Is it possible to bind a Canvas's Children property in XAML?

Question

I'm a little surprised that it is not possible to set up a binding for Canvas.Children through XAML. I've had to resort to a code-behind approach that looks something like this:

private void UserControl_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {     DesignerViewModel dvm = this.DataContext as DesignerViewModel;     dvm.Document.Items.CollectionChanged += new System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler(Items_CollectionChanged);      foreach (UIElement element in dvm.Document.Items)         designerCanvas.Children.Add(element); }  private void Items_CollectionChanged(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e) {     ObservableCollection<UIElement> collection = sender as ObservableCollection<UIElement>;      foreach (UIElement element in collection)         if (!designerCanvas.Children.Contains(element))             designerCanvas.Children.Add(element);      List<UIElement> removeList = new List<UIElement>();     foreach (UIElement element in designerCanvas.Children)         if (!collection.Contains(element))             removeList.Add(element);      foreach (UIElement element in removeList)         designerCanvas.Children.Remove(element); } 

I'd much rather just set up a binding in XAML like this:

<Canvas x:Name="designerCanvas"         Children="{Binding Document.Items}"         Width="{Binding Document.Width}"         Height="{Binding Document.Height}"> </Canvas> 

Is there a way to accomplish this without resorting to a code-behind approach? I've done some googling on the subject, but haven't come up with much for this specific problem.

I don't like my current approach because it mucks up my nice Model-View-ViewModel by making the View aware of it's ViewModel.

Answer 1

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Circles}">     <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>          <ItemsPanelTemplate>               <Canvas Background="White" Width="500" Height="500"  />          </ItemsPanelTemplate>     </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>     <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>         <DataTemplate>             <Ellipse Fill="{Binding Path=Color, Converter={StaticResource colorBrushConverter}}" Width="25" Height="25" />         </DataTemplate>     </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>     <ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>         <Style>             <Setter Property="Canvas.Top" Value="{Binding Path=Y}" />             <Setter Property="Canvas.Left" Value="{Binding Path=X}" />         </Style>     </ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle> </ItemsControl>