How to fill up datagrid with empty rows

Question

I have a datagrid that is bound to an observable collection.

I'd like to achieve a similar thing shown in this post with my Datagrid but there are additional considerations:

1. The Datagrid can be resized by the user. Filling the data table with some fixed number of rows does not work for my purposes.
2. The scrolling behavior should work properly.

Basically I'm trying to make an error list window that is similar to the one inside Visual Studio.

I'd appreciate any guidelines.

Answer 1

This was a tricky one. My idea would be to create an adorner that will be responsible for drawing the different lines you need. I'm not fond of creating unnecessary row objects.

Here is a starting example (there are still some glitches and it will need tweaking, but I think it's a good start.)

XAML

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication11.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfApplication11"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">

<local:MyDataGrid HeadersVisibility="Column">
    <local:MyDataGrid.Columns>
        <DataGridTextColumn Header="Column 123" Binding="{Binding}" />
        <DataGridTextColumn Header="Column 2" Binding="{Binding}" />
        <DataGridTextColumn Header="Column 33333333333333333333333" Binding="{Binding}" />
    </local:MyDataGrid.Columns>
    <sys:String>Row</sys:String>
    <sys:String>Row</sys:String>
</local:MyDataGrid>

</Window>

Control Code

public static class Visual_ExtensionMethods
{
    public static T FindDescendant<T>(this Visual @this, Predicate<T> predicate = null) where T : Visual
    {
        return @this.FindDescendant(v => v is T && (predicate == null || predicate((T)v))) as T;
    }

    public static Visual FindDescendant(this Visual @this, Predicate<Visual> predicate)
    {
        if (@this == null)
            return null;

        var frameworkElement = @this as FrameworkElement;
        if (frameworkElement != null)
        {
            frameworkElement.ApplyTemplate();
        }

        Visual child = null;
        for (int i = 0, count = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(@this); i < count; i++)
        {
            child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(@this, i) as Visual;
            if (predicate(child))
                return child;

            child = child.FindDescendant(predicate);
            if (child != null)
                return child;

        }
        return child;
    }
}

public class GridAdorner : Adorner
{
    public GridAdorner(MyDataGrid dataGrid)
        : base(dataGrid)
    {
        dataGrid.LayoutUpdated += new EventHandler(dataGrid_LayoutUpdated);
    }

    void dataGrid_LayoutUpdated(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        InvalidateVisual();
    }

    protected override void OnRender(DrawingContext drawingContext)
    {
        base.OnRender(drawingContext);

        var myDataGrid = AdornedElement as MyDataGrid;
        if (myDataGrid == null)
            throw new InvalidOperationException();

        // Draw Horizontal lines
        var lastRowBottomOffset = myDataGrid.LastRowBottomOffset;
        var remainingSpace = myDataGrid.RenderSize.Height - lastRowBottomOffset;
        var placeHolderRowHeight = myDataGrid.PlaceHolderRowHeight;
        var lineNumber = (int)(Math.Floor(remainingSpace / placeHolderRowHeight));

        for (int i = 1; i <= lineNumber; i++)
        {
            Rect rectangle = new Rect(new Size(base.RenderSize.Width, 1)) { Y = lastRowBottomOffset + (i * placeHolderRowHeight) };
            drawingContext.DrawRectangle(Brushes.Black, null, rectangle);
        }

        // Draw vertical lines
        var reorderedColumns = myDataGrid.Columns.OrderBy(c => c.DisplayIndex);
        double verticalLineOffset = - myDataGrid.ScrollViewer.HorizontalOffset;
        foreach (var column in reorderedColumns)
        {
            verticalLineOffset += column.ActualWidth;

            Rect rectangle = new Rect(new Size(1, Math.Max(0, remainingSpace))) { X = verticalLineOffset, Y = lastRowBottomOffset };
            drawingContext.DrawRectangle(Brushes.Black, null, rectangle);
        }
    }
}

public class MyDataGrid : DataGrid
{
    public MyDataGrid()
    {
        Background = Brushes.White;
        Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MyDataGrid_Loaded);
        PlaceHolderRowHeight = 20.0D; // random value, can be changed
    }

    protected override void OnRender(DrawingContext drawingContext)
    {
        base.OnRender(drawingContext);
    }

    private static void MyDataGrid_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var dataGrid = sender as MyDataGrid;
        if (dataGrid == null)
            throw new InvalidOperationException();

        // Add the adorner that will be responsible for drawing grid lines
        var adornerLayer = AdornerLayer.GetAdornerLayer(dataGrid);
        if (adornerLayer != null)
        {
            adornerLayer.Add(new GridAdorner(dataGrid));
        }

        // Find DataGridRowsPresenter and set alignment to top to easily retrieve last row vertical offset
        dataGrid.DataGridRowsPresenter.VerticalAlignment = System.Windows.VerticalAlignment.Top;
    }

    public double PlaceHolderRowHeight
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    public double LastRowBottomOffset
    {
        get
        {
            return DataGridColumnHeadersPresenter.RenderSize.Height + DataGridRowsPresenter.RenderSize.Height;
        }
    }

    public DataGridColumnHeadersPresenter DataGridColumnHeadersPresenter
    {
        get
        {
            if (dataGridColumnHeadersPresenter == null)
            {
                dataGridColumnHeadersPresenter = this.FindDescendant<DataGridColumnHeadersPresenter>();
                if (dataGridColumnHeadersPresenter == null)
                    throw new InvalidOperationException();
            }
            return dataGridColumnHeadersPresenter;
        }
    }

    public DataGridRowsPresenter DataGridRowsPresenter
    {
        get
        {
            if (dataGridRowsPresenter == null)
            {
                dataGridRowsPresenter = this.FindDescendant<DataGridRowsPresenter>();
                if (dataGridRowsPresenter == null)
                    throw new InvalidOperationException();
            }
            return dataGridRowsPresenter;
        }
    }

    public ScrollViewer ScrollViewer
    {
        get
        {
            if (scrollViewer == null)
            {
                scrollViewer = this.FindDescendant<ScrollViewer>();
                if (scrollViewer == null)
                    throw new InvalidOperationException();
            }
            return scrollViewer;
        }
    }

    private DataGridRowsPresenter dataGridRowsPresenter;
    private DataGridColumnHeadersPresenter dataGridColumnHeadersPresenter;
    private ScrollViewer scrollViewer;
}

This specific piece of code

void dataGrid_LayoutUpdated(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    InvalidateVisual();
}

you really don't want. It's the easiest but ugliest way to get OnRender being called when it has to. You should only force OnRender to be called on Column reordering and Column Size changed. Good luck !