How can I nest multiple groupbox's inside a tab control tab?

Question

I created a MVVM Stock app fashioned after Josh Smiths MVVM demo. Inside a tab on the right pane I put a stock option chain consisting of two datagrids - one for calls and one for puts. These represent all the options for a single expiration month.

However, I want to show multiple months inside the same tab - side by side (I was thinking of putting each month's data inside a groupbox) with the ability to see several months data at a time.

In accordance with Josh's demo, each tab contains data presented by a viewmodel and is added to the tab control as a workspace.

I believe I can nest multiple MonthlyChainSpaces inside a single WorkSpace tab, but I'm not sure how the xaml should look. I have a usercontrol that is tied to the viewmodel, so I don't think that would require much change, if any, as the data in each GroupBox would be presented by my current viewmodel's, but instead of each appearing on a separate tab, they'd be nested inside a single tab.

I'm not sure about which controls I need to put in my "MonthlyChainSpaces" DataTemplate in order to accomplish this. I know that each groupbox (and I'll have a need for a variable number of them inside each tab) can only have one item - so I was thinking of a stackpanel or grid inside the groupbox. But I'm not sure how to accomplish what I want. Do I need a "master groupbox" (which sits inside the tab) and within that groupbox, I have nested groupbox's, each representing a groupbox item of the "master groupbox"?

Since I'm fairly new with WPF I'd appreciate it if someone with more experience could provide a little direction on how to make this happen?

Answer 1

Given the following xaml...

    <Window x:Class="NestedGroupBoxes.MainWindow"
        xmlns:datagrid="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wpf/2008/toolkit"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="525" Width="767">
  <Window.Resources>
    <XmlDataProvider x:Key="chainProvider" Source="/MinimalOptions.XML" XPath="/query/results">
    </XmlDataProvider>
  </Window.Resources>

  <DockPanel>
    <GroupBox MaxWidth="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
      <GroupBox.HeaderTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
          <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Source={StaticResource chainProvider}, XPath=optionsChain/@symbol}"/>
          </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
      </GroupBox.HeaderTemplate>
      <Grid DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" Margin="4">
        <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
          <Label Content="AllOptions"  HorizontalAlignment="Left" Name="outerOptionChainDataGrid" VerticalAlignment="Top"  />
          <datagrid:DataGrid   MinHeight="200"
                  MinWidth="200"
                  MaxWidth="500"
                  Width="Auto"
                  HorizontalAlignment="Left"
                  AutoGenerateColumns="False"
                  EnableRowVirtualization="True"
                  AlternatingRowBackground="LightGray"
                  SelectionUnit="FullRow"
                  Name="dgridCallOptionChain"
                  IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True"  
                  ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource chainProvider},XPath=optionsChain/option}"                  
                  SelectedItem="{Binding Path=SelectedOption, Mode=TwoWay}"
                  VerticalAlignment="Stretch"                          
                  HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" IsManipulationEnabled="True" >
            <datagrid:DataGrid.Columns>
              <datagrid:DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Date" MinWidth="100">
                <datagrid:DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
                  <DataTemplate>
                    <DockPanel>
                      <GroupBox MaxWidth="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
                        <GroupBox.HeaderTemplate>
                          <DataTemplate>
                            <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
                              <TextBox Text="{Binding Source={StaticResource chainProvider}, XPath=optionsChain/@symbol}"/>
                            </StackPanel>
                          </DataTemplate>
                        </GroupBox.HeaderTemplate>
                        <Grid DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" Margin="0,2,4,2">
                          <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
                            <Label Content="Monthly Options"  HorizontalAlignment="Left" Name="innerOptionChainDataGrid" VerticalAlignment="Top"  />
                            <datagrid:DataGrid   MinHeight="200"
                  MinWidth="200"
                  MaxWidth="500"
                  Width="Auto"
                  HorizontalAlignment="Left"
                  AutoGenerateColumns="False"
                  EnableRowVirtualization="True"
                  AlternatingRowBackground="LightGray"
                  SelectionUnit="FullRow"
                  Name="dgridCallOptionChain"
                  IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True"  
                  ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource chainProvider},XPath=optionsChain/option}"                  
                  SelectedItem="{Binding Path=SelectedOption, Mode=TwoWay}"
                  VerticalAlignment="Stretch"                          
                  HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" MaxHeight="200" IsManipulationEnabled="True" >
                              <datagrid:DataGrid.Columns>
                                <datagrid:DataGridTextColumn Header="Symbol" Binding="{Binding XPath=@symbol}"/>
                                <datagrid:DataGridTextColumn Header="Strike" Binding="{Binding XPath=strikePrice}"/>
                                <datagrid:DataGridTextColumn  Header="Bid" Binding="{Binding XPath=bid}"/>
                                <datagrid:DataGridTextColumn Header="Ask" Binding="{Binding XPath=ask}"/>
                                <datagrid:DataGridTextColumn Header="Volume" Binding="{Binding XPath=vol}"/>
                                <datagrid:DataGridTextColumn Header="OpenInt" Binding="{Binding XPath=openInt}"/>
                              </datagrid:DataGrid.Columns>
                            </datagrid:DataGrid>
                          </StackPanel>
                        </Grid>
                      </GroupBox>
                    </DockPanel>
                  </DataTemplate>
                </datagrid:DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
              </datagrid:DataGridTemplateColumn>
            </datagrid:DataGrid.Columns>
          </datagrid:DataGrid>
        </StackPanel>
      </Grid>
    </GroupBox>
  </DockPanel>


