Data binding the TextBlock.Inlines

Question

My WPF App receives a stream of messages from a backend service that I need to display in the UI. These messages vary widely and I want to have different visual layout (string formats, colors, Fonts, icons, whatever etc.) for each message.

I was hoping to just be able to create an inline (Run, TextBlock, Italic etc) for each message then somehow put them all in a ObservableCollection<> and using he magic of WPF Data Binding on my TextBlock.Inlines in the UI. I couldn't find how to do this, is this possible?

Answer 1

In version 4 of WPF you will be be able to bind to a Run object, which may solve your problem.

I have solved this problem in the past by overriding an ItemsControl and displaying the text as items in the ItemsControl. Look at some of the tutorials that Dr. WPF has done on this kind of stuff: http://www.drwpf.com

Answer 2

Thanks Frank for your solution. I had to make a couple of minor changes to make it work for me.

public class BindableTextBlock : TextBlock
{
    public ObservableCollection<Inline> InlineList
    {
        get { return (ObservableCollection<Inline>) GetValue(InlineListProperty); }
        set { SetValue(InlineListProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty InlineListProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("InlineList", typeof (ObservableCollection<Inline>), typeof (BindableTextBlock), new UIPropertyMetadata(null, OnPropertyChanged));

    private static void OnPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        BindableTextBlock textBlock = (BindableTextBlock) sender;
        textBlock.Inlines.Clear();
        textBlock.Inlines.AddRange((ObservableCollection<Inline>) e.NewValue);
    }
}