Question

In order to control the serialization of a List<CustomObject>, I placed that list in a class, eg.:

public class SerializableCustomObjectList : IXmlSerializable
{
  public List<CustomObject> CustomObjectList = new List<CustomObject>();
  ...
}

public class CustomObject {...}

, an instance of which is stored in the Application Settings. I have no problem with the serialization/deserialization. However, when I try to bind the public property, CustomObjectList, to a ListBox, nothing happens.

Here’s my code:

<ListBox Name="CustomObjectListBox">
  <ListBox.ItemsSource>
    <Binding Source="{x:Static p:Settings.Default}"
      Path="SavedCustomObjects.CustomObjectList"/>
  </ListBox.ItemsSource>
  ...
</ListBox>

where SavedCustomObjects is the instance of SerializableCustomObjectList in the Properties.Settings.Default.

Current behavior is that the ListBox Items.Count remains at zero (in the debugger), even when the SavedCustomObjects.CustomObjectList is populated.

Answer 1

There are a few things I can see:

1. You should bind an ItemsControl (such as ListBox) to an ObservableCollection, not a List.
2. You can only bind to properties, not fields (ie use a get/set).
3. The class which is the DataContext should implement INotifyPropertyChanged, and the setter (from point 2) should raise the PropertyChanged event.