Question

I have a hierarcial class like this

Part
  SubPart
     SubSubPart1
     SubSubPart2

I have a control that is populated by SubSubPart and in that control i want to show information about the parent SubPart and Part. I want to use normal binding in xaml to display information about parent part.

Each part has a unique ObjectId as a property, each part has multiple properties that i want to display.

The control only knows about one subsubpart.

I realize that i can write a converter

    public object Convert(object value, System.Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {

        if (DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode(new DependencyObject()))

        { return "Design Part"; }
        else
        {

            IDataService applicationService = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IDataService>();
            IPartItem partItem = applicationService.GetEquipmentFromComponent(value.ToString());

            return partItem.PartData.Name;
        }
    }

and apply it like this

<TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1"
Text="{Binding Path=ObjectId,Converter={StaticResource partConverter}}" Margin="0,0,10,0">
</TextBlock>

But then i need to write a converter for every property of the parent parts. Any solutions out there.

Answer 1

Bind the DataContext of your control using the converter and update your converter to just return the parent part

<TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding ObjectId}" DataContext="{Binding Converter={StaticResource partConverter}}" Margin="0,0,10,0" />