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How to: Create Simple or Complex TreeViews

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This example shows how to create simple or complex TreeView controls.

A TreeView consists of a hierarchy of TreeViewItem controls, which can contain simple text strings and also more complex content, such as Button controls or a StackPanel with embedded content. You can explicitly define the TreeView content or a data source can provide the content. This topic provides examples of these concepts.

Example

The Header property of the TreeViewItem contains the content that the TreeView displays for that item. A TreeViewItem can also have TreeViewItem controls as its child elements and you can define these child elements by using the Items property.

The following example shows how to explicitly define TreeViewItem content by setting the Header property to a text string.

<TreeView>
  <TreeViewItem Header="Employee1">
    <TreeViewItem Header="Jesper"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="Aaberg"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="12345"/>
  </TreeViewItem>
 <TreeViewItem Header="Employee2">
    <TreeViewItem Header="Dominik"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="Paiha"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="98765"/>
  </TreeViewItem>
</TreeView>

The following example show how to define child elements of a TreeViewItem by defining Items that are Button controls.

<TreeView>
  <TreeViewItem Header ="Employee1">
    <TreeViewItem.Items>
      <Button>Jesper</Button>
      <Button>Aaberg</Button>
      <Button>12345</Button>
    </TreeViewItem.Items>
  </TreeViewItem>
  <TreeViewItem Header="Employee2">
    <TreeViewItem.Items>
      <Button>Dominik</Button>
      <Button>Paiha</Button>
      <Button>98765</Button>
    </TreeViewItem.Items>
  </TreeViewItem>
</TreeView>

The following example shows how to create a TreeView where an XmlDataProvider provides TreeViewItem content and a HierarchicalDataTemplate defines the appearance of the content.

<XmlDataProvider x:Key="myEmployeeData" XPath="/EmployeeData">
  <x:XData>
    <EmployeeData xmlns="">
      <EmployeeInfo>
        <EmployeeInfoData>Employee1</EmployeeInfoData>
        <Item Type="FirstName">Jesper</Item>
        <Item Type="LastName">Aaberg</Item>
        <Item Type="EmployeeNumber">12345</Item>
      </EmployeeInfo>
      <EmployeeInfo>
        <EmployeeInfoData>Employee2</EmployeeInfoData>
        <Item Type="FirstName">Dominik</Item>
        <Item Type="LastName">Paiha</Item>
        <Item Type="EmployeeNumber">98765</Item>
      </EmployeeInfo>
    </EmployeeData>
  </x:XData>
</XmlDataProvider>

<HierarchicalDataTemplate DataType="EmployeeInfo" 
  ItemsSource ="{Binding XPath=Item}">
  <TextBlock Text="{Binding XPath=EmployeeInfoData}" />
</HierarchicalDataTemplate>

<TreeView ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource myEmployeeData}, 
  XPath=EmployeeInfo}"/>

The following example shows how to create a TreeView where the TreeViewItem content contains DockPanel controls that have embedded content.

<TreeView>
  <TreeViewItem Header="Animals">
    <TreeViewItem.Items>
    <DockPanel>
      <Image Source="data\fish.png"/>
      <TextBlock Margin="5" Foreground="Brown"
                 FontSize="12">Fish</TextBlock>
    </DockPanel>
    <DockPanel>
      <Image Source="data\dog.png"/>
      <TextBlock Margin="5" Foreground="Brown"
                 FontSize="12">Dog</TextBlock>
    </DockPanel>
    <DockPanel>
      <Image Source="data\cat.png"/>
      <TextBlock Margin="5" Foreground="Brown"
                 FontSize="12">Cat</TextBlock>
    </DockPanel>
  </TreeViewItem.Items>
  </TreeViewItem>      
</TreeView>

See also