How to mix databound and static levels in a TreeView?

Question

I have a collection of Database objects, each containing collections of Schema objects and User objects. I want to bind them to a TreeView, but adding additional static levels in the hierarchy, so that the resulting TreeView looks more or less like this:

<TreeView>
    <TreeViewItem Header="All the databases:">
        <TreeViewItem Header="Db1">
            <TreeViewItem Header="Here's all the schemas:">
                <TreeViewItem Header="Schema1"/>
                <TreeViewItem Header="Schema2"/>
            </TreeViewItem>
            <TreeViewItem Header="Here's all the users:">
                <TreeViewItem Header="User1"/>
                <TreeViewItem Header="User2"/>
            </TreeViewItem>
        </TreeViewItem>
        <TreeViewItem Header="Db2">
            <TreeViewItem Header="Here's all the schemas:">
                <TreeViewItem Header="Schema1"/>
                <TreeViewItem Header="Schema2"/>
            </TreeViewItem>
            <TreeViewItem Header="Here's all the users:">
                <TreeViewItem Header="User1"/>
                <TreeViewItem Header="User2"/>
            </TreeViewItem>
        </TreeViewItem>
    </TreeViewItem>
</TreeView>

I was able to get pretty close to what I want by using the following templates:

<Window.Resources>
    <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:Database}">
        <TreeViewItem Header="{Binding Path=Name}">
            <TreeViewItem Header="Here's all the schemas:" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Schemas}"/>
            <TreeViewItem Header="Here's all the users:" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Users}"/>
        </TreeViewItem>
    </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:Schema}">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}"/>
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:User}">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}"/>
    </DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>

Then in the code I set the binding like this:

TreeViewItem treeViewItem = new TreeViewItem();
treeViewItem.Header = "All the databases:";
treeViewItem.ItemsSource = server.Databases;
treeView.Items.Add(treeViewItem);

The resulting TreeView looks like I want it to, but it's not possible to select a particular schema or user. Apparently WPF sees the whole subtree rooted at a database node as a single item, and it only selects the whole thing. I need to be able to select a particular schema, user or database. How do I set the templates and bindings so that it works the way I need?

Answer 1

Oh man this is an incredibly frustrating task. I've tried doing it myself many times. I had a very similar requirement where I've got something like a Customer class that has both a Locations collection and a Orders collection. I wanted Locations and Orders to be "folders" in the tree view. As you've discovered, all the TreeView examples that show you how to bind to self-referencing types are pretty much useless.

First I resorted to manually building a tree of FolderItemNode and ItemNode objects that I would generate in the ViewModel but this defeated the purpose of binding because it would not respond to underlying collection changes.

Then I came up with an approach which seems to work pretty well.

• In the above described object model, I created classes LocationCollection and OrderCollection. They both inherit from ObservableCollection and override ToString() to return "Locations" and "Orders" respectively.
• I create a MultiCollectionConverter class that implements IMultiValueConverter
• I created a FolderNode class that has a Name and Items property. This is the placeholder object that will represent your "folders" in the tree view.
• Define hierarchicaldatatemplate's that use MultiBinding anywhere that you want to group multiple child collections into folders.

The resulting XAML looks similar to the code below and you can grab a zip file which has all the classes and XAML in a working example.

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication2.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:Local="clr-namespace:WpfApplication2"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525" Loaded="Window_Loaded">

    <Window.Resources>

        <!-- THIS IS YOUR FOLDER NODE -->
        <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type Local:FolderNode}" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">
            <Label FontWeight="Bold" Content="{Binding Name}" />
        </HierarchicalDataTemplate>

        <!-- THIS CUSTOMER HAS TWO FOLDERS, LOCATIONS AND ORDERS -->
        <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type Local:Customer}">
            <HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemsSource>
                <MultiBinding>
                    <MultiBinding.Converter>
                        <Local:MultiCollectionConverter />
                    </MultiBinding.Converter>
                    <Binding Path="Locations" />
                    <Binding Path="Orders" />
                </MultiBinding>
            </HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemsSource>
            <Label Content="{Binding Name}" />
        </HierarchicalDataTemplate>

