Set DataTemplate control property binding to the item from an ItemsSource collection?

Question

I have an ItemsCountrol with its ItemsSource property bound to an ObservableCollection. I have a usercontrol (TeamUserControl) that displays this type. I created a datatemplate that loads this usercontrol for each customtype item in the itemssource collection. At this point any Binding statements I make inside TeamUserControl can reference Team properties directly by path {Binding Path=TeamOwner} and work. Is there a way to bind a reference to the ItemsSource item the usercontrol is representing? For example, in the TeamUserControl creating a dependancy property of type Team and have it bound to the instance of the item from the ItemsSource.

    <ItemsControl Name="ItemCtrl" Grid.Row="0" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=League.Teams}">
      <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
          <mycontrols:TeamUserControl AttachedTeam="{Binding ???}" TeamOwnerName="{Binding Path=TeamOwner}"/>
        </DataTemplate> 
      </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    </ItemsControl>

In this example the window is representing a class "League" which has the property: ObservableCollection Teams. And there is a class "Team" which has the property:TeamOwner. The TeamUserControl has two dependancy properties: AttachedTeam of type Team, and TeamOwnerName of type string.

I included the team-owner property reference to show that there is an instance of Team for each of these usercontrols. I am just not sure how to reference it.

stukselbax stukselbax · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-21T08:58:13

As I understand you, you should to write

<mycontrols:TeamUserControl AttachedTeam="{Binding}" TeamOwnerName="{Binding Path=TeamOwner}"/>

{Binding} statement will bind to current item in ItemsSource, where type T is type which your ObservableCollection<T> League.Teams uses.

I also recommend you to read MSDN article about ItemsControl, and look around Binding to make it clear for yourself, what you can bind to.

Set DataTemplate control property binding to the item from an ItemsSource collection?

1 Answers