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How to add a ListViewItem which contains a Grid, StackPanel and a TextBlock

I have a ListView. I need to add ListViewItems programatically that contain a Textblock nested inside of a StackPanel, nested inside of a Grid (For the purpose of formatting the text). I am relatively new to WPF and I cannot find an answer. Here is the code that I would like each ListViewItem to have once added:
<ListViewItem Padding="15">
<Grid Width="1285">
<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center" Orientation="Horizontal" Width="Auto">
<TextBlock Text="ITEM" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</ListViewItem>
Here is an image to demonstrate what I am trying to do.The code above puts the ListViewItem in the middle, but by using a Grid and a StackPanel, I was able to center the text (StackPanel was actually for the purpose of adding an icon alongside it but I've temporarily taken that out. If someone knows how to do this better then by all means tell me.

So, what you need is a UserControl, which will be used to display each item in your ListView. So you must design your user control the way you want it to look; so if you need a TextBlock inside a panel inside a grid, that's what you must do.
<UserControl x:Class="SOWPF.MyListViewItem"
....
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="48" d:DesignWidth="250">
<Grid>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Width="250" Height="36" Margin="10" Background="PeachPuff">
<TextBlock Background="White" Width="200" Height="32" Margin="2" Text="{Binding DisplayText}"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
To display data, you must have a class with public properties. So I have this simple class with one public string property, which will contain the text you want to display in the TextBlock. The data binding on the user control refers to this; DisplayText is the public string property:
public class DisplayData
{
public string DisplayText { get; set; }
}
Now in your View, you must use a ContentControl inside your ListView to display your UserControl dynamically.
<Window x:Class="SOWPF.MainWindow"
....
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="MainWindow" Height="450" Width="800">
<Grid>
<ListView>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding DisplayList}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<local:MyListViewItem/>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</ListView>
</Grid>
</Window>
And here's your code behind. I did it this way for convenience, but you really should use a ViewModel.
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public List<DisplayData> DisplayList { get; set; }
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
DisplayList = new List<DisplayData>
{
new DisplayData() { DisplayText = "A" },
new DisplayData() { DisplayText = "B" },
new DisplayData() { DisplayText = "C" }
};
DataContext = this;
}
}
Result:
EDIT (After OP edited the question)
If all you want to do is center text, you can get rid of extra controls and simply use TextAlignment=Center in your TextBlock.
<UserControl x:Class="SOWPF.MyListViewItem"
....
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="48" d:DesignWidth="250">
<TextBlock Background="LightCoral" Width="200" Height="32" Margin="2" Text="{Binding DisplayText}"
TextAlignment="Center"/>
</UserControl>
And it'll look like this:

Binding to TextBlock in ListView

I don't know if my understanding of binding is just poor or if I am not seeing the problem, but I hope someone can help me out here. I have a ListView with a template of an image and a TextBlock, I need the TextBlock to be bound to the ItemsSource of the ListView. However when I run this I get nothing shown, I don't even see my image that I have set.
XAML:
<UserControl.Resources>
<FontFamily x:Key="FontFamily">MS Reference Sans Serif</FontFamily>
</UserControl.Resources>
<Grid>
<ListView BorderThickness="0" ItemsSource="{Binding Facies}">
<ListView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="../Images/Shale.png"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding FaciesName}" Width="75" Margin="5"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListView.ItemTemplate>
</ListView>
</Grid>
C#:
public partial class FaciesControl : UserControl
{
public FaciesControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public List<string> Facies {get; set;}
public void Bind(string[] data)
{
Facies = new List<string>();
Facies.AddRange(data);
}
}

First set DataContext like this:
public FaciesControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
string[] str = { "Name1", "Name2", "Name3" };
Bind(str); // Make sure you have called the Bind method
DataContext = Facies;
}
Second change your XAML like this:
<ListView BorderThickness="0" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
....
....
<TextBlock Text="{Binding}" Width="75" Margin="5"/>

Reuse XAML in WPF

I have some XAML I want to reuse. I can easily create a custom control and use it, but I'd rather not. Here's what I've tried:
<Window.Resources>
<Expander x:Key="Namespacer" x:Shared="False" Name="NS" Background="SkyBlue">
<StackPanel Name="ClientArea" Margin="20,0,20,0">
<StackPanel Name="Usings" Grid.Row="0" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="Structs" Grid.Row="1" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="Classes" Grid.Row="2" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="IFaces" Grid.Row="3" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="Delegates" Grid.Row="4" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="Enums" Grid.Row="5" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="Nested" Grid.Row="6" Height="Auto"></StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</Expander>
</Window.Resources>
<StackPanel>
<ContentControl Name="N1" Content="{StaticResource Namespacer}" />
</StackPanel>
Now, I want to do something like:
this.N1.Header = "SomeTitle.Namespace1";
And also be able to add new chunks of XAML to my stack panels in N1 in a similar fashion. How to achieve that?

