WPF: How Do I edit the column properties of a base/parent class in the child class through the property editor/XAML?

Question

I have created a class called ProductionDataUserControlBase and it derives from class UserControl. This base class has no XAML. Its purpose is to act as a base class for a grid that I encapsulate inside the class so that it can be modified when the class is inherited later. Inside the constructor of the base class, I also create the columns and add them to the Grid's collection. I created a public property called Columns and all it does is returns (get) the Columns property collection of the grid.

I have created a child class that derives from ProductionDataUserControlBase and it does contain XAML. In the property editor of the inherited control my Columns collection exists. I can open the collection through the property editor and add new columns. However, the columns editor does not contain the columns that I added in the base even though I can visually see the columns on the canvas.

I'm assuming this is because the columns that I added in the base are not in the XAML of the child. If I add the columns through XAML of the child it creates duplicate columns because they were added in the base. How can I edit the property of the columns that were added in the base without using code-behind in the child?

public partial class ProductionDataUserControlBase : UserControl
    {
        private RadGridView _grdProdData;
        private Boolean _InitCalled = false; //Boolean variable used to control whether init was previously called.
        //This is because the loaded event may be fired multiple times depending
        //on what type of control it's been placed into.

        public ProductionDataUserControlBase()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }        


        public Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridViewColumnCollection Columns
        {
            get
            {
                return _grdProdData.Columns;            
            }            
        }        

        protected virtual void InitializeComponent()
        {
            if (!_InitCalled)
            {                
                InitializeGrid();
                Columns = _grdProdData.Columns;
                this.AddChild(_grdProdData);                                                

                _InitCalled = true;
            }
        }

        private void InitializeGrid()
        {
            Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridViewColumn grdCol = null;

            this._grdProdData = new RadGridView();
            this._grdProdData.AutoGenerateColumns = false;

            grdCol = new Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridViewColumn() { HeaderText = "PSTAT", Name = "grdColPSTAT", UniqueName = "PSTAT" };
            _grdProdData.Columns.Add(grdCol);

            grdCol = new Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridViewColumn() { HeaderText = "PCONO", Name = "grdColPCONO", UniqueName = "PCONO" };
            _grdProdData.Columns.Add(grdCol);

         }

    }

<ProductionDataUserControlBase x:Class="AmerenProductionDataUserControl"    
            xmlns:MSControls="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
            xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
            xmlns="clr-namespace:AmerenProductionDataUserControl;assembly=AmerenProductionDataUserControl" xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"&gt;

    </ProductionDataUserControlBase>

public partial class AmerenProductionDataUserControl : ProductionDataUserControlBase
        {

            public AmerenProductionDataUserControl()
            {
                InitializeComponent();                                            
            }
        }

Answer 1

Sounds like you either overrid the contents of the collection or overrode the property.