Creating a Custom Converter for Dynamic Data with Silverlight

Question

I am binding data that I receive from a WCF weather service to a datagrid in silverlight. I get a return of a 7 day forecast. The problem I am having is that the return is a collection and in this collection is Temperature and Probability of Precipitation which are another level deep. In Temperature there is High and Low and then Probability of Precipitation has Daytime and Nighttime.

namespace MyProject
{
public partial class MainPage : UserControl
{

    WeatherSoapClient weatherClient = new WeatherSoapClient();

    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        weatherClient.GetCityWeatherByZIPCompleted += new EventHandler<GetCityWeatherByZIPCompletedEventArgs>(weatherClient_GetCityWeatherByZIPCompleted);
    }

This is where I am setting the datagrid's source to the Forecast Collection.

    void weatherClient_GetCityForecastByZIPCompleted(object sender, GetCityForecastByZIPCompletedEventArgs e)
    {
        this.dataGrid1.ItemsSource = e.Result.ForecastResult;

    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        weatherClient.GetCityForecastByZIPAsync(inputZip.Text);
    }
}
}

And the results that I get in the datagrid look like this: https://i.stack.imgur.com/9W67v.jpg

As you can see under Temperature and POP that is not what I would want displayed. Being new to C# I have had a difficult time getting to the point I am at. Now someone suggested making a custom converter to drill down deeper. I am unsure of how to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I show everything you need to see.

RobSiklos · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-19T14:06:13.237

1

You need to set AutoGenerateColumns to False on the data grid, and then define the column types yourself (plenty of information about how to do this on the internet).

For the first few columns, DataGridTextColumn is fine.

For the last two, you want to use a DataGridTemplateColumn. In the DataTemplate for the column, you can put two TextBlocks, each binding to a different property.

For example:

<data:DataGrid AutoGenerateColumns="False">
    <data:DataGrid.Columns>

      <data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Date"
                               Binding="{Binding Date}" />

      <data:DataGridTextColumn Header="ID"
                               Binding="{Binding WeatherID}" />

      <data:DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Temperature">
        <data:DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
          <DataTemplate>
             <StackPanel>
               <TextBlock Text="{Binding Temperatures.High}" />
               <TextBlock Text="{Binding Temperatures.Low}" />
             </StackPanel>
          </DataTemplate>
        </data:DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
      </data:DataGridTemplateColumn>
    </data:DataGrid.Columns>
</data:DataGrid>

edited Apr 19 '12 at 14:06

answered Apr 19 '12 at 01:52

RobSiklos

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Thanks Rob. I will try this and see if I can get it to work. As for the first part if you could show a code snippet of what you are talking about or even a link to some reference would be great. I am basically a complete beginner with C# and OOP besides a little bit of Actionscript. So this is all a bit confusing to me. Thanks again though! – Fogolicious Apr 19 '12 at 05:53
I updated the example in my answer to be a bit more comprehensive. – RobSiklos Apr 19 '12 at 13:17
Thank you so much! I will definitely try this out and return when I have some results. – Fogolicious Apr 19 '12 at 13:42
Hey Rob, just tried it and it did throw an error at first but I found what was missing in your example if you would like to edit it. After you need – Fogolicious Apr 19 '12 at 13:55
Oops - sorry about that - I updated the answer. If it worked for you, please mark as answer - Thanks! – RobSiklos Apr 19 '12 at 14:06
Hey you were able to help me with this so I thought I would direct you to another question for the same project. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10269731/creating-a-converter-to-take-an-id-and-create-an-image-in-silverlight Thanks again for all the help! – Fogolicious Apr 22 '12 at 16:57

Creating a Custom Converter for Dynamic Data with Silverlight

1 Answers1