How to populate a list box that is in an itemtemplate

I am just learning XAML and programming for Windows Phone 7. Im trying to create an itemtemplate for a WP7 Pivot Control. I was able to make a template which contains a listbox. Is it possible to access this listbox in the code-behind so I can fill it based on a collection of a custom class? Basically how it works is that I have a pivot control and each item in that control is a category. For each category thatis added, there is a list of items that belong to that category. I need to be able to populate the list on each pivot item with items of that category.

I searched for ideas on how to accomplish this, and I get a lot of examples on databinding, but Im not too familiar on how databinding works in XAML.

Would databinding be the way to go or can I somehow get a referenc开发者_开发知识库e to the listbox and add the items myself? Any help would be greatly appriciated!

Thank you

I've some considerations on subject:

1) If you fill Categories list via binding, then you don't have entry point where binding is guaranteed comleted (because binding executes in deferred fashion).

2) Working with ItemTemplate's content is more tricky and unreliable, than DataTemplate approach, and you should use it just in exclusive situations. LogicalTreeHelper and VisualTreeHelper classes will help you.

3) But I would recommend you to build your view based on DataTemplates as it is common practice in WPF. Do you really think that this code is pretty complicated?

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="MainWindow">
<Window.Resources>
    <DataTemplate x:Key="InnerItemDataTemplate">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
    </DataTemplate>

    <DataTemplate x:Key="CategoryDataTemplate">
        <StackPanel>
            <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding InnerItems}"
                      ItemTemplate="{StaticResource InnerItemDataTemplate}"/>
        </StackPanel>
    </DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
    <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Categories}"
              ItemTemplate="{StaticResource CategoryDataTemplate}"/>
</Grid>

public class Category
{
    public IEnumerable<InnerItem> InnerList
    {
        get{/*...*/}
    }
}

class InnerItem
{
    public string Name
    {
        get{/*...*/}
    }
}

public class SampleModel
{
    public IEnumerable<Category> Categories
    {
        get {/*...*/}
    }
}  

IF you create a new "Windows Phone Pivot Application" the default code shows an example of this but reuses the same items in the listbox in multiple pivotitems.

Here's an overview of what that sample code is doing and how you might go about changing it.

In the constructor of MainPage, the DataContext is set to an object (App.ViewModel).

This Loaded event of MainPage ensures that App.ViewModel is populated.

App.ViewModel is an instance of MainViewModel.

MainViewModel contains an ObservableCollection called "Items". It is this that is bound to an idividual ListBox in a PivotItem:

<controls:PivotItem Header="first">
    <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">
        ...
    </ListBox>
</controls:PivotItem>

Within the ListBox, you can refer to the contents of the "Items" collection.

If you wanted to adjust this to have different collections for each ListBox/PivotItem you could just adjust this to have multiple collections in the MainViewModel.

HTH.