DataGrid ComboBox Template Columns problem

Hi there,

I am using WPF Element Apr. 3rd 2012 nightly build. I have a question in DataGrid on how to set the ComboBox ItemsSource in a column. Here are some code snipts:

1) I have a ViewModel

public class VMCustomer
{
BindingList<Customer> customers = new BindingList<Customer>();
List<string>ages = new List<string>();

public VMCustomer()
{
this.ages.Add("20 years old");
this.ages.Add("30 years old");
}
public List<string> Ages
{
return ages;
}
public BindingList<Customer> Customers
{
get{return customers;}
}

public class Customer : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
  string age;
string name;

public string Age
{
   get{return age;}
set{age=value; OnPropertyChanged("Age");
}

public string Name
{
get{return name;}
set{name = value; OnPropertyChanged("Name");
}
}

2) On XAML I have something like:

<ms:DataGrid ItemSource={Binding Customers} AllowAddNew="True">

<ms:DataGrid.Columns>
<ms:DataGridColumn PropertyName="Age" EditorTemplate={StaticResource ageTemplate}/>
</ms:DataGrid.Columns>

</ms:DataGrid>

I defined ageTemplate as the following

<DataTemplate x:Key="ageTemplate">
   <ComboBox Text={Binding Age} ItemsSource={Binding Ages}/>
</DataTemplate>

In the code behind xaml on the constructor I have set this.DataContext = new VMCustomer() after InitailizeComponet();

But when I run the application the drop down for the Age combobox column is empty.

I don't want to put the Ages property inside the Customer class, how do I make it work?

Hello Gordon

The data context of the cell is the row object (a Customer) which means the editor template does not have access to the Ages property in your current setup. I would recommend that you set the Ages property to be static. (This of course means the ages field should also be static, and it can be loaded with strings in the static constructor). Then in the editor template, you can set the ItemsSource of the combo box like this:

ItemsSource="{x:Static local:VMCustomer.Ages}"

Where 'local' is the namespace containing VMCustomer.

Jason Fauchelle