WPF Custom Buttons below ListBox Items

Question

WPF Experts -

I am trying to add buttons below my custom listbox and also have the scroll bar go to the bottom of the control. Only the items should move and not the buttons. I was hoping for some guidance on the best way to achieve this. I was thinking the ItemsPanelTemplate needed to be modified but was not certain.

Thanks

My code is below

   <!-- List Item Selected -->
    <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="GotFocusStyle"  EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
        <LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
            <GradientStop Color="Black" Offset="0.501"/>
            <GradientStop Color="#FF091F34"/>
            <GradientStop Color="#FF002F5C" Offset="0.5"/>
        </LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
    </LinearGradientBrush>

    <!-- List Item Hover -->
    <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="MouseOverFocusStyle" StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1">
        <LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
            <GradientStop Color="#FF013B73" Offset="0.501"/>
            <GradientStop Color="#FF091F34"/>
            <GradientStop Color="#FF014A8F" Offset="0.5"/>
            <GradientStop Color="#FF003363" Offset="1"/>
        </LinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
    </LinearGradientBrush>

    <!-- List Item Selected -->
    <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="LostFocusStyle" EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
        <LinearGradientBrush.RelativeTransform>
            <TransformGroup>
                <ScaleTransform CenterX="0.5" CenterY="0.5"/>
                <SkewTransform CenterX="0.5" CenterY="0.5"/>
                <RotateTransform CenterX="0.5" CenterY="0.5"/>
                <TranslateTransform/>
            </TransformGroup>
        </LinearGradientBrush.RelativeTransform>
        <GradientStop Color="#FF091F34" Offset="1"/>
        <GradientStop Color="#FF002F5C" Offset="0.4"/>
    </LinearGradientBrush>

    <!-- List Item Highlight -->
    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="ListItemHighlight" Color="#FFE38E27" />

    <!-- List Item UnHighlight -->
    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="ListItemUnHighlight" Color="#FF6FB8FD" />

    <Style TargetType="ListBoxItem">
        <EventSetter Event="GotFocus" Handler="ListItem_GotFocus"></EventSetter>
        <EventSetter Event="LostFocus" Handler="ListItem_LostFocus"></EventSetter>
    </Style>

    <DataTemplate x:Key="CustomListData" DataType="{x:Type ListBoxItem}">
        <Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="1"  Margin="-2,0,0,-1">
            <Grid>
                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type ListBoxItem}}, Path=ActualWidth}" />
                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <Label 
                        VerticalContentAlignment="Center" BorderThickness="0" BorderBrush="Transparent"
                        Foreground="{StaticResource ListItemUnHighlight}"
                        FontSize="24"
                        Tag="{Binding .}"
                        Grid.Column="0"
                        MinHeight="55"
                        Cursor="Hand"
                        FontFamily="Arial"
                        FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}"
                        KeyboardNavigation.TabNavigation="None"
                        Background="{StaticResource LostFocusStyle}"
                        MouseMove="ListItem_MouseOver"
                        >
                    <Label.ContextMenu>
                        <ContextMenu Name="editMenu">
                            <MenuItem Header="Edit"/>
                        </ContextMenu>
                    </Label.ContextMenu>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding .}" Margin="15,0,40,0" TextWrapping="Wrap"></TextBlock>
                </Label>
                <Image 
                    Tag="{Binding .}"
                    Source="{Binding}"
                    Margin="260,0,0,0"
                    Grid.Column="1"
                    Stretch="None"
                    Width="16"
                    Height="22" 
                    HorizontalAlignment="Center"
                    VerticalAlignment="Center" 
                    />
            </Grid>
        </Border>
    </DataTemplate>

</Window.Resources>

<Window.DataContext>
    <ObjectDataProvider ObjectType="{x:Type local:ImageLoader}"  MethodName="LoadImages"  />
</Window.DataContext>


<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding}" Width="320" Background="#FF021422" BorderBrush="#FF1C4B79" >

    <ListBox.Resources>
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}">Transparent</SolidColorBrush>

        <Style TargetType="{x:Type ListBox}">
            <Setter Property="ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility" Value="Disabled" />
            <Setter Property="ItemTemplate" Value="{StaticResource CustomListData }" />
        </Style>

    </ListBox.Resources>

</ListBox>

Answer 1

Why don't you place the two controls (the list and the buttons panel) into a StackPanel?

<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="0,0,0,0" Width="240">
    <ListBox Height="320"/>
    <Button Content="buttons go here"/>
</StackPanel>

You obviously won't get the listbox's scrollbar to go to the bottom of the screen, but you could fix that by putting in a ScrollBar control.

Editing templates might yield what you want but you may simply run into a point where items at the bottom of the list could be hidden by the button panel. You could overcome this obviously by increasing the bottom padding of the last item in that list or a similar margin/padding hack.

However, I don't think sizing the scrollbar to the bottom is the best idea in terms of common sense in user interfaces as scrollbars should conventionally be placed on the side of only what is scrollable.