Visualize object properties in a WPF control

Question

Is it possible to visualize an object (its properties along with their values) and print it out (dump it - similar to serialization) to a WPF control, such as TreeView or PropertyGrid to inspect the object?

The goal is to display the contents of any arbitary object (not only for debugging purposes).

For further clarification: I'm not looking for any debugging tools or ways to show the WPF Visual Tree. This question has only partially something to do with WPF -> WPF is only the media to display the object dump because controls may vary between WPF and WinForms.

The output should be hierarchical for nested object instances, lists etc.

Answer 1

I think you should take a look at Snoop

• http://snoopwpf.codeplex.com/

This program will allow you to navigate the WPF tree of any running application. Debugging is not required for this tool and it's possible the tool doesn't work with debugging. Typically I use it in non-debugging scenarios to see how my WPF controls are actually laid out and what values they have for various properties

Answer 2

I believe what you are looking for is the System.Diagnostics.DebuggerDisplayAttribute

Answer 3

You mean besides the WPF Tree Visualizer? there is Mole, which is not free anymore, but very good.

Edit:

Reading your edited question. You are explicitly naming the PropertyGrid, I take it you've already tried Extended WPF Toolkit's PropertyGrid?