Question

I have a ListBox and multiple DataTemplates, in separate files.

<ListBox ItemTemplate="{StaticResource ItemTemplate1}"/>

In the Styles.xaml file:

<DataTemplate x:Key="ItemTemplate1">...</DataTemplate>

<DataTemplate x:Key="ItemTemplate2">...</DataTemplate>

I want to change the ItemTemplate of the ListBox depending on the type of object that’s in its list.

Is there a way to access the separate DataTemplates in the code-behind, so that I can bind to a property of my Page?

Answer 1

The way to do that without TemplateSelector is to specify DataType property and don’t specify x:Key.

<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type Type1}">...</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type Type2}">...</DataTemplate>

In this case appropriate DataTemplate will be automaticly applied in all places where property of specified type have been bound.

But I’d prefer to use TemplateSelector.

To access separated DataTemplate in code-behind you should first get resource dictionary:

var dict = new ResourceDictionary 
{Source = new Uri("/ProjectNamespace;component/Styles.xaml",  UriKind.Relative)};

Then you can get template:

var dataTemplate = (DataTemplate) dict["ItemTemplate1"];