What is a fast way to render a log view in WPF?

Question

I'm writing an application that needs a log-like view, (similar to how an IM client displays messages in the conversation), with potentially many updates per second. Speed is an issue here; the application locking up due to a large number of incoming events is a possible problem. I need selection and basic text formatting, so manual rendering could get quite complex, I'd like to avoid it if possible. I'd also like to bottom-anchor the scroll bar, that is, if it's at the bottom, stay at the bottom when the new item is added. What would be a good way to implement this?

Answer 1

I think you should have a look at ListView/ListBox controls, they support UI virtualization and provide functionality you're looking for. Also you can improve performance by data virtualization/lazy loading - i.e. don't hold invisible items in memory and load required data on demand

Answer 2

You can implement it very easily in WPF.

1. Create an ObservableCollection of Log entities and bind to a ListBox.
2. Give a DataTemplate for the ListBox.ItemTemplate.

*When running in real time you need either UI side or Data side virtualization Check out my PaginatedObservableCollection so that the DataVirtualization will automatically function.