</Window>

And the following xml data file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<query xmlns:yahoo="http://www.yahooapis.com/v1/base.rng"
yahoo:count="1" yahoo:created="2012-01-10T00:51:10Z" yahoo:lang="en-US">
<diagnostics>
    <publiclyCallable>true</publiclyCallable>
    <url execution-start-time="21" execution-stop-time="286"
        execution-time="265" proxy="DEFAULT"><![CDATA[http://www.datatables.org/yahoo/finance/yahoo.finance.options.xml]]></url>
    <url execution-start-time="291" execution-stop-time="1179"
        execution-time="888" proxy="DEFAULT"><![CDATA[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=YHOO&m=2012-01]]></url>
    <log>results.length(): 2</log>
    <javascript execution-time="987" instructions-used="406004" table-name="yahoo.finance.options"/>
    <user-time>1276</user-time>
    <service-time>1153</service-time>
    <build-version>24402</build-version>
</diagnostics> 
<results>
    <optionsChain expiration="2012-01-20" symbol="YHOO">
        <option symbol="YHOO120121C00002500" type="C">
            <strikePrice>2.5</strikePrice>
            <lastPrice>13.65</lastPrice>
            <change>0</change>
            <changeDir/>
            <bid>12.9</bid>
            <ask>13</ask>
            <vol>8</vol>
            <openInt>73</openInt>
        </option>
        <option symbol="YHOO120121C00005000" type="C">
            <strikePrice>5</strikePrice>
            <lastPrice>11.30</lastPrice>
            <change>0</change>
            <changeDir/>
            <bid>10.4</bid>
            <ask>10.5</ask>
            <vol>NaN</vol>
            <openInt>289</openInt>
        </option>
        <option symbol="YHOO120121C00007500" type="C">
            <strikePrice>7.5</strikePrice>
            <lastPrice>8.70</lastPrice>
            <change>0</change>
            <changeDir/>
            <bid>7.9</bid>
            <ask>8</ask>
            <vol>5</vol>
            <openInt>1416</openInt>
        </option>
    </optionsChain>
</results>

Right now it will display multiple groupbox's with datagrids inside. However, there is a separate groupbox/datagrid for each corresponding "option" node in the xml file. What I want given the xml file is a single groupbox with a datagrid inside enclosed by another datagrid. My approach is to have the outer datagrid bind to a collection of viewmodel's each of which will produce the inner groupbox/datagrid. In other words the inner groupbox/datagrid's will be stacked horizontally - each in a column of the outer datagrid. The outer datagrid will have a single row with multiple columns depending on the number of viewmodel's in the outer datagrid's bound collection.

So, say the outer datagrid is bound to a collection like: ObservableCollection allOptions = new ObservableCollection();

This collection will populate the outer datagrid with objects which are viewmodel's of type OptionChainViewModel. These "inner" objects are themselves GroupBox/DataGrid views each containing the options for a single month. The result will be an outer groupbox with a single row datagrid with multiple columns. Each outer DataGrid column will in turn contain a GroupBox/DataGrid view as rendered by the OptionChainViewModel.
Hope this helps trigger some replies...