Well, you could do this:
((Expander)(this.N1.Content)).Header = "SomeTitle.Namespace1";
But that gets ugly. I'd recommend switching to data binding. Here's an example.
First, here's a data class with the structure I think you're going for:
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public class MyData
{
public string ItemTitle { get; set; }
public IList<string> Usings { get; set; }
public IList<string> Structs { get; set; }
}
public class MyViewModel
{
public IList<MyData> MyBoundData { get; set; }
}
public MainWindow()
{
var d1 = new MyData{
ItemTitle = "thing1",
Usings = new[]{"a", "b"}
};
var d2 = new MyData{
ItemTitle = "thing2",
Structs = new[]{"c","d"}
};
this.DataContext = new MyViewModel{
MyBoundData = new[]{ d1, d2}
};
InitializeComponent();
}
}
And here's an items control bound to our data:
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding MyBoundData}" Focusable="False">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Expander Header="{Binding ItemTitle}" Background="SkyBlue">
<StackPanel>
<Expander Header="Usings" Background="SkyBlue">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Usings}"/>
</Expander>
<Expander Header="Structs" Background="SkyBlue">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Structs}"/>
</Expander>
</StackPanel>
</Expander>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Grid>
</Window>
Note that the items control has a DataTemplate that corresponds to your "Namespacer" xaml chunk. You could, of course, move the DataTemplate chunk into the window resources like you have in your example, if you want to use it in more than one ItemsControl.

How do I bind datatemplate in a resource dictionary

I'm trying to bind my elements in a datatemplate that is define in dictionary.
Let's make it simple.
I have a simple class
public class A { public string Data {get;set} }
I have a simple view that contains a ListBox, with ItemSources is a list of class A :
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding AList}">
The point is, when I define Itemplate in view directly, bind works :
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate >
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Data}" />
<Rectangle Fill="Red" Height="10" Width="10"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
This works great.
But when I define this ItemTemplate in resource Dictionary, binding doesn't works ?
How can I do that ?
PS : This is a simple example to explain my problem, don't tell me to override toString function to make it works or use classe template, my real case is very more complexe than this.
Thanks for help

Create a new Dictionary1.xaml
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<DataTemplate x:Key="dataTemplate">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Data}" />
<Rectangle Fill="Red" Height="10" Width="10"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
In MainWindow.xaml refer it
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary Source="Dictionary1.xaml" />
</Window.Resources>
<ListBox Name="lst" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource dataTemplate}"></ListBox>
MainWindow.cs:
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void MainWindow_OnLoaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var observable = new ObservableCollection<Test>();
observable.Add(new Test("A"));
observable.Add(new Test("B"));
observable.Add(new Test("C"));
this.lst.ItemsSource = observable;
}
}
public class Test
{
public Test(string dateTime)
{
this.Data = dateTime;
}
public string Data { get; set; }
}

You give your DataTemplate a Key so you can use explicitly define your template and reuse your template. You also need to make sure the ItemsControl is a child of the control which loads the dictionary.
<DataTemplate x:Key="ADataTemplate">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Data}" />
<Rectangle Fill="Red" Height="10" Width="10"/>
</DataTemplate>
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding YourItems}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource ADataTemplate}" />
Note: You can use implicit styling on ListBox, however that would apply the same style to all of your ListBoxes.

Declare your data template in the Resources section of the current Window/UserControl etc as follows and then reference via static resource declaration:
<Window.Resources> For example...
<DataTemplate x:Key="MyTemplate">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Data}" />
<Rectangle Fill="Red" Height="10" Width="10"/>
</DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<ListBox ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MyTemplate}" />

Data Binding Help - WPF

I have those two classes:
class DownloadLink
{
public string Name { get; private set; }
public string Url { get; private set; }
//(...)
}
class DownloadGroup
{
public List<DownloadLink> Links { get; private set; }
//(...)
}
class Manager
{
public List<DownloadGroup> Groups { get; private set; }
}
Manager managerOBJ = new Manager();
I want to display this like that:
Everything will be in ListBox:
I wan to bind managerOBJ.Groups to that ListBox. - How to do it?
Than I want to create DataTamplate to display each group and all links in that group. - How to do it?
I want to do as much as possible from XAML
UPDATE:
This is what I got. It's not workig. List box is empty.
<ListBox DockPanel.Dock="Right" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Width="500" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Background="#FFE1FFF5" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled" ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Groups}" Name="GroupsListBox">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Height="30" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="500" >
<Grid Height="Auto" Width="500">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label Content="XX MB w XX plikach" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="0"/>
</Grid>
<ListBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="43" Margin="0,5,0,0" Width="Auto" VerticalAlignment="Top" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Links}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Label Content="{Binding Path=Name}" />
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
and in code behid I have:
RapideoAccount = new Rapideo();
GroupsListBox.DataContext = RapideoAccount;

The whole manager is contained in a listbox, for each downloadgroup in the manager you add an itemscontrol that contains another items control with the links in it.
This can be done by using DataTemplates:
<ListBox Name="myGroups"
ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Groups}">
<!-- each List<DownloadGroup> in the manager: -->
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Links}">
<!-- each Link in the Downloadgroup -->
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Url}" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
In code you would put:
Manager managerOBJ = new Manager();
myGroups.DataContext = managerOBJ;

define managerOBJ as a property in your viewmodel
binding viewmodel to your view.
binding ListBox itemssource to managerOBJ.Groups.
define DataTemplate inside ListBox to display each DownloadGroup.