Question

I am trying to get a TreeView to bind my collection so that all groups show nested groups and each group will show entry.

How can I use the HierarchicalDataTemplate so that the TreeView will process both SubGroups and Entries collection?

Groups show subgroups and entries:

Example:
Group1
--Entry
--Entry
Group2
--Group4
----Group1
------Entry
------Entry
----Entry
----Entry
--Entry
--Entry
Group3
--Entry
--Entry

Objects:

---

namespace TaskManager.Domain
{
    public class Entry
    {
        public int Key { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }
}

namespace TaskManager.Domain
{
    public class Group
    {
        public int Key { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public IList<Group> SubGroups { get; set; }
        public IList<Entry> Entries { get; set; }
    }
}

Test data:

---

namespace DrillDownView
{
    public class TestData
    {

        public IList<Group> Groups = new List<Group>();

        public void Load()
        {
            Group grp1 = new Group() { Key = 1, Name = "Group 1", SubGroups = new List<Group>(), Entries = new List<Entry>() };
            Group grp2 = new Group() { Key = 2, Name = "Group 2", SubGroups = new List<Group>(), Entries = new List<Entry>() };
            Group grp3 = new Group() { Key = 3, Name = "Group 3", SubGroups = new List<Group>(), Entries = new List<Entry>() };
            Group grp4 = new Group() { Key = 4, Name = "Group 4", SubGroups = new List<Group>(), Entries = new List<Entry>() };

            //grp1
            grp1.Entries.Add(new Entry() { Key=1, Name="Entry number 1" });
            grp1.Entries.Add(new Entry() { Key=2, Name="Entry number 2" });
            grp1.Entries.Add(new Entry() { Key=3,Name="Entry number 3" });

            //grp2
            grp2.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=4, Name = "Entry number 4"});
            grp2.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=5, Name = "Entry number 5"});
            grp2.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=6, Name = "Entry number 6"});

            //grp3
            grp3.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=7, Name = "Entry number 7"});
            grp3.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=8, Name = "Entry number 8"});
            grp3.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=9, Name = "Entry number 9"});

            //grp4
            grp4.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=10, Name = "Entry number 10"});
            grp4.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=11, Name = "Entry number 11"});
            grp4.Entries.Add(new Entry(){ Key=12, Name = "Entry number 12"});

            grp4.SubGroups.Add(grp1);
            grp2.SubGroups.Add(grp4);

            Groups.Add(grp1);
            Groups.Add(grp2);
            Groups.Add(grp3);
        }
    }
}

XAML:

---

<Window x:Class="DrillDownView.Window2"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:TaskManager.Domain;assembly=TaskManager.Domain"
        Title="Window2" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <TreeView Name="GroupView" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
            <TreeView.Resources>
                <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Group}" ItemsSource="{Binding SubGroups}">
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />
                </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
                <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Entry}" ItemsSource="{Binding Entries}">
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />
                </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
            </TreeView.Resources>
        </TreeView>
    </Grid>
</Window>

XAML.CS:

---

public partial class Window2 : Window
{
    public Window2()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        LoadView();
    }

    private void LoadView()
    {
        TestData data = new TestData();
        data.Load();
        GroupView.ItemsSource = data.Groups;
    }
}

Answer 1

A HierarchicalDataTemplate is a way of saying this is how you render this type of object and here is a property that can be probed to find the child nodes under this object.

Therefore you need a single property that returns the ‘children’ of this node. (e.g. if you can’t make both Group and Entry derive from a common Node type)

public class Group 
{
    // ....
    public IList<object> Items
    {
        get
        {
            IList<object> childNodes = new List<object>();
            foreach (var group in this.SubGroups)
                childNodes.Add(group);
            foreach (var entry in this.Entries)
                childNodes.Add(entry);

            return childNodes;
        }
    }

Next you don’t need a HierarchicalDataTemplate for entry since an entry doesn’t have children. So the XAML needs to be changed to use the new Items property and a DataTemplate for Entry:

<TreeView Name="GroupView" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
    <TreeView.Resources>
        <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Group}" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">
            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />
        </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Entry}" >
            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />
        </DataTemplate>
    </TreeView.Resources>
</TreeView>

And here’s what that looks like: