How to create and use Calendar in XAML and windows phone application Part-1?

A calendar control is used to create a visual calendar that lets users pick a date and fire an event on the selection of the date. This article demonstrates how to create and use a calendar control using XAML and C# in WPF.

Creating a Calendar

The Calendar element represents a calendar control in XAML as in the following:

<Calendar/>

The Calendar control is defined in the System.Windows.Controls namespace. When you drag and drop a Calendar control from the Toolbox to the page, the XAML code will look like the following code where you can see a Calendar XAML element has been added within the Grid element and its Width, Height, Name and VerticalAlignment and HorizontalAlignment attributes are set.

<Grid>
<Calendar Height="170" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="58,32,0,0"
Name="calendar1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="180" />
</Grid>

The default view of the Calendar control looks as in Figure 1.

Figure 1

The Width and Height attributes of the Calendar element represent the width and the height of a Calendar. The Content attribute represents the text of a Calendar. The Name attribute represents the name of the control, that is a unique identifier of a control.

The code snippet in Listing 1 creates a Calendar control and sets the name, height and width properties of a Calendar control.

<Calendar Name=" MonthlyCalendar" Height="30" Width="100" >
</Calendar>

Listing 1

Display Modes

The DisplayMode property of the Calendar class represents the format of the display of a Calendar, that can be a month, year, or decade. Month is the default mode. Setting the DisplayMode to Year and Decade generates Figure 2 and Figure 3 respectively.

Figure 2

Figure 3

The Month view that is also the default view looks as in Figure 4.

Figure 4

If you use an example of the Decade and click on the year 2008 in Figure 3, you will get another Calendar format with all the months in the year 2008 and if you click on any month, you will eventually get the month view of the Calendar.

The following code snippet sets the DisplayMode property to Decade.

<Calendar DisplayMode="Decade">
</Calendar>

Selection Modes and Selection Dates

The SelectedDate property represents the currently selected date. If multiple dates selection is true, the SelectedDates property represents a collection of currently selected dates.

The SelectionMode of type CalendarSelectionMode enumeration represents the selection mode of calendar. Table 1 describes the CalendarSelectionMode enumeration and its members.

CalendarSelectionMode	Description
None	No selections are allowed.
SingleDate	Only a single date can be selected, either by setting SelectedDate or the first value in SelectedDates. AddRange cannot be used.
SingleRange	A single range of dates can be selected. Setting SelectedDate, adding a date individually to SelectedDates, or using AddRange will clear all previous values from SelectedDates.
MultipleRange	Multiple non-contiguous ranges of dates can be selected. Adding a date individually to SelectedDates or using AddRange will not clear SelectedDates. Setting SelectedDate will still clear SelectedDates, but additional dates or range can then be added. Adding a range that includes some dates that are already selected or overlaps with another range results in the union of the ranges and does not cause an exception.

The following code snippet sets the SelectionMode property to a single range.

<Calendar SelectionMode="SingleRange">
</Calendar>

BlackoutDates

The BlackoutDates property of the Calendar class represents a collection of dates that are not available for selection. All non-selection dates are marked by a cross. For example, say in the month of March of the year 2010, we would like to block the dates from Jan 1st to Jan 7th and then all Sundays and the final calendar should look as in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Part 2 Continuous..

How to create and use Calendar in XAML and windows phone application Part-3?

Calendar Events

Besides the normal control events, the Calendar control has three events calendar related events. These events are the DisplayDateChanged, DisplayModeChanged and SelectedDatesChanged. The DisplayDateChanged event is fired where the DisplayDate property is changed. The DisplayModeChanged event is fired when the DisplayMode property is changed. The SelectedDatesChanged event is fired when the SelectedDate or SelectedDates properties are changed. The following code snippet sets these three events attributes.

The code behind for these events look as in Listing 4.

private void MonthlyCalendar_SelectedDatesChanged(object sender,
SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
}
private void MonthlyCalendar_DisplayDateChanged(object sender,
CalendarDateChangedEventArgs e)
{
}
private void MonthlyCalendar_DisplayModeChanged(object sender,
CalendarModeChangedEventArgs e)
{
}

Listing 4

Normally, on a date selection, you may want to capture that event and know what the current selected date is. Now how about we add a TextBox control to the page and on the date selection, we will set the text of the TextBox to the currently selected date.

We add the following code to the XAML just below the Calendar control. <TextBox Width="200" Height="30"
VerticalAlignment="Bottom"
HorizontalAlignment="Left"
Margin="10,10,10,10"
x:Name="SelectedDateTextBox">
</TextBox>

On the SelectedDateChanged event handler, we set the TextBox.Text property to the SelectedDate property of the Calendar control as you can see from the code in Listing 5.

private void MonthlyCalendar_SelectedDatesChanged(object sender,
SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
SelectedDateTextBox.Text = MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDate.ToString();
}

Listing 5

Now when you run the application, you will see the output that looks as in Figure 10. When you select a date in the Calendar, it will be displayed in the TextBox.

Figure 10

Formatting a Calendar

How about we create a Calendar control with a border formatting, background and foreground of the Calendar?

The BorderBrush property of the Calendar sets a brush to draw the border of a Calendar. You may use any brush to fill the border. The following code snippet uses a linear gradient brush to draw the border with a combination of the colors Red and Blue.

<Calendar.BorderBrush>
<LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="1,1" >
<GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0" />
<GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="1.0" />
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Calendar.BorderBrush>

The Background and Foreground properties of the Calendar set the background and foreground colors of a Calendar. You may use any brush to fill the border. The following code snippet uses linear gradient brushes to draw the background and foreground of a Calendar.

<Calendar.Background>
<LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="1,1" >
<GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0.1" />
<GradientStop Color="Orange" Offset="0.25" />
<GradientStop Color="Green" Offset="0.75" />
<GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="1.0" />
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Calendar.Background>
<Calendar.Foreground>
<LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="1,1" >
<GradientStop Color="Black" Offset="0.25" />
<GradientStop Color="Green" Offset="1.0" />
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Calendar.Foreground>

The new Calendar looks as in Figure 11.

Figure 11

Setting Image as Background of a Calendar

To set an image as the background of a Calendar, we can set an image as the Background of the Calendar. The following code snippet sets the background of a Calendar to an image. The code also sets the opacity of the image.

<Calendar.Background>
<ImageBrush ImageSource="Garden.jpg" Opacity="0.3"/>
</Calendar.Background>

The new output looks as in Figure 12.

Figure 12

Creating a Calendar Dynamically

The code listed in Listing 6 creates a Calendar control programmatically. First, it creates a Calendar object and sets its DisplayMode and SelectedMode and other properties and later the Calendar is added to the LayoutRoot.

private void CreateDynamicCalendar()
{
Calendar MonthlyCalendar = new Calendar();
MonthlyCalendar.Name = "MonthlyCalendar";
MonthlyCalendar.Width = 300;
MonthlyCalendar.Height = 400;
MonthlyCalendar.Background = Brushes.LightBlue;
MonthlyCalendar.DisplayMode = CalendarMode.Month;
MonthlyCalendar.SelectionMode = CalendarSelectionMode.SingleRange;
MonthlyCalendar.DisplayDateStart = new DateTime(2010, 3, 1);
MonthlyCalendar.DisplayDateEnd = new DateTime(2010, 3, 31);
MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDates.Add(new DateTime(2010, 3, 5));
MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDates.Add(new DateTime(2010, 3, 15));
MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDates.Add(new DateTime(2010, 3, 25));
MonthlyCalendar.FirstDayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Monday;
MonthlyCalendar.IsTodayHighlighted = true;
LayoutRoot.Children.Add(MonthlyCalendar);
}

Listing 6

Summary

In this article, I discussed the calendar control using XAML and C#. We also saw how to set display modes, selection modes, blackout dates, selected dates, border, background and foreground properties. After that, we saw you to set an image as the background of a Calendar. In the end of this article, we saw how to create a Calendar dynamically.

How to create and use Calendar in XAML and windows phone application Part-2?

The following code snippet adds blackout dates to a Calendar.

<Calendar.BlackoutDates>
<CalendarDateRange Start="3/1/2010" End="3/7/2010"/>
<CalendarDateRange Start="3/8/2010" End="3/8/2010"/>
<CalendarDateRange Start="3/15/2010" End="3/15/2010"/>
<CalendarDateRange Start="3/22/2010" End="3/22/2010"/>
<CalendarDateRange Start="3/29/2010" End="3/29/2010"/>
</Calendar.BlackoutDates>

We can do this by adding the code listed in Listing 2. As you can see from Listing 3, the BlackoutDates.Add method takes a CalendarDateRange object, that is a collection of two DateTime objects. The first date is the start date of the range and the second date is the end date of the date range.

private void SetBlackOutDates()
{
MonthlyCalendar.BlackoutDates.Add(new CalendarDateRange(
new DateTime(2010, 3, 1),
new DateTime(2010, 3, 7)
));
MonthlyCalendar.BlackoutDates.Add(new CalendarDateRange(
new DateTime(2010, 3, 8),
new DateTime(2010, 3, 8)
));
MonthlyCalendar.BlackoutDates.Add(new CalendarDateRange(
new DateTime(2010, 3, 15),
new DateTime(2010, 3, 15)
));
MonthlyCalendar.BlackoutDates.Add(new CalendarDateRange(
new DateTime(2010, 3, 22),
new DateTime(2010, 3, 22)
));
MonthlyCalendar.BlackoutDates.Add(new CalendarDateRange(
new DateTime(2010, 3, 29),
new DateTime(2010, 3, 29)
));
}

Listing 2

DisplayDateStart and DisplayDateEnd

The Calendar control allows you to set the start and end display dates using the DisplayDateStart and DisplayDateEnd properties. If you see Figure 5 in the previous section, you may notice the March 2010 month calendar display starts with the March 01, 2010 date. But now, what if you want to display the dates for only the month of March 2010? We can use the DisplayStartDate and DisplayEndDate properties to control the start and end dates of a month.

DisplayDate property represents the current date to display.

The following code snippet sets the DisplayDate, DisplayDateStart and DisplayDateEnd attributes of the Calendar element in XAML.

The code listed in Listing 3 makes sure the start date is March 01, 2010 and end date is March 31, 2010. The current selected date is March 05.

private void SetDisplayDates()
{
MonthlyCalendar.DisplayDate = new DateTime(2010, 3, 5);
MonthlyCalendar.DisplayDateStart = new DateTime(2010, 3, 1);
MonthlyCalendar.DisplayDateEnd = new DateTime(2010, 3, 31);
}

Listing 3

The new calendar looks as in Figure 6.

Figure 6

FirstDayOfWeek and IsTodayHighlighted

By default, Sunday is the first day of the week. If you would like to change it, you use the FirstDayOfWeek property. The IsTodayHightlighted property is used to highlight today.

The following code snippet sets the FirstDayOfWeek to Tuesday and makes today highlighted.

The following code snippet sets the FirstDayOfWeek to Tuesday and makes today highlighted in WPF.

MonthlyCalendar.FirstDayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Tuesday;
MonthlyCalendar.IsTodayHighlighted = true;

The new calendar looks as in Figure 7, where you can see the start day of the week is Tuesday.

Figure 7

Selected Date and Selected Dates

The SelectedDate property represents the current selected date. If multiple date selection is true then the SelectedDates property represents all the selected dates in a Calendar. The following code snippet sets the SelectedDates in XAML at design-time.

The selected dates in a Calendar looks as in Figure 8 where you can see March 5th, 15th and 25th have a light blue background and represents the selected dates.

Figure 8

The following code snippet sets the SelectedDates property in WPF at run-time.

private void AddSelectedDates()
{
MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDates.Add(new DateTime(2010, 3, 5));
MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDates.Add(new DateTime(2010, 3, 15));
MonthlyCalendar.SelectedDates.Add(new DateTime(2010, 3, 25));
}

Note: If you have set the selected dates to any of the blackout dates, you will see the parser in XAML will throw an error as in Figure 9.

Figure 9

How to use a TextBlock,XAML in WPF and windows phone application Part-1?

The XAML TextBlock element represents a text block. The TextBlock control provides a lightweight control for displaying small amounts of flow content. This article shows how to use a TextBlock control in WPF.

Creating a TextBlock

The TextBlock element represents a WPF TextBlock control in XAML.

<TextBlock/>

The Width and Height attributes of the TextBlock element represent the width and the height of aTextBlock. The Text property of the TextBlock element represents the content of a TextBlock. The Name attribute represents the name of the control that is a unique identifier of a control. The Foreground property sets the foreground color of contents. This control does not have a Background property.

The code snippet in Listing 1 creates a TextBlock control and sets the name, height, width, foreground and content of a TextBlock control. Unlike a TextBox control, the TextBlock does not have a default border around it.

<TextBlock Name="TextBlock1" Height="30" Width="200"

Text="Hello! I am a TextBlock." Foreground="Red">

</TextBlock>

Listing 1

The output looks as in Figure 1.

output
Figure 1

As you can see from Figure 1, by default the TextBlock is placed in the center of the page. We can place aTextBlock control where we want using the Margin, VerticalAlignment and HorizontalAlignment attributes that sets the margin, vertical alignment and horizontal alignment of a control.

