Data Bind to Dynamic Object with CLR and Dynamic Properties

This article describes how to implement DynamicObject with dynamic (DLR) and static (CLR) fields, and data bind it to RadGridView.

The following model shows a class that derives from DynamicObject and containing one CLR property called Id. When the RadGridView auto-generates its columns, the TryGetMember method of the DynamicObject class will be used to fetch the values for each column. This said, you will need to implement some logic in the method in order to allow RadGridView to work with the data - both CLR (Common Language Runtime) and DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime).

Example 1: DynamicObject implementation

• C#
• VB.NET

public class RowInfo : DynamicObject, INotifyPropertyChanged 
{      
    private int id;  
    private readonly IDictionary<string, object> data = new Dictionary<string, object>(); 
 
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; 
 
    // CLR property 
    public int Id 
    { 
        get { return id; } 
        set { id = value; OnPropertyChanged("Id"); } 
    } 
 
    public override IEnumerable<string> GetDynamicMemberNames() 
    { 
        return data.Keys; 
    } 
 
    public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result) 
    { 
        if (binder.Name == nameof(this.Id)) 
        { 
            result = this.Id; 
        } 
        else 
        { 
            result = this[binder.Name]; 
        } 
 
        return true; 
    } 
 
    public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value) 
    { 
        this[binder.Name] = value; 
        return true; 
    } 
 
    public object this[string columnName] 
    { 
        get 
        { 
            if (data.ContainsKey(columnName)) 
            { 
                return data[columnName]; 
            } 
            return null; 
        } 
        set 
        { 
            if (!data.ContainsKey(columnName)) 
            { 
                data.Add(columnName, value); 
                OnPropertyChanged(columnName); 
            } 
            else 
            { 
                if (data[columnName] != value) 
                { 
                    data[columnName] = value; 
                    OnPropertyChanged(columnName); 
                } 
            } 
        } 
    } 
 
    private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName) 
    { 
        if (PropertyChanged != null) 
        { 
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); 
        } 
    } 
} 

Public Class RowInfo 
    Inherits DynamicObject 
    Implements INotifyPropertyChanged 
 
    Private id As Integer 
    Private ReadOnly data As IDictionary(Of String, Object) = New Dictionary(Of String, Object)() 
    Public Event PropertyChanged As PropertyChangedEventHandler 
 
    Public Property Id As Integer 
        Get 
            Return id 
        End Get 
        Set(ByVal value As Integer) 
            id = value 
            OnPropertyChanged("Id") 
        End Set 
    End Property 
 
    Public Overrides Function GetDynamicMemberNames() As IEnumerable(Of String) 
        Return data.Keys 
    End Function 
 
    Public Overrides Function TryGetMember(ByVal binder As GetMemberBinder, <Out> ByRef result As Object) As Boolean 
        If binder.Name = NameOf(Me.Id) Then 
            result = Me.Id 
        Else 
            result = Me(binder.Name) 
        End If 
 
        Return True 
    End Function 
 
    Public Overrides Function TrySetMember(ByVal binder As SetMemberBinder, ByVal value As Object) As Boolean 
        Me(binder.Name) = value 
        Return True 
    End Function 
 
    Default Public Property Item(ByVal columnName As String) As Object 
        Get 
 
            If data.ContainsKey(columnName) Then 
                Return data(columnName) 
            End If 
 
            Return Nothing 
        End Get 
        Set(ByVal value As Object) 
 
            If Not data.ContainsKey(columnName) Then 
                data.Add(columnName, value) 
                OnPropertyChanged(columnName) 
            Else 
 
                If data(columnName) <> value Then 
                    data(columnName) = value 
                    OnPropertyChanged(columnName) 
                End If 
            End If 
        End Set 
    End Property 
 
    Private Sub OnPropertyChanged(ByVal propertyName As String) 
        RaiseEvent PropertyChanged(Me, New PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)) 
    End Sub 
End Class 

Example 2: Populating with data

• C#
• VB.NET

public MyUserControl() 
{ 
    InitializeComponent(); 
 
    var data = new ObservableCollection<RowInfo>(); 
    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) 
    { 
        var row = new RowInfo() { Id = i };                 
        for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++) 
        { 
            row[string.Format("Column{0}", j)] = string.Format("Cell {0} {1}", i, j); 
        } 
 
        data.Add(row); 
    } 
 
    this.DataContext = data; 
} 

Public Sub New() 
    InitializeComponent() 
    Dim data = New ObservableCollection(Of RowInfo)() 
 
    For i As Integer = 0 To 100 - 1 
        Dim row = New RowInfo() With { 
            .Id = i 
        } 
 
        For j As Integer = 0 To 5 - 1 
            row(String.Format("Column{0}", j)) = String.Format("Cell {0} {1}", i, j) 
        Next 
 
        data.Add(row) 
    Next 
 
    Me.DataContext = data 
End Sub 

Example 3: RadGridView definition

• XAML

<telerik:RadGridView ItemsSource="{Binding}" /> 

Another code example with dynamic data can be found in the Various Data Sources demo.