WPF properties panel is similar to Visual Studio

Question

Just wondering if there are examples or elements that may look very similar to the property bar used in Visual Studio? My guess is that in Visual Studio 2010 is built on WPF, almost certainly treeview?

Answer 1

• Mindscape is free.
• There is one in CodeProject .
• Actipro is developing a very good one.
• Like ComponentOne .

Answer 2

If you want to use some simple XAML, the following is visually identical to the WinForms PropertyGrid, but it’s much easier to work with:

<Style x:Key="InnerBorder" TargetType="{x:Type Border}"> <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1" /> <Setter Property="Margin" Value="4" /> <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="#B4B0A8" /> </Style> <Grid> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition /> <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <!-- Main property grid area --> <Border Style="{StaticResource InnerBorder}"> <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Parameters}" IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True" KeyboardNavigation.TabNavigation="Continue" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" BorderThickness="0"> <!-- Category grouping rows --> <ListBox.GroupStyle> <GroupStyle> <GroupStyle.HeaderTemplate> <DataTemplate> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" Background="#D4D0C8" FontWeight="Bold" Padding="2 2 0 4" Margin="0 0 0 3"/> </DataTemplate> </GroupStyle.HeaderTemplate> <GroupStyle.ContainerStyle> <Style> <Setter Property="Control.Margin" Value="0 0 0 8" /> </Style> </GroupStyle.ContainerStyle> </GroupStyle> </ListBox.GroupStyle> <!-- Item container style --> <ListBox.ItemContainerStyle> <Style TargetType="ListBoxItem"> <Setter Property="Focusable" Value="False" /> <Setter Property="TabIndex" Value="0" /> <Setter Property="Template"> <Setter.Value> <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ListBoxItem}"> <DockPanel Margin="4 0 0 0" IsKeyboardFocusWithinChanged="DockPanel_IsKeyboardFocusWithinChanged" MouseDown="DockPanel_MouseDown"> <TextBlock Name="TitleBlock" Text="{Binding DisplayName}" Width="135" /> <ContentPresenter /> </DockPanel> <ControlTemplate.Triggers> <Trigger Property="IsSelected" Value="true"> <Setter TargetName="TitleBlock" Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}}" /> <Setter TargetName="TitleBlock" Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.HighlightTextBrushKey}}" /> </Trigger> </ControlTemplate.Triggers> </ControlTemplate> </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style> </ListBox.ItemContainerStyle> </ListBox> </Border> <!-- Help area --> <Border Style="{StaticResource InnerBorder}" Grid.Row="1" DataContext="{Binding Parameters}"> <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="2"> <TextBlock FontWeight="Bold" Text="{Binding /DisplayName}" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding /Description}" TextWrapping="Wrap" /> </StackPanel> </Border> </Grid> 

And here is the code for

 private void DockPanel_IsKeyboardFocusWithinChanged(object sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) { var element = (FrameworkElement)sender; if(element.IsKeyboardFocusWithin) { Visual cur = element; while(cur!=null && !(cur is ListBoxItem)) cur = (Visual)VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(cur); ((ListBoxItem)cur).IsSelected = true; } } private void DockPanel_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) { ((FrameworkElement)sender).MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.First)); } private void InitializeView() { var view = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(Parameters); if(view.GroupDescriptions.Count==0) view.GroupDescriptions.Add(new PropertyGroupDescription("Category")); if(view.SortDescriptions.Count==0) { view.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("Category", ListSortDirection.Ascending)); view.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("DisplayName", ListSortDirection.Ascending)); } } 

The reason this property grid works better with WPF is because you can add any object to the Parameters collection if it has a Category, DisplayName, and Description.

If you want to use it to actually display the properties of a specific object, it takes only a few lines to load a collection of parameters using the corresponding objects.