Create a Hierarchical DataGrid in WPF (MVVM Capable)

There are Many Occasions when I wanted to have the ability to have a hierarchical DataGrid for simple recursive tables.

Tree Views did not come up to scratch because they are not easy to two way bind to data and fail on being able to send notifications of changes.

With a lot of gritting teeth I managed to do it in XAML Alone (YAY).

I achieved this by creating an HierarchicalDataTemplate  which refers to itself via DynamicResource.   the IDE does give me a warning that a loop is detected but, other than that it works fine.

So what does it look Like?

With time it will be prettied up :-).

<UserControl.Resources>

 <ResourceDictionary>
   <HierarchicalDataTemplate  x:Key="HeiachyTemplate"  
                                       DataType="{x:Type data:InventoryItemGroup}"
                                       ItemsSource="{Binding InventoryItemGroups}" >
    <DataGrid     

ItemsSource="{Binding InventoryItemGroups,Mode=TwoWay,NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True,NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True,NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"   
bhv:DataGridEndEditCommandBehaviour.Command="{Binding ElementName=EditInventoryItemGroupUserControl,Path=DataContext.DataGridEndEditCommand}"
CanUserAddRows="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AreRowDetailsFrozen="False"

HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Top"

RowDetailsVisibilityMode="Visible" AlternatingRowBackground="WhiteSmoke" 

HeadersVisibility="Row"
RowDetailsTemplate="{DynamicResource HeiachyTemplate}"  >
  <DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
    <DataTemplate>
      <ContentControl VerticalContentAlignment="Top" VerticalAlignment="Top">
        <TextBlock  FontFamily="Wingdings" Text="&#196;" Margin="15,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
      </ContentControl>
    </DataTemplate>
  </DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
  <DataGrid.Columns>
      <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding InventoryItemGroupName, Mode=TwoWay, NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True, NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Width="*" MinWidth="400"></DataGridTextColumn>
   </DataGrid.Columns>
  </DataGrid>
          

</HierarchicalDataTemplate>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </UserControl.Resources>

Now for the data grid

   <DataGrid 

  ItemsSource="{Binding InventoryItemGroupList,Mode=TwoWay,NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True,NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True,NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"   
 CanUserAddRows="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AreRowDetailsFrozen="False"
 RowDetailsVisibilityMode="Visible" AlternatingRowBackground="LightGray"
 RowDetailsTemplate="{StaticResource HeiachyTemplate}"
 >
 <DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
     <DataTemplate>
        <TextBlock  Text=" " Margin="15,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
     </DataTemplate>
 </DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
 <DataGrid.Columns>
   <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding InventoryItemGroupName, Mode=TwoWay, NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True, NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Width="*" ></DataGridTextColumn>
  </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

Now That's All she Wrote.... I cannot say if this will work for all situations nor large record sets but it worked for me.. This is my first post, so please if I am missing any information leave a comment. Source Code