        <!-- OPTIONAL, YOU DON'T NEED SPECIFIC DATA TEMPLATES FOR THESE CLASSES -->
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type Local:Location}">
            <Label Content="{Binding Title}" />
        </DataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type Local:Order}">
            <Label Content="{Binding Title}" />
        </DataTemplate>

    </Window.Resources>

    <DockPanel>
        <TreeView Name="tree" Width="200" DockPanel.Dock="Left" />
        <Grid />
    </DockPanel>

</Window>

Answer 2

The problem is that a TreeView is not very well suited to what you want to acomplish: It expects all the subnodes to be of the same type. As your database node has a node of type Collection<Schemas> and of type Collection<Users> you cannot use a HierarchicalDataTemplate. A Better approach is to use nested expanders that contain ListBoxes.

The code below does what you want I think,while being as close as possible to your original intent:

<Window x:Class="TreeViewSelection.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:smo="clr-namespace:TreeViewSelection"
    Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Window.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="ListBox">
            <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="0"/>
        </Style>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:Database}">
                <TreeViewItem Header="{Binding Name}">
                    <TreeViewItem Header="Schemas">
                        <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Schemas}"/>
                    </TreeViewItem>
                    <TreeViewItem Header="Users">
                    <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Users}"/>
                </TreeViewItem>
                </TreeViewItem> 
        </DataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:User}" >
            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
        </DataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:Schema}">
            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
        </DataTemplate>
    </Window.Resources>
    <StackPanel>
        <TreeViewItem ItemsSource="{Binding DataBases}" Header="All DataBases">
        </TreeViewItem>
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Windows;

namespace TreeViewSelection
{
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public ObservableCollection<Database> DataBases { get; set; }
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            DataBases = new ObservableCollection<Database>
                            {
                                new Database("Db1"),
                                new Database("Db2")
                            };
            DataContext = this;
        }
    }

    public class Database:DependencyObject
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public ObservableCollection<Schema> Schemas { get; set; }
        public ObservableCollection<User> Users { get; set; }

        public Database(string name)
        {
            Name = name;
            Schemas=new ObservableCollection<Schema>
                        {
                            new Schema("Schema1"),
                            new Schema("Schema2")
                        };
            Users=new ObservableCollection<User>
                      {
                          new User("User1"),
                          new User("User2")
                      };
        }
    }

    public class Schema:DependencyObject
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public Schema(string name)
        {
            Name = name;   
        }
    }

    public class User:DependencyObject
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public User(string name)
        {
            Name = name;
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

You need to fill the properties you're using in your binding with data from your database. Currently you're using a new TreeViewItem, and using it as a datasource, so what you're saying about it seeing everything as a single node makes sense, as you've placed it in a single node.

You need to load your database data and attach it to the properties you've used in your WPF template as binding items.

Answer 4

Here's a modification of Josh's solution to work with SMO (my original problem statement):

<Window.Resources>
    <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:FolderNode}" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
    </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
    <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:Database}">
        <HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemsSource>
            <MultiBinding>
                <MultiBinding.Converter>
                    <local:MultiCollectionConverter />
                </MultiBinding.Converter>
                <Binding Path="Schemas" />
                <Binding Path="Users" />
            </MultiBinding>
        </HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemsSource>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
    </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:User}" >
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type smo:Schema}">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
    </DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>

and the modified converter:

public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
    FolderNode[] result = new FolderNode[values.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; ++i)
    {
        result[i].Items = (IEnumerable)values[i];
        result[i].Name = values[i] is UserCollection ? "Users" : "Schemas";
    }
    return result;
}

Attribution Note: Content copied from OP's final solution, posted as an edit to the question, rather than as an answer