Displaying controls depending on user selection of a drop down list

I need to display different controls depending on what selection a user makes in a drop down. That i开发者_开发百科s, if the user makes a selection for a date, a date selection control should display, or text input box for text input... Or a set of controls for more complex selections.

So the idea is to create how ever many user controls, and then display the required one at the required time. I want something more elegant than faffing with 'visible true/false' properties.

You can achieve it using content control and data triggers. No need to play with Visibility.

Here is a sample which will give you clear idea. In the below sample i have taken a content control with combo box selected item as datacontext. XAML Code:

 <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Width="150">
        <ComboBox Name="Controls"></ComboBox>
        <ContentControl DataContext="{Binding ElementName=Controls,Path=SelectedItem}">
            <ContentControl.Style>
                <Style TargetType="ContentControl">
                    <Style.Triggers>
                        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding}" Value="Date">
                            <Setter Property="Content">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <DatePicker Height="30"></DatePicker>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </DataTrigger>
                        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding}" Value="Text">
                            <Setter Property="Content">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <TextBox Height="30"></TextBox>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </DataTrigger>
                        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding}" Value="Button">
                            <Setter Property="Content">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <Button Height="30"></Button>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </DataTrigger>
                        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding}" Value="Checkbox">
                            <Setter Property="Content">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <CheckBox Height="30"></CheckBox>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </DataTrigger>
                    </Style.Triggers>
                </Style>
            </ContentControl.Style>
        </ContentControl>
    </StackPanel>

Code Behind:

InitializeComponent();
            List<string> controlTypes = new List<string> { "Date", "Text", "Button", "Checkbox" };
            Controls.ItemsSource = controlTypes;

Note: For creating a sample i have used code behind... you can easily convert it to MVVM

I want something more elegant than faffing with 'visible true/false' properties.

:-) You will land up doing exactly that anyways....

This is too trivial ... any decent WPF related tutorial will help you with this...

Just for a quick start, you will have to use Binding of ComboBox's SelectedItem with Visibility of all those controls you want to hide/show through a proper value converter.