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thomas martinsen

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Silverlight 5 – Debugging bindings in XAML

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One of the cool new tool features in Silverlight 5 is the XAML debugging features. It is limited to debugging bindings in XAML but that is an extremely useful feature.

I have created a demo showing the few steps needed to debug bindings in XAML. The demo consist of a TextBox containing a number a Button to refresh the number. The number is a random number.

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The Text property of the TextBox binds to a property called “Number”. It is a Dependency Property defined in my code-behind. To make the binding work I have set the DataContext of the page to its self.

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Whenever the Number property is updated it will automatically update the Text value on the TextBox.

As simple as it is I can spend hours looking for errors if I e.g. misspell the property that we use to bind to. Before Silverlight 5 I would get a hint in the Output window if I had a BindingExpression exception. In Silverlight 5 I can add a breakpoint to the binding directly in the XAML.

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Debugging the XAML above I get an exception with a BindingExpression path error and enables me to easily identify the error.

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You can download the sample here.

by xamlgeek
@xamlgeek

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Thomas Martinsen

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