The code snippet in Listing 2 sets the position of the TextBlock control in the left top corner of the page.

Listing 2

Creating a TextBlock Dynamically

The code listed in Listing 3 creates a TextBlock control programmatically. First, it creates a TextBlockobject and sets its width, height, contents and foreground and later the TextBlock is added to theLayoutRoot.

private void CreateATextBlock()
{
TextBlock txtBlock = new TextBlock();
txtBlock.Height = 50;
txtBlock.Width = 200;
txtBlock.Text = "Text Box content";
txtBlock.Foreground = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red);

LayoutRoot.Children.Add(txtBlock);
}

Listing 3

Setting Fonts of TextBlock Contents

The FontSize, FontFamily, FontWeight, FontStyle and FontStretch properties are used to set the font size, family, weight, style and stretch to the text of a TextBlock. The code snippet in Listing 4 sets the font properties of a TextBlock.

FontSize="14" FontFamily="Verdana" FontWeight="Bold"

Listing 4

The new output looks as in Figure 4.

hello

How to use TreeView in XAML and Windows phone application Part 6?

PART 5: Continues

To bind an XmlDataProvider, we set the Source property inside the ItemsSource of a TreeView to the x:Keyof XmlDataProvider and the code in the code is used to filter the data. In the TreeView.ItemTempate, we use the Binding property.

<TreeView.ItemsSource>
<Binding Source="{StaticResource BooksData}"
XPath="*[@Category='Programming'] "/>
</TreeView.ItemsSource>
<TreeView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Text="Title: " FontWeight="Bold"/>
<TextBlock Foreground="Green" >
<TextBlock.Text>
<Binding XPath="Title"/>
</TextBlock.Text>
</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</TreeView.ItemTemplate>
</TreeView>

The output of the preceding code looks as in the following.

xml data binding
Figure 11

The last data binding type we will see is how to provide data exchange between a TreeView and other controls using data binding in WPF.

We will create an application that looks as in the following. I have a TreeView with a list of colors, aTextBox and a Canvas. When we pick a color from the TreeView, the text of the TextBox and color of the Canvas changes dynamically to the color selected in the TreeView. This is possible to do all in XAMLwithout writing a single line of code in the code behind file.

Figure 12.

The XAML code of the page looks as in the following:

<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<TextBlock Margin="10,10,10,10" FontWeight="Bold">
Pick a color from below list
</TextBlock>
<TreeView Name="mcTreeView" Height="100" Width="100"
Margin="10,10,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" >
<TreeViewItem>Orange</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem>Green</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem>Blue</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem>Gray</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem>LightGray</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem>Red</TreeViewItem>
</TreeView>
<TextBox Height="23" Name="textBox1" Width="120" Margin="10,10,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" >
<TextBox.Text>
<Binding ElementName="mcTreeView" Path="SelectedItem.Content"/>
</TextBox.Text>
</TextBox>
<Canvas Margin="10,10,0,0" Height="200" Width="200" HorizontalAlignment="Left" >
<Canvas.Background>
<Binding ElementName="mcTreeView" Path="SelectedItem.Content"/>
</Canvas.Background>
</Canvas>
</StackPanel>

If you look at the TextBox XAML code, you will see the Binding within the TextBox.Text property that sets the binding from the TextBox to another control. Another control ID is ElementName and another control's property is Path. So in the following code, we are setting the SelectedItem.Content property of theTreeView to the TextBox.Text property.

<TextBox.Text>
<Binding ElementName="mcTreeView" Path="SelectedItem.Content"/>
</TextBox.Text>

The same applies to the Canvas.Background property, where we set it to the SelectedItem.Content of theTreeView. Now, every time you select an item in the TreeView, the TextBox.Text and Canvas.Backgroundproperties are set to the selected item in the TreeView.

<Canvas.Background>
<Binding ElementName="mcTreeView" Path="SelectedItem.Content"/>
</Canvas.Background>

Summary

In this article, I exlained how to create and use a TreeView control available in WPF. We saw how to add items to a TreeView, change item properties, add images and add check boxes. In the end of this article, we saw how data binding works for a TreeView and how to bind a TreeView with data coming from objects, a database and other controls.

How to use TreeView in XAML and Windows phone application Part 5?

