Hi,

I am having trouble realising how to data bind a hierarchical structure for
data binding to a hierarchical grid.

My aim is to have a hierarchical structure built of List<T> collections and
convert it to BindingList<T>. The reason for this is that the former could
then be used as a lighter structure in a component where no user interface is
required.

I have partially achieved this as follows in this concocted example:

I have created a generic class inheriting from BindingList<T> and
implementing IBindingListView defined as follows:

public class BindingListView<T> : BindingList<T>, IBindingListView

I inherited from this and provided a constructor to load a collection
List<Person>

public class PersonCollectionBindingListView : BindingListView<Person>
   {
       public PersonCollectionBindingListView() : base() { }

   public PersonCollectionBindingListView(List<Person> objPersonCollection)
       : base(objPersonCollection)
       {                
       }
                               
       protected override object AddNewCore()
       {
           Person objPerson = new Person();
           objPerson.PersonID = 0;
           objPerson.PersonName = "[Enter Person Name]";
           this.Add(objPerson);
           return objPerson;
       }

       //Other code removed for brevity
}

The Person class implements IDataErrorInfo, IEditableObject,
INotifyPropertyChanged (not shown):

public class Person:System.Object, IDataErrorInfo, IEditableObject,
INotifyPropertyChanged
{
 private System.Int32 PersonID;
 private System.String PersonName;
 private TelephoneNumbersCollection TelephoneNumbersCollection;

//code removed for brevity

}

But notice that Person contains a collection for telephone numbers which
based on <List>TelephoneNumber (not shown) i.e.
public class TelephoneNumbersCollection:List<TelephoneNumber>

For the first level, everything works fine. I can create a collection of
type <List>Person and pass it to the PersonCollectionBindingListView
constructor. When I bind to the grid this works fine.

But I am stuck with what to do about the collection of telephone numbers. In
order to interact with the grid propertly I would need to convert the
collection to inherit from: public class BindingListView<T> : BindingList<T>,
IBindingListView

i.e.
public class TelephoneCollectionBindingListView :
BindingListView<TelephoneNumber>

Where TelephoneNumber would need to implement IDataErrorInfo,
IEditableObject, InotifyPropertyChanged as the Person class does.

But since I am passing in a collection of <List>Person, it’s telepnone
collection is based on List not BindingList.

Since I wanted to have a simple structure without all the binding interfaces
so that I can use the application as a simple component. I am wondering how
to best convert from one structure to the next.

I hope I am not asking the obvious but can anyone please help me?

Also I have tried to keep this as simple as possible, by cutting out a lot
of code, please let me know if more information is required.

Best Regards,

Steve.