How can I make WPF instantiate a custom control in my view, using another custom control base class in my XAML?

Question

I have a ListView with 5 columns:

  <ListView x:Name="FieldList" ItemsSource="{Binding MonitorField}" SelectedItem="{Binding Field}" Margin="33,22,87,209" Grid.Column="1" Grid.RowSpan="2">
            <ListView.View>
                <GridView>
                    <GridViewColumn Width="140" Header="Field Name">
                        <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                            <DataTemplate>
                                <TextBox Width="127" Text="{Binding Id}" Height="32" FontSize="16" IsReadOnly="False" Background="Transparent" BorderThickness="0" TextWrapping="Wrap"/>
                            </DataTemplate>
                        </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn>

                    <GridViewColumn Width="140" Header="File type" >
                        <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                            <DataTemplate>
                                <ComboBox Width="127" ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceTypeValues}"  SelectedItem="{Binding ResourceTypeToLoad}" Height="24" FontSize="16" Background="Transparent" BorderThickness="0" />
                            </DataTemplate>
                        </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn>

                    <GridViewColumn Width="140" Header="Path" >
                        <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                            <DataTemplate>
                                <MyNamespace:PathControl Width="127" Text="{Binding ResourcePathToLoad, Mode=TwoWay}"  Height="32" FontSize="16" Background="Transparent" TextWrapping="Wrap">
                                    <MyNamespace:PathControl.InputBindings>
                                        <MouseBinding MouseAction="LeftDoubleClick" Command="{Binding BrowseFileCommand}" />
                                    </MyNamespace:PathControl.InputBindings>
                                </MyNamespace:PathControl>
                            </DataTemplate>
                        </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn>                
</GridView>
            </ListView.View>

Here is my custom control PathControl et TestControl that inherit from PathControl

public class PathControl : TextBox, IPathControl
{
    static PathControl()
    {
        //DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(PathControl), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(PathControl)));
    }
}

public class TestControl : PathControl
{
    static TestControl()
    {

    }
}

What I would like to do is making WPF instantiate a custom control depending on my Combobox defining just before PathControl.

For example, if I select "Txt" in the combobox, I want to create a TxtControl that inherit from PathControl.

The mouse binding will call a different method depending on which custom control is instantiate.

Is it even possible ? Is there another way to implement this ?

Answer 1

First define as resources the two datatemplates you want like:

<DataTemplate x:Key="case1">
 <c:PathControl />
</DataTemplate>

then the other

<DataTemplate x:Key="case2">
 <c:TestControl />
</DataTemplate>

Now create a DataTemplateSelector

public class SelectionTemplateSelector : DataTemplateSelector
{
public DataTemplate Case1Template { get; set; }
public DataTemplate Case2Template { get; set; }

public override DataTemplate SelectTemplate(object item, 
DependencyObject container)
{

if( //Get the binding you need)
return Case1Template ;
else
return Case2Template ;
}
}

Now add another resource:

 <c:SelectionTemplateSelector 
    ImageTemplate="{StaticResource case1}" 
    StringTemplate="{StaticResource case2}" 
    x:Key="SelectionTemplateSelector " />

and finally instead adding a datatemplate add

ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource SelectionTemplateSelector }"