Question

I made a style for my menu control and now I want to use that style for all the menuItems, but with different text in the textbox. I was wondering if I can use a List to populate the binding element…I tried but it doesnt work…Have I missed something or I have to use something else?

  List<string> itemArray = new List<string>();
        itemArray.Add("label1");
        itemArray.Add("label2");
        itemArray.Add("label3");
        Binding binding = new Binding();
        binding.Path = new PropertyPath("itemArray");

       this.menu1.SetBinding(TextBox.TextProperty, binding);

and the one part of the style is, if it helps…:

 <Setter.Value>
    <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type MenuItem}">
        <Grid>
            <Border Name="MainBorder" BorderThickness="2,2,2,0" >
                <Grid>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=itemArray}" Margin="30,10,0,0" FontFamily="Arial" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold" />
                    <Image Width="15" Height="15" Source="image.PNG" Margin="-100,0,0,0" />
                </Grid>
            </Border>
        </Grid>
    </ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>

Answer 1

You’re trying to bind a text element to a List<T>, which will result in the type name. If you want the menu to populate itself from a list of objects, consider binding the menu’s ItemsSource property to that list:

     <Menu ItemsSource="{Binding ListOfItems}">
        <Menu.ItemTemplate>
           <DataTemplate>
              <MenuItem Header="{Binding Text}" Command="{Binding Command}" />
           </DataTemplate>
        </Menu.ItemTemplate>
     </Menu>

In this example, each list item is an object with a Text property which shows up as the display string, and a Command property, which is an object that implements ICommand. When the user chooses a menu item, that list item’s Command.Execute method is invoked; you could use something like RelayCommand or ReactiveCommand to turn that into a method call.

This allows for a flat menu; for a hierarchical menu you’ll have to do something a little different.