Question

I wanted to know how can I populate a ListBox dinamically. But I don’t want a custom class, I just want a normal selector.

I normally do something like this with my own classes:

<ListBox Name="itemList" SelectionChanged="itemList_SelectionChanged">
    <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <Grid>
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding title}"/>
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding subtitle}"  />
            </Grid>
        </DataTemplate>
    </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

What I don’t know is how to simply generate the simplest thing: something like this:

<ListBox>
    <ListBoxItem Name="item1" Content="First item" />
    <ListBoxItem Name="item2" Content="Second item" />
    <ListBoxItem Name="item3" Content="Third item" />
</ListBox>

Could you give an example of the structure? I don’t know if I have to use datatemplate or what…

Thank you

[Edited: added Name property in what I need]

Answer 1

You just have to set up a Collection with your items in your DataContext and set it as ListBox.ItemsSource. This will then fill in your DataTemplate.

See for example:

<Grid>
    <Grid.Resources>
        <src:Customers x:Key="customers"/>
    </Grid.Resources>
    <ListBox ItemsSource="{StaticResource customers}" Width="250" Margin="0,5,0,10" 
       DisplayMemberPath="LastName"/>
</Grid>

And:

public class Customer
{
    public String FirstName { get; set; }
    public String LastName { get; set; }
    public String Address { get; set; }

    public Customer(String firstName, String lastName, String address)
    {
        this.FirstName = firstName;
        this.LastName = lastName;
        this.Address = address;
    }

}

public class Customers : ObservableCollection<Customer>
{
    public Customers()
    {
        Add(new Customer("Michael", "Anderberg",
                "12 North Third Street, Apartment 45"));
        Add(new Customer("Chris", "Ashton",
                "34 West Fifth Street, Apartment 67"));
        Add(new Customer("Cassie", "Hicks",
                "56 East Seventh Street, Apartment 89"));
        Add(new Customer("Guido", "Pica",
                "78 South Ninth Street, Apartment 10"));
    }

}

Example source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.itemscontrol.itemssource(v=vs.95).aspx

Edit: according to the discussion in the comments, maybe you only need a simple ItemsControl (as you don’t need to retain the selected item or even better to handle multiple selection, which is what the ListBox is for).

For example:

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding NavigateItems}">
    <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <Button Content="{Binding Label}"
                    Command="{Binding ButtonCommand}"                                                               
                    CommandParameter="{Binding URL}"/>
        </DataTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>

And:

public class NavigateItem
 {
     public String Label { get; set; }
     public String URL { get; set; }

     public NavigateItem(String label, String url)
     {
         this.Label = label;
         this.URL = url;
     }

 }

public class NavigateItems : ObservableCollection<NavigateItem>
{
    public NavigateItems()
    {
        Add(new NavigateItem("Google", "http://www.google.com");
        Add(new NavigateItem("Bing", "http://www.bing.com");
    }
}

And of course setting up the ButtonCommand to navigate to the URL passed in the parameter, but that depends on how you’re setting the ViewModel / bindings up.