Part 4: Continues

We will read ContactName, Address, City and Country columns in a WPF TreeView control. The finalTreeView looks as in the following:

final TreeView

Now let's look at our XAML file. We create a resources DataTemplate type called TreeViewTemplate. A data template is used to represent data in a formatted way. The data template has two dock panels where the first panel shows the name and the second panel shows the address, city and country columns by using TextBlock controls.

<Window.Resources>
<DataTemplate x:Key="TreeViewTemplate">
<StackPanel Margin="3">
<DockPanel >
<TextBlock FontWeight="Bold" Text="Name:"
DockPanel.Dock="Left"
Margin="5,0,10,0"/>
<TextBlock Text=" " />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding ContactName}" Foreground="Green" FontWeight="Bold" />
</DockPanel>
<DockPanel >
<TextBlock FontWeight="Bold" Text="Address:" Foreground ="DarkOrange"
DockPanel.Dock="Left"
Margin="5,0,5,0"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Address}" />
<TextBlock Text=", " />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding City}" />
<TextBlock Text=", " />
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Country}" />
</DockPanel>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>

Now in our code behind, we define the following variables.

public SqlConnection connection;
public SqlCommand command;
string sql = "SELECT ContactName, Address, City, Country FROM Customers";
string connectionString = @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\NORTHWND.MDF;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True";

On the Windows_Loaded method, we use the BindData method. In the BindData method, we create a connection and a data adapter and fill in the DataSet using the SqlDataAdapter.Fill method.

private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
BindData();
}

private void BindData()
{
DataSet dtSet = new DataSet();
using (connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
command = new SqlCommand(sql, connection);
SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter();
connection.Open();
adapter.SelectCommand = command;
adapter.Fill(dtSet, "Customers");
TreeView1.DataContext = dtSet;
}
}

Now let's look at how to bind XML data to a TreeView control. The XmlDataProvider is used to bind XMLdata in WPF.

<XmlDataProvider x:Key="BooksData" XPath="Inventory/Books">
<x:XData>
<Inventory xmlns="">
<Books>
<Book Category="Programming" >
<Title>A Programmer's Guide to ADO.NET</Title>
<Summary>Learn how to write database applications using ADO.NET and C#.
</Summary>
<Author>Mahesh Chand</Author>
<Publisher>APress</Publisher>
</Book>
<Book Category="Programming" >
<Title>Graphics Programming with GDI+</Title>
<Summary>Learn how to write graphics applications using GDI+ and C#.
</Summary>
<Author>Mahesh Chand</Author>
<Publisher>Addison Wesley</Publisher>
</Book>
<Book Category="Programming" >
<Title>Visual C#</Title>
<Summary>Learn how to write C# applications.
</Summary>
<Author>Mike Gold</Author>
<Publisher>APress</Publisher>
</Book>
<Book Category="Programming" >
<Title>Introducing Microsoft .NET</Title>
<Summary>Programming .NET
</Summary>
<Author>Mathew Cochran</Author>
<Publisher>APress</Publisher>
</Book>
<Book Category="Database" >
<Title>DBA Express</Title>
<Summary>DBA's Handbook
</Summary>
<Author>Mahesh Chand</Author>
<Publisher>Microsoft</Publisher>
</Book>
</Books>
</Inventory>
</x:XData>
</XmlDataProvider>

How to use TreeView in XAML and Windows phone application Part 4?

Part 3 Continues:

We've seen many requirements where a page has two TreeView controls and the left TreeView displays a list of items. Using a button, we can use items from the left TreeView and add them to the right sideTreeView. Using the remove button we can remove items from the right side TreeView and add them back to the left side TreeView.

This sample shows how to move items from one TreeView to another. The final page looks as in the following. The Add button adds the selected item to the right side TreeView and removes it from the left side TreeView. The Remove button removes the selected item from the right side TreeView and adds back to the left side TreeView.

Figure 7

right side TreeView
Figure 8

The following XAML code generates two TreeView controls and two Button controls.

