Bind DataGridTextColumn Visibility Property in WPF

Question

I have a datagrid whose ItemsSource binds to a CollectionViewSource.
In each column I specify the Path property of the binding to get the specific information to display.

What I'd like to do is toggle some of the columns with a checkbox if the user wants more info. To do this, I need to bind the visibility property to the value of the checkbox (with a converter) but I'm pretty sure the data context of the column is interfering with the binding.

<DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs}}" ....>
    <DataGrid.Columns>
        <DataGridTextColumn Header="First Name" Binding="{Binding Path=FirstName}"
            Visibility="{Binding IsChecked,
                                 ElementName=IncludeFullHist, 
                                 Converter={StaticResource boolItemsConverter}}"/>   
    </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

I need the checkbox in my viewmodel as well, so I have its IsChecked property bound to a property on my ViewModel

<CheckBox x:Name="IncludeFullHist"  IsChecked="{Binding Path=ManagerFullHist }" />

---

For other elements in my page, I've been able to hook up visibility bindings with either of the two following methods, but neither seem to work when I copy them over into the datagrid:

<TextBlock DockPanel.Dock="Left" Text=" Visible 2 " 
    Visibility="{Binding Path=DataContext.ManagerFullHist,
                         RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor,
                         AncestorType={x:Type UserControl}},
                         Converter={StaticResource boolItemsConverter}}"/>
<TextBlock DockPanel.Dock="Left" Text=" Visible 3 " 
    Visibility="{Binding Path=ManagerFullHist, 
                         Source={StaticResource mainWinResource},
                         Converter={StaticResource boolItemsConverter}}"/>

Any suggestions on ways that I can solve this in the datagrid?
Please let me know if I've omitted any code that could be potentially helpful.

Answer 1

The DataGridColumn is not actually part of the VisualTree, so bindings on the class cannot find their source

You can set things like the Visibility and Width property in the CellStyle or HeaderStyle of the DataGridColumn, although that isn't quite the same.

The closest I've found to a solution would be to create a Freezable object in your <DataGrid.Resources> that stores the binding, then use that StaticResource in the Visibility binding. It's not a pretty solution, but it's the only one I can find at this time.

You can view of an example of it here

<DataGrid.Resources>
    <local:BindingProxy x:Key="proxy" Data="{Binding IsChecked, 
         ElementName=IncludeFullHist, 
         Converter={StaticResource boolItemsConverter}}" />
</DataGrid.Resources>

<DataGridTextColumn Header="First Name" Binding="{Binding Path=FirstName}"
    Visibility="{Binding Path=Data, Source={StaticResource proxy}}"/>