If you are new to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), it is necessary to understand a few basic concepts before using Xceed DataGrid for WPF, notably, the ItemsControl, ContentControl, and ContentPresenter classes.

The ItemsControl class (e.g., DataGridControl) represents a control that is used to display a collection of items. The ItemsPanel, which is a template that can be replaced or modified to rearrange the disposition of the items within the ItemsControl, defines the layout of the items contained in an ItemsControl.

The ContentControl class (e.g., Cell) represents a control which contains a single piece of content that is accessible through the Content property. The ContentPresenter determines how and where the content of the ContentControl is displayed in the visual tree.

Anatomy of the DataGridControl Class

At the root of Xceed's WPF datagrid is the DataGridControl class, which derives from ItemsControl and is used to display a collection of data items. A DataRow is the UI representation of a data item and will contain a DataCell for each property in the data item. DataRow and DataCell objects have a limited lifespan and will only exist while the data item is visible in a grid's viewport (virtualization).

DataCells, which display the value of the corresponding property in the data item, are ContentControls. How and where the cell's content is displayed is determined by the ContentPresenter that is defined by the cell's ControlTemplate.

A Closer Look at the Major Components

The grid's major components include rows, cells, columns, and their derivatives. DataRow objects provide the UI representation of the data items displayed in a grid's viewport and contain a cell for each property in the data item. As previously mentioned, DataRow and DataCell objects  have a limited lifespan and exist only while they are visible in a grid's viewport; this is called virtualization and is the reason that the Items, SelectedItem, SelectedItems, and CurrentItem properties of the DataGridControl class access data items and not data rows.

The appearance of the data items is determined by the style or template that is applied to the resulting DataRow objects. DataRow styles can be provided implicitly or they can be assigned to the ItemContainerStyle property of the DataGridControl or GroupConfiguration classes. DataRow templates can be provided by creating an implicit ControlTemplate or by assigning the template to the ItemTemplate property defined on the DataGridControl class (see Templates and Styles).

Each DataRow that is created will contain a cell for each property in the data item. Each cell is a separate ContentControl in which the value of the corresponding property in the data item is displayed. The cells contained in a DataRow can be accessed through the row's Cells collection.

Like DataRows, the appearance and behavior of cells can be modified by creating a style for the DataCell class, or by providing a new ControlTemplate or Style for a specific Cell type (see Templates and Styles). Remember that a style must target a specific type, for example, DataCell.

Columns define information on how the cells they contain are displayed and their content edited. In addition to the properties provided by each cell, a column's CellContentTemplate property can be used to provide a new template that will be used by all the cells it contains to display their data. The list of all columns contained in a grid can be accessed through the Columns collection of the DataGridControl class.

Each column has a title which is is displayed in its corresponding cell in any ColumnManagerRow objects found in a grid. By default, this title corresponds to the FieldName property; however, any value can be provided by setting the Title property.

Merged column headers allow you to organize columns vertically under headers that span multiple columns; for example, company name, company address, and company ID columns could be placed together under a "Company" title, helping to better present the data in the datagrid.

See the DataGrid sample in the LiveExplorer application for examples.

 

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