SelectedItemsSource

With the Q1 2015 release version of UI for WPF, the ability to manipulate the SelectedItems collection of RadListBox through the ViewModel is now available. This is now possible with the brand new ListBoxSelectedItemsBehavior behavior and its SelectedItemsSource attached property. The SelectedItemsSource is a collection that synchronizes itself with the SelectedItems collection of RadListBox – thus if an item is added, removed or the collection is replaced/cleared those actions will be executed on the SelectedItems collection as well.

Using the SelectedItemsSource

The following example will demonstrate how to bind the SelectedItemsSource property of the ListBoxSelectedItemsBehavior to a collection of custom objects. In order the synchronization between the SelectedItemSource and the SelectedItems of RadListBox control to be possible the bound collection should implement both the IEnumerable and the INotifyCollectionChanged interfaces.

Synchronization won’t be possible if SelectedItemsSource is bound to a collection that does not implement INotifyCollectionChanged.

First, you need to create a new business object named for example Item. Its structure is shown in the code-snippet below:

Business object Item

public class Item 
{ 
    public Item(string name) 
    { 
        this.Name = name; 
    } 
    public string Name { get; set; } 
} 

Public Class Item 
    Public Sub New(ByVal name As String) 
        Me.Name = name 
    End Sub 
    Public Property Name() As String 
End Class 

Next thing you have to do is to create a new class named ViewModel that inherits the Telerik ViewModelBase abstract class – inside it initialize two collections with sample data. The first one will be for the ItemsSource of RadListBox while the second one will be the data source for the SelectedItemsSource property:

Creating the ViewModel

private ObservableCollection<Item> items; 
private ObservableCollection<Item> selectedItemsSource; 
public ViewModel() 
{ 
    this.Items = this.GetItems(100); 
    this.SelectedItemsSource = new ObservableCollection<Item>() { this.Items[0], this.Items[2], this.Items[4], this.Items[6], this.Items[7] };  
} 
public ObservableCollection<Item> SelectedItemsSource 
{ 
    get 
    { 
        return this.selectedItemsSource; 
    } 
    set 
    { 
        if (this.selectedItemsSource != value) 
        { 
            this.selectedItemsSource = value; 
            this.OnPropertyChanged(() => this.SelectedItemsSource); 
        } 
    } 
} 
public ObservableCollection<Item> Items 
{ 
    get 
    { 
        return this.items; 
    } 
    set 
    { 
        if (this.items != value) 
        { 
            this.items = value; 
            this.OnPropertyChanged(() => this.Items); 
        } 
    } 
} 
private ObservableCollection<Item> GetItems(int size) 
{ 
    var result = new ObservableCollection<Item>(); 
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) 
    { 
        result.Add(new Item(string.Format("Item {0}", i))); 
    } 
    return result; 
} 

Private items_Renamed As ObservableCollection(Of Item) 
Private selectedItemsSource_Renamed As ObservableCollection(Of Item) 
Public Sub New() 
    Me.Items = Me.GetItems(100) 
    Me.SelectedItemsSource = New ObservableCollection(Of Item)() From {Me.Items(0), Me.Items(2), Me.Items(4), Me.Items(6), Me.Items(7)} 
End Sub 
Public Property SelectedItemsSource() As ObservableCollection(Of Item) 
    Get 
        Return Me.selectedItemsSource_Renamed 
    End Get 
    Set(ByVal value As ObservableCollection(Of Item)) 
        If Me.selectedItemsSource_Renamed IsNot value Then 
            Me.selectedItemsSource_Renamed = value 
            Me.OnPropertyChanged(Function() Me.SelectedItemsSource) 
        End If 
    End Set 
End Property 
Public Property Items() As ObservableCollection(Of Item) 
    Get 
        Return Me.items_Renamed 
    End Get 
    Set(ByVal value As ObservableCollection(Of Item)) 
        If Me.items_Renamed IsNot value Then 
            Me.items_Renamed = value 
            Me.OnPropertyChanged(Function() Me.Items) 
        End If 
    End Set 
End Property 
Private Function GetItems(ByVal size As Integer) As ObservableCollection(Of Item) 
    Dim result = New ObservableCollection(Of Item)() 
    For i As Integer = 0 To size - 1 
        result.Add(New Item(String.Format("Item {0}", i))) 
    Next i 
    Return result 
End Function 

The SelectedItemsSource and the ItemsSource should be bound to collections of the same type of items.

Next you should declare the ViewModel as DataContext in your XAML:

Set the ViewModel as DataContext

> 
<UserControl.DataContext> 
    <local:ViewModel/> 
</UserControl.DataContext> 

Finally, all you need to do is to set both created collection of items to the ItemsSource and ListBoxSelectedItemsBehavior. SelectedItemsSource:

Set the ItemsSource and SelectedItemsSource

<telerik:RadListBox x:Name="radListBox" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" 
                    DisplayMemberPath="Name" 
                    SelectionMode="Multiple" 
                    telerik:ListBoxSelectedItemsBehavior.SelectedItemsSource="{Binding SelectedItemsSource}"/> 

The final result is shown on the snapshot below:

Find a runnable project of the previous example in the WPF Samples GitHub repository.

See Also

• Selection

• Binding to Object