Binding with converter

Question

Writing a lot of these for a listview. Seems a little bloated to first set the datacontext and the apply binding to the Text

<TextBlock  DataContext="{Binding Path=SiteId, Converter={StaticResource siteConverter},ConverterParameter=SiteId}" Text="{Binding Path=SiteName}" ></TextBlock>

Is there to do the binding directly in the text property

EDIT Added full xaml for clarification

   <ListView  SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedReport}"  AlternationCount="2" Grid.Row="2" Name="reportList" ItemsSource="{Binding ReportsView}" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch">
            <ListView.View>
                <GridView>
                    <GridView.ColumnHeaderContextMenu>
                        <ContextMenu >
                            <MenuItem Header="Ascending"  />  
                            <MenuItem Header="Descending" />    
                        </ContextMenu>   
                    </GridView.ColumnHeaderContextMenu>   
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Action" CellTemplate="{StaticResource imageCell}" Width="Auto"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Reportname" Width="Auto" CellTemplate="{StaticResource reportNameCell}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Site" Width="Auto" CellTemplate="{StaticResource reportSiteNameCell}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Company" Width="Auto" CellTemplate="{StaticResource reportCompanyNameCell}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Type" Width="Auto" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding DocType}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Status" Width="Auto" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Status}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Created by" Width="Auto" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding CreatedBy}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Language" Width="Auto" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding CreatedBy}"/>
                    <GridViewColumn Header="Updated" Width="Auto" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Updated}"/>
                </GridView>
            </ListView.View>
        </ListView>

EDIT THis is how i load my viewmodel

ReportList = reportListService.Open(filePath);
this.reportsView = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(this.ReportList.Reports);
this.reportsView.SortDescriptions.Add(
new SortDescription("ReportName", ListSortDirection.Ascending));

The ReportList only contains siteid

Answer 1

Ok, well... a couple of things first:

1) Why are you passing in the SiteId as the ConverterParameter as well as it being the object of the binding. It's redundent... you're passing the same parameter in as the value and parameter of the Convert method?

2) If you are using a ListView , bind the ItemsSource to a collection (preferably observable), then use a DataTemplate as the ListView.ItemTemplate . If the DataTemplate is reusable across multiple ListView s, then create it as a resource and set the ItemTemplate to bind to the resource.

Or... the better solution: Expose things from a view-model that should be. It doesn't sound like "SiteName" is view-related as much as it business-related. So, have your converter logic on your view-model layer instead and expose that additional property.

Answer 2

Yeah you set the datacontext of the View itself to a ViewModel class. Then all you need to do for the controls is:

Text="{Binding StringPropertyToBindTo}"

Answer 3

The easiest way would be implementing a Site property in your data context which contains the functionality the converter implements currently. Then you can easily bind to Site.SiteName . Just make sure the data context fires it's PropertyChanged event for Site when SiteId is set to avoid nasty surprises.

However, above approach is impractical if the converter is used all over the place with the same parameter for different data contexts without a common interface or with different base classes.