItem. This is a collection that will be created from the XML file.

public class RadComboBoxXmlDataSource : XmlNodeItemList
{
    private string source;

    public string Source
    {
        get
        {
            return this.source;
        }
        set
        {
            this.source = value;
            AddRange(this.RetrieveData(Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri(value, UriKind.Relative)).Stream));
        }
    }

    private XmlNodeItemList RetrieveData(Stream xmlStream)
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlNodeItemList));
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(xmlStream);
        XmlNodeItemList list = (XmlNodeItemList)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
        return list;
    }
}

VB.NET

Public Class RadComboBoxXmlDataSource
	Inherits XmlNodeItemList
	Private m_source As String
		
	Public Property Source() As String
		Get
			Return Me.m_source
		End Get
		Set(ByVal value As String)
			Me.m_source = value
			AddRange(RetrieveData(Application.GetResourceStream(New Uri(value, UriKind.Relative)).Stream))
		End Set
	End Property
		
	Private Function RetrieveData(ByVal xmlStream As Stream) As XmlNodeItemList
		Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(XmlNodeItemList))
		Dim reader As New StreamReader(xmlStream)
		Dim list As XmlNodeItemList = DirectCast(serializer.Deserialize(reader), XmlNodeItemList)
		Return list
	End Function
End Class

Create a new class named RadComboBoxXmlDataSource, which derives from XmlNodeItemList. The class takes a path to the XML file and deserializes the data in the private method RetrieveData().

public class RadComboBoxXmlDataSource : XmlNodeItemList
{
    private string source;

    public string Source
    {
        get
        {
            return this.source;
        }
        set
        {
            this.source = value;
            AddRange(this.RetrieveData(Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri(value, UriKind.Relative)).Stream));
        }
    }

    private XmlNodeItemList RetrieveData(Stream xmlStream)
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlNodeItemList));
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(xmlStream);
        XmlNodeItemList list = (XmlNodeItemList)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
        return list;
    }
}

VB.NET

Public Class RadComboBoxXmlDataSource
	Inherits XmlNodeItemList
	Private m_source As String
		
	Public Property Source() As String
		Get
			Return Me.m_source
		End Get
		Set(ByVal value As String)
			Me.m_source = value
			AddRange(RetrieveData(Application.GetResourceStream(New Uri(value, UriKind.Relative)).Stream))
		End Set
	End Property
		
	Private Function RetrieveData(ByVal xmlStream As Stream) As XmlNodeItemList
		Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(XmlNodeItemList))
		Dim reader As New StreamReader(xmlStream)
		Dim list As XmlNodeItemList = DirectCast(serializer.Deserialize(reader), XmlNodeItemList)
		Return list
	End Function
End Class

The next step is to declare the RadComboBoxXmlDataSource as a resource in your application.

XAML

<DataTemplate x:Key="ComboBoxCustomTemplate">
    <StackPanel Margin="5" Orientation="Horizontal">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Team}" Foreground="Blue"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" ("/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Country}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=")"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

Update the RadComboBox declaration by setting the ItemsSource property.

XAML

<DataTemplate x:Key="ComboBoxCustomTemplate">
    <StackPanel Margin="5" Orientation="Horizontal">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Team}" Foreground="Blue"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" ("/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Country}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=")"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

Create a custom DateTemplate and set it to the RadComboBox's ItemTemplate property.

XAML

<DataTemplate x:Key="ComboBoxCustomTemplate">
    <StackPanel Margin="5" Orientation="Horizontal">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Team}" Foreground="Blue"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" ("/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Country}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=")"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

Update the ComboBox declaration by setting the ItemTemplate property.

XAML

<DataTemplate x:Key="ComboBoxCustomTemplate">
    <StackPanel Margin="5" Orientation="Horizontal">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Team}" Foreground="Blue"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" ("/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Country}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=")"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

The final result

WPF RadComboBox Bound to XML Data

Binding to XML

See Also