Data Binding

The goal of this article is to demonstrate how to populate a RadOutlookBar with business objects. Basically the control can be data bound to a collection of objects through its ItemsSource property and dynamically create RadOutlookBarItems.

The ItemsSource property allows RadOutlookBar to be bound to any collection that implements the IEnumerable interface. By default the content of the generated RadOutlookBarItems will be set to the value returned by the ToString() method of the business object.

In order to bind a RadOutlookBar to a collection of business objects you can perform the following steps:

• Define a RadOutlookBar in XAML.

      <telerik:RadOutlookBar x:Name="radOutlookBar"/>
  

• Create a business object

      public class MenuItem
      {
          public string Header { get; set; }
          public string Content { get; set; }
          public string ImageSourcePath { get; set; }
      }
  

      Public Class MenuItem
          Public Property Header() As String
              Get
                  Return m_Header
              End Get
              Set(value As String)
                  m_Header = Value
              End Set
          End Property
          Private m_Header As String
          Public Property Content() As String
              Get
                  Return m_Content
              End Get
              Set(value As String)
                  m_Content = Value
              End Set
          End Property
          Private m_Content As String
          Public Property ImageSourcePath() As String
              Get
                  Return m_ImageSourcePath
              End Get
              Set(value As String)
                  m_ImageSourcePath = Value
              End Set
          End Property
          Private m_ImageSourcePath As String
      End Class
  

• Create a view model class which will contains only a collection business objects

      public class MailMenuViewModel : ViewModelBase
      {
          public ObservableCollection<MenuItem> MenuItems { get; set; }
  
          private MenuItem selectedItem;
          public MenuItem SelectedItem
          {
              get { return this.selectedItem; }
              set
              {
                  if (this.selectedItem != value)
                  {
                      this.selectedItem = value;
                      this.OnPropertyChanged("SelectedItem");
                  }
              }
          }
  
          public MailMenuViewModel()
          {
              this.MenuItems = new ObservableCollection<MenuItem>();
              this.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem() { Content = "Mails content", Header = "Mail", ImageSourcePath = "/images/mailBig.png" });
              this.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem() { Content = "Contacts content", Header = "Contacts", ImageSourcePath = "/images/contactsBig.png" });
              this.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem() { Content = "Calendar content", Header = "Calendar", ImageSourcePath = "/images/calendarBig.png" });
  
              this.selectedItem = this.MenuItems[0];
          }
      }
  

      Public Class MailMenuViewModel
          Inherits ViewModelBase
          Public Property MenuItems() As ObservableCollection(Of MenuItem)
              Get
                  Return m_MenuItems
              End Get
              Set(value As ObservableCollection(Of MenuItem))
                  m_MenuItems = Value
              End Set
          End Property
          Private m_MenuItems As ObservableCollection(Of MenuItem)
  
          Private m_selectedItem As MenuItem
          Public Property SelectedItem() As MenuItem
              Get
                  Return Me.m_selectedItem
              End Get
              Set(value As MenuItem)
                  If Me.m_selectedItem <> value Then
                      Me.m_selectedItem = value
                      Me.OnPropertyChanged("SelectedItem")
                  End If
              End Set
          End Property
  
          Public Sub New()
              Me.MenuItems = New ObservableCollection(Of MenuItem)()
      Me.MenuItems.Add(New MenuItem() With { _
      Key .Content = "Mails content", _
      Key .Header = "Mail", _
      Key .ImageSourcePath = "/images/mailBig.png" _
              })
      Me.MenuItems.Add(New MenuItem() With { _
      Key .Content = "Contacts content", _
      Key .Header = "Contacts", _
      Key .ImageSourcePath = "/images/contactsBig.png" _
              })
      Me.MenuItems.Add(New MenuItem() With { _
      Key .Content = "Calendar content", _
      Key .Header = "Calendar", _
      Key .ImageSourcePath = "/images/calendarBig.png" _
              })
  