<TreeView Margin="11,13,355,11" Name="LeftTreeView" />
<TreeView Margin="0,13,21,11" Name="RightTreeView" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Width="216" />
<Button Name="AddButton" Height="23" Margin="248,78,261,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"
Click="AddButton_Click">Add >></Button>
<Button Name="RemoveButton" Margin="248,121,261,117"
Click="RemoveButton_Click"><< Remove</Button>

On the Window loaded event, we create and load data items to the TreeView by setting the ItemsSourceproperty to an ArrayList.

private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Get data from somewhere and fill in my local ArrayList
myDataList = LoadTreeViewData();
// Bind ArrayList with the TreeView
LeftTreeView.ItemsSource = myDataList;
}

/// <summary>
/// Generate data. This method can bring data from a database or XML file
/// or from a Web service or generate data dynamically
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
private ArrayList LoadTreeViewData()
{
ArrayList itemsList = new ArrayList();
itemsList.Add("Coffie");
itemsList.Add("Tea");
itemsList.Add("Orange Juice");
itemsList.Add("Milk");
itemsList.Add("Mango Shake");
itemsList.Add("Iced Tea");
itemsList.Add("Soda");
itemsList.Add("Water");
return itemsList;
}

In the Add button click event handler, we get the value and index of the selected item in the left sideTreeView and add that to the right side TreeView and remove that item from the ArrayList that is our data source. The ApplyBinding method simply removes the current binding of the TreeView and rebinds with the updated ArrayList.

private void RemoveButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Find the right item and it's value and index
currentItemText = RightTreeView.SelectedValue.ToString();
currentItemIndex = RightTreeView.SelectedIndex;
// Add RightTreeView item to the ArrayList
myDataList.Add(currentItemText);

RightTreeView.Items.RemoveAt(RightTreeView.Items.IndexOf(RightTreeView.SelectedItem));

// Refresh data binding
ApplyDataBinding();
}

Similarly, on the Remove button click event handler, we get the selected item text and index from the right side TreeView and add that to the ArrayList and remove from the right side TreeView.

We use the Northwind.mdf database that comes with SQL Server. In our application, we will read data from the Customers table. The Customers table columns look like this.

Note: Part 5 will update soon.

How to use TreeView in XAML and Windows phone application Part 3?

Part 2 Continous:

<TreeViewItem.Header>

<CheckBox Name="CoffieCheckBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="coffie.jpg" Height="30"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="Coffie"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox>
</TreeViewItem.Header>
</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem Name="Child2">
<TreeViewItem.Header>
<CheckBox Name="IcedTeaCheckBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="IcedTea.jpg" Height="30"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="Iced Tea"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox>
</TreeViewItem.Header>
</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem Name="Child3">
<TreeViewItem.Header>
<CheckBox Name="MangoShakeCheckBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="MangoShake.jpg" Height="30"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="Mango Shake"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox>
</TreeViewItem.Header>
</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem Name="Child4">
<TreeViewItem.Header>
<CheckBox Name="MilkCheckBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="Milk.jpg" Height="30"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="Milk"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox>
</TreeViewItem.Header>
</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem Name="Child5">
<TreeViewItem.Header>
<CheckBox Name="TeaCheckBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="Tea.jpg" Height="30"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="Tea"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox>
</TreeViewItem.Header>
</TreeViewItem>
<TreeViewItem Name="Child6">
<TreeViewItem.Header>
<CheckBox Name="OrangeJuiceCheckBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="OrangeJuice.jpg" Height="30"></Image>
<TextBlock Text="Orange Juice"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox>
</TreeViewItem.Header>
</TreeViewItem>
</TreeViewItem>

The new TreeView looks as in the following:

Figure 6. TreeView with CheckBoxes

Before I discuss data binding in general, I must confess, the Microsoft experts have made a big mess related to data-binding in .NET 3.0 and 3.5. Instead of making things simpler, they have made them complicated. Maybe they have bigger plans in the future, but so far I have seen binding using dependency objects and properties, LINQ, DLINQ, WCF and ASP.NET Web Services and it all looks like a big mess. It's not even close to the ADO.NET model we had in .NET 1.0 and 2.0. I hope they solve this problem in the near future.

When it comes to data binding, we need to first understand the data. Here is a list of the ways data can be consumed:

Objects
A relational database such as SQL Server
A XML file or
Other controls

The ItemsSource property of a TreeView is used to bind a collection of IEnuemerables such as anArrayList to the TreeView control.

// Bind ArrayList with the TreeView
LeftTreeView.ItemsSource = LoadTreeViewData();

private ArrayList LoadTreeViewData()
{
ArrayList itemsList = new ArrayList();
itemsList.Add("Coffie");
itemsList.Add("Tea");
itemsList.Add("Orange Juice");
itemsList.Add("Milk");
itemsList.Add("Mango Shake");
itemsList.Add("Iced Tea");
itemsList.Add("Soda");
itemsList.Add("Water");
return itemsList;
}

Note: Part 4 will update soon.

How to create and use Calendar in XAML and windows phone application Part-1?

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