Question

In my C# application I’m calling a method which returns an array:

projectArray = client.getProjectList(username, password);

As I’d like to refactor the application to WPF using the MVVM pattern I should use an ObservableCollection for the project list.

My view model contains:

// Members
CProject[] projectArray;
ObservableCollection<CProject> projectList;

// Properties
public ObservableCollection<CProject> ProjectList {
  get { return projectList; }
  set {
    projectList = value;
    OnPropertyChanged("ProjectList");
  }
}

And the code for setting the property:

projectArray = client.getProjectList(username, password);
projectList = new ObservableCollection<CProject>(projectArray);
this.ProjectList = projectList;

Here comes the problem. My view contains a combobox which is bound to the view model’s ProjectList property. The binding works fine. However the combobox displays values like MyApp.SoapApi.CProject. I’d like to display the names of the project which are accessible via CProject.database.name.

What is an appropriate and correct way doing this? I tried using projectList = value.database.name but this is a string which conflicts with the property type CProject.

Answer 1

You should set the DisplayMemberPath of your combobox to the path of the property you want to be shown in the combobox text:

<ComboBox DisplayMemberPath="database.name" />

also, your code can be simplified to just:

// Members
ObservableCollection<CProject> projectList;

// Properties
public ObservableCollection<CProject> ProjectList {
    get { return projectList; }
    set {
        projectList = value;
        OnPropertyChanged("ProjectList");
    }
}


this.ProjectList = new ObservableCollection<CProject>(client.getProjectList(username, password));