How do I get a reference to the ItemsPanel of a Silverlight ListBox

Question

I've got a ListBox in Silverlight2 that is using a Grid as its ItemsPanelTemplate. In code, how do I get a reference to that Grid?

<ItemsPanelTemplate x:Key="GridItemsPanel">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
    </Grid>
</ItemsPanelTemplate>

<ListBox ItemsPanel="{StaticResource GridItemsPanel}" />

Background:

What I am trying to do with this is add children to the Grid that are not ListBoxItems. I am trying to get something similar to the Outlook Calendar day view, where items can be aligned on a grid with a resolution of 30 minutes. I have the grid and the ListBoxItem positioning working correctly, however I'd like to be able to render background colours, gridlines, hour labels etc to allow the user to clearly see the time and duration of the ListBoxItems.

Answer 1

You need to give the Grid a name with the x:Name attribute:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189028(VS.95).aspx

Answer 2

If your goal is to create listbox with custom rendering here is an example:

<ListBox x:Name="lstMails">
    <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
     <DataTemplate>
      <Grid Background="Gray">
       <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition />
        <ColumnDefinition />
        <ColumnDefinition />
       </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

       <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="{Binding Path=Subject}" />
       <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding Path=Sender}" />
       <TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Text="{Binding Path=SentTime}" />
      </Grid>
     </DataTemplate>
    </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

And set ItemsSource property from code behind or by specifying binding:

lstMails.ItemsSource = /*collection of Mail objects*/;

Hope, this was helpful.

Answer 3

If you really just want to get a reference, regardless of namescope, you can use VisualTreeHelper to walk through it. I did this a while back using a custom wrapper

http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/jimbg/Blog/archive/2008/10/24/walk-the-visual-tree.aspx