              Me.m_selectedItem = Me.MenuItems(0)
          End Sub
      End Class
  

• Set the DataContext of the RadOutlookBar to a new instance of the created view model

      public MainWindow()
      {
          InitializeComponent();
          this.radOutlookBar.DataContext = new MailMenuViewModel();
      }
  

      Public Sub New()
          InitializeComponent()
          Me.radOutlookBar.DataContext = New MailMenuViewModel()
      End Sub
  

• Then bind the ItemsSource property to the collection of the view model

      <telerik:RadOutlookBar  ItemsSource="{Binding MenuItems}"/>
  

You can see the end result bellow:

Using Custom Templates

The RadOutlookBar has few properties of type DataTemplate that can be used in order to control its items appearance. Each property accepts a DataTemplate as a value that determines the visual appearance of the RadOutlookBarItems and the RadOutlookBar itself. The properties that can be used are the following:

• ItemTemplate
• ItemMinimizedTemplate
• ItemDropDownTemplate
• TitleTemplate
• MinimizedButtonContentTemplate
• ContentTemplate

There are also template selectors for all of the listed templates except for the MinimizedButtonContentTemplate.

To customize the project that we developed so far you can do the following:

• Create an ItemTemplate - this is the DataTemplate that describes the visual structure of a data obejct of each RadOutlookBarItem

      <DataTemplate x:Key="outlookBarItemTemplate">
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}" />
      </DataTemplate>
  

• Create an ItemMinimizedTemplate - this is the DataTemplate that describes each RadOutlookBarItem that is placed in the minimized area of the RadOutlookBar

      <DataTemplate x:Key="outlookBarItemMinimizedTemplate">
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
      </DataTemplate>
  

• Create an ItemDropDownContentTemplate - this is the DataTemplate applied to the items in the drop down which contains the minimized items that cannot fit in the minimized area

      <DataTemplate x:Key="outlookBarItemDropDownTemplate">
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}" />
      </DataTemplate>
  

• Create a TitleTemplate - this is the DataTemplate that describes the title of the RadOutlookBar

      <DataTemplate x:Key="outlookBarTitleTemplate">
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}" 
                     FontSize="16" 
                     FontWeight="Bold" />
      </DataTemplate>
  

• Create a MinimizedButtonContentTemplate - this is the DataTemplate that describes the button which is displayed when you minimize the RadOutlookBar

      <DataTemplate x:Key="outlookBarMinimizedBtnTemplate">
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding Header}" FontStyle="Italic" 
                     TextDecorations="Underline" 
                     FontWeight="Bold"/>
      </DataTemplate>
  

• Create a ContentTemplate - this is the DataTemplate that describes the content of the selected item

      <DataTemplate x:Key="outlookBarContentTemplate">
          <Grid Background="Bisque" Margin="10">
              <TextBlock Text="{Binding Content}" 
                         FontStyle="Italic" 
                         Margin="10" />
          </Grid>
      </DataTemplate>
  

• After you define your templates you can set the appropriate properties of the RadOutlookBar

       <telerik:RadOutlookBar SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}"
                             ItemsSource="{Binding MenuItems}"                               
                             ItemTemplate="{StaticResource outlookBarItemTemplate}"
                             ItemMinimizedTemplate="{StaticResource outlookBarItemMinimizedTemplate}"
                             ItemDropDownContentTemplate="{StaticResource outlookBarItemDropDownTemplate}"
                             TitleTemplate="{StaticResource outlookBarTitleTemplate}"
                             ContentTemplate="{StaticResource outlookBarContentTemplate}"
                             MinimizedButtonContentTemplate="{StaticResource outlookBarMinimizedBtnContentTemplate}"
                             MinimizedButtonContent="{Binding SelectedItem}" />
  

You can download a runnable project of the demonstrated example from our online SDK repository here, after navigating OutlookBar/DataBinding

You can see the end result on the screenshots below

See Also

• Visual Structure
• Templates
• Icons