Question

I need a solution for this.

I need to create a view model for grid view. This viewmodel should be a strong typed one. ex.

List<Person> lstPersons=new List<Person>();

something like this. also, with this I should be able to have custom column header names. I can go with data annotation with enabling AutoGenerateColumns="True"
like,

class Person
{
      [DisplayName("Person Name")]
      public string name { get; set; }
}

something like this. But I have 2 issues with this.

1. I donno how to change this display name at run time.

2. Im using telerik RADGridView. with that when I’m using AutoGenerateColumns="True" and ShowColumnFooters="True", the whole UI get stucked. I think this s an error with telerik controls. So I have to define all columns in XAML and add binding path for each as well.

Anyway, This is possible with DataTable I think. but I feel data tables are very oldie struct and heavy object.

How to create a Viewmodel to achieve this? Any suggestions ?

Feel free to ask any question. im not sure above description is clear to everyone.

Answer 1

You can continue to use the DisplayName attribute on your model, but as you pointed out, cannot change it at run-time. To do so, implement a dictionary in your ViewModel that populates

public PeopleGridViewModel
{
    public ObservableCollection<Person> People;
    public Dictionary<string, string> PersonColumnHeaders;

    public PeopleGridViewModel()
    {
        // 1. write C# here to snag the property names from the typeof(Person)
        // 2. get the DisplayName attribute value for that property too.
        // 3. add the propertyName.ToString() and the DisplayName string to the dictionary as a key/value pair.

        // the result is you have a collection of column headers that start with the defaults from the propertys on the object... but they can be manipulated at run-time, and you don't havem them 100% hard typed like in adcool's example.
    }
}

I think the show column footers deal is a Telerik issue as you suggested.