Access DisplayName in xaml

Question

How can i access DisplayName's value in XAML?

I've got:

public class ViewModel {
  [DisplayName("My simple property")]
  public string Property {
    get { return "property";}
  }
}

XAML:

<TextBlock Text="{Binding ??Property.DisplayName??}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Property}"/>

Is there any way to bind DisplayName in such or simmilar way? The best idea will be to use this DisplayName as key to Resources and present something from Resources.

Answer 1

I would use a markup extension:

public class DisplayNameExtension : MarkupExtension
{
    public Type Type { get; set; }

    public string PropertyName { get; set; }

    public DisplayNameExtension() { }
    public DisplayNameExtension(string propertyName)
    {
        PropertyName = propertyName;
    }

    public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
        // (This code has zero tolerance)
        var prop = Type.GetProperty(PropertyName);
        var attributes = prop.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayNameAttribute), false);
        return (attributes[0] as DisplayNameAttribute).DisplayName;
    }
}

Example usage:

<TextBlock Text="{m:DisplayName TestInt, Type=local:MainWindow}"/>

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
   [DisplayName("Awesome Int")]
   public int TestInt { get; set; }
   //...
}

Answer 2

Not sure how well this would scale, but you could use a converter to get to your DisplayName. The converter would look something like:

public class DisplayNameConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        PropertyInfo propInfo = value.GetType().GetProperty(parameter.ToString());
        var attrib = propInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.ComponentModel.DisplayNameAttribute), false);

        if (attrib.Count() > 0)
        {
            return ((System.ComponentModel.DisplayNameAttribute)attrib.First()).DisplayName;
        }

        return String.Empty;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

and then your binding in XAML would look like:

Text="{Binding Mode=OneWay, Converter={StaticResource ResourceKey=myConverter}, ConverterParameter=MyPropertyName}"