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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-02T11:14:22+00:00

I’m new to WPF and using MVVM. I have a view in which I

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I’m new to WPF and using MVVM. I have a view in which I want to display different content according to what a user selects on a menu. One of those things is another user control Temp which has a view model (TempVM) so I am doing this:

<ContentControl Content="{Binding Path=TempVM}"/>

and TempVM (of type TempViewModel)is null until the user clicks a button. Its data template is this

 <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:TempViewModel}">
        <view:Temp />
    </DataTemplate>

That’s fine, but the other thing I want to do is show a listbox when a user clicks a different menu item. So I am trying to do

<ContentControl Content="{Binding Path=Missions}"/>

(Missions is an observable collection of MissionData) and trying to template it like this:

 <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type ObservableCollection(MissionData)}">
        <StackPanel>
            <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding}" SelectedItem="{Binding Path=MissionData, Mode=TwoWay}" DisplayMemberPath="MissionName" SelectedValuePath="MissionId" />
            <Button Content="Go"/>
        </StackPanel>
    </DataTemplate>

But the compiler doesn’t like the type reference. If I try doing it by giving the template a key and specifying that key in the ContentControl it works but obviously I see the ListBox and button when there’s no Missions. Obviously I could make a user control and viewmodel and follow the same pattern as I did for the TempVM but it seems over the top. Am I going the right way about this and what do I need to do?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    From what i see is that you try to use a Collection as a dataobject which is in my opinion bad practice. Having a DataTemplate for a collection is also problematic, like you already have witnessed. I would advice you to use a ViewModel for your missions collection. 

    class MissionsSelectionViewModel
{
    public ObservableCollection<Mission> Misssions;
    public MissionData SelectedMission;
    public ICommand MissionSelected;
}

    and modify your datatemplate to

    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type MissionsSelectionViewModel}">
    <StackPanel>
        <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Missions}" SelectedItem="{Binding Path=MissionData, Mode=TwoWay}" DisplayMemberPath="MissionName" SelectedValuePath="MissionId" />
        <Button Content="Go" Command="{Binding MissionSelected}/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
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