How can I bind a List as ItemSource to ListView in XAML?

Question

I'm learning WPF and would like to have a collection similar to a LinkedList, to where I can add and remove strings. And I want to have a ListView that listen to that collection with databinding. How can I do bind a simple list collection to a ListView in XAML?

My idea (not working) is something like this:

<Window x:Class="TestApp.MainWindow"
      xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
      xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
      Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Window.Resources>
        <LinkedList x:Key="myList"></LinkedList> //Wrong
    <Window.Resources>
    <Grid>
    <ListView Height="100" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="88,134,0,0" 
      Name="listView1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" 
      ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource myList}}"/> //Wrong
    </Grid>
</Window>

All my code (updated version, not working):

<Window x:Class="TestApp.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <TextBox Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="12,12,0,0" 
          Name="textBox1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" />
        <Button Content="Button" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Right" 
          Margin="0,12,290,0" Name="button1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="75" 
          Click="button1_Click" />
        <ListView Height="100" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="88,134,0,0" 
          Name="listView1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" 
          ItemsSource="{Binding myList}"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

C#-code:

namespace TestApp
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        ObservableCollection<string> myList = new ObservableCollection<string>();
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            myList.Add("first string");
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            myList.Add(textBox1.Text);
            textBox1.Text = myList.Count+"st";
        }
    }
}

Solution 1

You can only databind to public properties and you need to set the DataContext.

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public ObservableCollection<string> myList { get; private set; }

    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        myList = new ObservableCollection<string>();
        myList.Add("first string");
        DataContext = this;
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        myList.Add(textBox1.Text);
        textBox1.Text = myList.Count + "st";
    }
}

Solution 2

The approach selected as an answer works fine... but I don't specifically like having to specify the DataContext programmatically while setting everything else in XAML, I don't feel like it's "proper" (maybe this is just me). So for the next person, or anyone else who thinks like me and finds this off a search engine (like i did), here is the way to do it in XAML:

C#

public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
{
    public ObservableCollection<string> Messages { get; set; }

    public MainPage()
    {
        this.Messages = new ObservableCollection<string>();
        this.InitializeComponent();
    }
}

XAML

<Window
    ....
    DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}"
    ...>

    <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Messages}" ... />

</Window>

To be honest I think {Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}} should be the default value any top level element's (Page, Window, etc...) DataConext because it is simply how a lot of people expect it to work, I know it's how I assume it would work. Honestly, I feel like {Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}} is a bit verbose and almost long for a shorter syntax.