WPF DataBound treeview expand / collapse

Question

I'm just trying to find a way to control the expand / collapse of the TreeView nodes through the object they're bound to. The object has an IsExpanded property, and I want to use that to show the TreeView node itself expanded or collapsed based on that property.

Here's my code:

C#:

public partial class Window2 : Window
{
    public Window2()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        this.DataContext = new List<Parent>() { Base.GetParent("Parent 1"), Base.GetParent("Parent 2") };
    }
}

public class Base
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public bool IsExpanded { get; set; }

    public static Parent GetParent(string name)
    {
        Parent p = new Parent() { Name = name };

        p.Children.Add(new Child() { Name = "Child 1", GrandChildren = new ObservableCollection<GrandChild>() { new GrandChild() { Name = "Grandchild 1" } } });
        p.Children.Add(new Child() { Name = "Child 2", GrandChildren = new ObservableCollection<GrandChild>() { new GrandChild() { Name = "Grandchild 1" } } });
        p.Children.Add(new Child() { Name = "Child 3", GrandChildren = new ObservableCollection<GrandChild>() { new GrandChild() { Name = "Grandchild 1" } } });

        return p;
    }
}

public class Parent : Base
{
    public ObservableCollection<Child> Children { get; set; }

    public Parent()
    {
        this.Children = new ObservableCollection<Child>();
    }
}

public class Child : Base
{
    public ObservableCollection<GrandChild> GrandChildren { get; set; }

    public Child()
    {
        this.GrandChildren = new ObservableCollection<GrandChild>();
    }
}

public class GrandChild : Base
{
}

XAML:

<Window x:Class="HeterogeneousExperimentExplorer.Window2"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:HeterogeneousTree"
    Title="Window2" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Window.Resources>
        <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Parent}" ItemsSource="{Binding Children}">
            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
            <HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemTemplate>
                <HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Parent}" ItemsSource="{Binding GrandChildren}">
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
                    <HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemTemplate>
                </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
            </HierarchicalDataTemplate.ItemTemplate>
        </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
    </Window.Resources>
    <Grid>
        <TreeView ItemsSource="{Binding}" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

Answer 1

Came up with solution. Really simple:

    <Style TargetType="{x:Type TreeViewItem}">
        <Setter Property="IsExpanded" Value="{Binding IsNodeExpanded}">
        </Setter>
    </Style>

So the style gets the object bound to the TreeViewItem and looks at its IsNodeExpanded attribute and it assigns that value to the TreeViewItem.IsExpanded property. If you add Mode=TwoWay, they'll notify each other (TreeViewItem will tell the object when it has been expanded).

Thanks!

Answer 2

FWIW, you may be interested in this CodeProject article by Josh Smith which shows how to create a MVVM based tree view using a generic (n-level) approach.

I'm not suggesting there is anything wrong with Carlo's implementation, but I found that article helpful in understanding the TreeView control, and MVVM in general.