How to create a data template dependent on an XML Attribute?

Question

I'm working on a WPF interface that reads an XML file and displays the data. The XML file would be something like this:

<People>
    <Person Gender="Male">
        <Name>Joe</Name>
    </Person>
    <Person Gender="Female">
        <Name>Susan</Name>
    </Person>
</People>

I need a data template dependent on the Gender attribute of Person. This data template is for list box items. the source of the listbox is People.

<DataTemplate DataType="Person[@Gender='Male']">
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="Person[@Gender='Female']">
</DataTemplate>

I thought it would be something like the above line of code, but it doesn't work. Any ideas?

Thanks!

ANSWER
Here's the DataTemplateSelector for the above XML example:

public class MyDataTemplateSelector : DataTemplateSelector
{
    private DataTemplate _MaleTemplate = null;
    private DataTemplate _FemaleTemplate = null;

    public DataTemplate MaleTemplate
    {
        get { return _MaleTemplate; }
        set { _MaleTemplate = value; }
    }
    public DataTemplate FemaleTemplate
    {
        get { return _FemaleTemplate; }
        set { _FemaleTemplate = value; }
    }

    public override DataTemplate SelectTemplate(object item, DependencyObject container)
    {
        XmlElement currentNode = (XmlElement)item;
        DataTemplate selectedTemplate = null;
        string selectedGender = "";

        selectedGender = currentNode.GetAttribute("Gender");

        switch (selectedGender)
        {
            case "Male":
                selectedTemplate = _MaleTemplate;
                break;

            case "Female":
                selectedTemplate = _FemaleTemplate;
                break;

            default:
                break;
        }

        return selectedTemplate;
    }
}

Thanks for the help! I hope this will be useful to someone else as well!

Answer 1

You need to use a DataTemplateSelector. This article by Dr. WPF demonstrates it completely and is just what you are looking for.