Binding to ListData (with IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem)

Today while testing out data binding in WPF to list controls, I learnt something new.

On the window, I created two list boxes, and a textblock control all have data context of an xml static resource.

For the ItemsSource in listbox I was using: {Binding XPath=@name} [the xml resource contains a Color element with attribute 'name]. I used IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem on both the listboxes and bound the TextBlock Text to {Binding XPath=@Name}.

On testing the app I found, the controls are not synchronized. After referring to MSDN and some testing with different bindings - I found that to enable synchronization between all the controls to the CurrentItem of the collection, it is important to bind the list boxes to the whole collection. and not to a member or attribute (in this example).

So for listboxes it should be ItemsSource={Binding}, for display purposes we can use DisplayMemberPath or DataTemplate.

Tool to download complete web site

Use this to copy a complete web site locally.

http://www.httrack.com/

[TIP: You can use this to download channel9 videos of your interest]

Debug XAML

Posting some links to debug XAML:

http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/2007/03/29/tips-on-how-to-debug-and-learn-about-wpf/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wpfsldesigner/archive/2010/06/30/debugging-data-bindings-in-a-wpf-or-silverlight-application.aspx

http://www.beacosta.com/blog/?p=52

Important links

Events, Delegate and Multithreading

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brada/archive/2005/01/14/353132.aspx

MSDN's canonical technique for using Control.Invoke is lame

http://msmvps.com/blogs/duniho/default.aspx

Send a message to a Windows Forms message loop

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1497947/send-a-message-to-a-windows-forms-message-loop

SlickRun custom magic words

[msdn]

Filename="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=$W$ site:msdn.microsoft.com"

Notes="Searches MSDN using Google"

GUID={2F9AC37E-9BD9-486D-9168-D7C2FF0D0750}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[msdngo]

Filename="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=$W$ site:msdn.microsoft.com"

Notes="Goes to the first Google search item on MSDN site"

GUID={E82C1293-A5C3-4D18-BBD7-BAFC543AC6EE}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[n]

Filename="notepad.exe"

Params="$W$"

GUID={B3DADC2D-B5EA-4186-B165-CDCF7F6BEF2F}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[stack]

Filename="http://stackoverflow.com/"

GUID={28BF5F9B-CAE3-48E9-A66E-440135239B96}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[times]

Filename="http://www.nytimes.com"

Notes="The New York Times"

GUID={6791C0B1-91B9-4946-BC16-07B58AEFF9DF}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[wi]

Filename="http://frer0342:8080/WorkItemTracking/WorkItem.aspx?artifactMoniker=$W$"

GUID={592A1690-DA02-4F3B-8C17-EDAF6A4FBF24}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[wikipedia,encyc]

Filename="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=$W$&go=Go"

Notes="Search Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia"

GUID={7A4FFA2F-1DC7-4580-B235-70A21AC1C586}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

[word]

Filename="winword.exe"

Notes="Microsoft Word text editing tool"

GUID={C1F88DA3-A72C-4244-832D-340512AB6BC6}

StartMode=5

UseRunAs=0

Disable32BitRedir=0

Dev Tools

- Slickrun: http://www.fiddlertool.com/SlickRun/

- Process explorer: http://technet.microsoft.com/fr-fr/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

- RocketDoc: http://rocketdock.com/

- Fences: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

- LINQPad: http://www.linqpad.net/

(Code snippet execution)

- mTail: http://ophilipp.free.fr/op_tail.htm

Using Attributes

I just realised that we have two ways to use an attribute.

For example the attribute - AttributeUsage - is implemented in the class AttributeUsageAttribute. And we can use either AttributeUsage or AttributeUsageAttribute in our code.

In fact if you create a custom attribute in class named "TestAttribute":

public class TestAttribute : Attribute

{

}

and define another custom attribute named "Test":

public class Test : Attribute

{

}

and then try using the attribute in a class:

[Test()]

public class MyClass

{ }

This will give compilation error:

'Test' is ambiguous between 'Test' and 'TestAttribute'; use either '@Test' or 'TestAttribute'

The code intellisense as well displays only the "Test" pointing to TestAttribute in its list, it doesn't show the other "Test".

I believe C# creates an alias of TestAttribute somewhere for the attribute. It actually makes sense to use aliased-name of attribute. It would be unwieldy to write attributes as WebMethodAttribute, ConditionalAttribute or AttributeUsageAttribute - just to name a few defined in the framework. Microsoft also uses the alias on MSDN.