Nested Properties

RadPropertyGrid can show nested PropertyDefinitions. In order to enable the nested properties support you need to set the NestedPropertiesVisibility property to Visible. That way, you will be able to modify any editable child properties of reference types.

The following example will show a simple scenario with visible nested properties:

Preparing sample data

• C#
• VB.NET

DataContext = new Order() 
{ 
    OrderDate = new DateTime(1996, 7, 5), 
    ShippedDate = new DateTime(1996, 8, 16), 
    ShipAddress = "Luisenstr. 48", 
    ShipCountry = "Germany", 
    ShipName = "Toms Spezialitaten", 
    ShipPostalCode = "44087", 
    Employee = new Employee() 
    { 
        FirstName = "Nancy", 
        LastName = "Davolio", 
        Title = "Sales Representative", 
        HomePhone = "[phone]", 
        Department = new Department() 
        { 
            Country = "USA", 
            ID = 1 
        } 
    }, 
}; 

DataContext = New Order() With { 
    .OrderDate = New DateTime(1996, 7, 5), 
    .ShippedDate = New DateTime(1996, 8, 16), 
    .ShipAddress = "Luisenstr. 48", 
    .ShipCountry = "Germany", 
    .ShipName = "Toms Spezialitaten", 
    .ShipPostalCode = "44087", 
    .Employee = New Employee() With { 
        .FirstName = "Nancy", 
        .LastName = "Davolio", 
        .Title = "Sales Representative", 
        .HomePhone = "[phone]", 
        .Department = New Department() With { 
            .Country = "USA", 
            .ID = 1 
        } 
    } 
} 

Showing the PropertyDefinitions for the nested properties

• XAML

<telerik:RadPropertyGrid Item="{Binding}" NestedPropertiesVisibility="Visible" /> 

RadPropertyGrid with visible nested properties

You can find a runnable example for this feature in our Demos application.

Manually Defining PropertyDefinitions for Nested Properties

You can manually define property definitions for nested properties. To do so, add new PropertyDefinition instances to the NestedProperties collection of the parent PropertyDefinition.

The next example shows how to define a property definition for one of the nested properties:

Defining a PropertyDefinition for a nested property

• XAML

<telerik:RadPropertyGrid Item="{Binding}" NestedPropertiesVisibility="Visible" AutoGeneratePropertyDefinitions="False"> 
    <telerik:RadPropertyGrid.PropertyDefinitions> 
        <telerik:PropertyDefinition Binding="{Binding Employee}"> 
            <telerik:PropertyDefinition.NestedProperties> 
                <telerik:PropertyDefinition DisplayName="First name" Binding="{Binding FirstName}"/> 
            </telerik:PropertyDefinition.NestedProperties> 
        </telerik:PropertyDefinition> 
    </telerik:RadPropertyGrid.PropertyDefinitions> 
</telerik:RadPropertyGrid> 

Searching in Nested Properties

RadPropertyGrid exposes the option to search in nested properties. To enable this functionality, set the SearchInNestedProperties property to True.

Setting the SearchInNestedProperties property

• XAML

<telerik:RadPropertyGrid NestedPropertiesVisibility="Visible" SearchInNestedProperties="True"/> 

Specifying the PropertyDefinition Auto-Generating Mode

RadPropertyGrid allows you to specify if property definitions for the nested properties will be auto-generated when the control initially loads. This behavior is controlled by the AutoGeneratePropertyDefinitionsMode property, which accepts one of two following options:

• FirstLevel—When this option is set, the property definitions will be auto-generated only for the top-level properties. This is the default value of the AutoGeneratePropertyDefinitionsMode property.
• AllLevels—RadPropertyGrid will recursively generate property definitions for all nested properties when this mode is selected.

Setting the AutoGeneratePropertyDefinitionsMode property

• XAML

<telerik:RadPropertyGrid NestedPropertiesVisibility="Visible" AutoGeneratePropertyDefinitionsMode="AllLevels"/> 

The AllLevels mode will also allow you to search in nested properties if the SearchInNestedProperties property is set to True, without having to expand them beforehand.