Is there a way to use WPF Grid without specifying absolute cell coordinates for every item?

Question

My typical form with Grid look like this in XAML:

    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"></ColumnDefinition>
            <ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        ....

        <TextBlock Grid.Row="6" Text="Component"/>
        <TextBox Grid.Row="6" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding Component.Name}"></TextBox>
        <TextBlock Grid.Row="7" Text="Bussiness Process"/>
        <TextBox Grid.Row="7" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding BusinessProcess.Name}"></TextBox>

    </Grid>

Is there a way to avoid specifying th exact Row/Column coordinates?

Basically, I would like to be able to reorder my controls in the Grid quickly by copying XAML around and now I have to change the coordinates which is awkward. I don't want to reorder them in the Designer because it adds some unnecessary properties to the items.

Turne

Answer 1

No, there is no way to avoid Row/Column numbers. If you don't want to install MS Blend, you can try wonderful and free Visual Studio addon from Karl Shifflett: XAML Power Toys. Among other useful things it allows you to play with Grid cells...

Niemeyer

This, unfortunately, doesn't help with the "extra properties" issue, though, since it's still using the VS Designer. Great toolset, though. – Bogard

Looks cool, it can just generate a simple form from the scratch, I'll give it a try! Spasibo ) – Turne

Answer 2

No. Unfortunately, the Grid works by having the Grid.Row and Grid.Column attached properties defined on the children - they must be specified on each child.

BTW - Blend does a better job of letting you move these things around without the "extra" properties appearing. You may want to try giving that a shot for these types of situations.

Bogard

IS there any other layout control that can organize my controls into "columns"? – Turne

You can use a StackPanel with each "row" containing a horizontally oriented stackpanel - in that case, elements will align. To get a perfect "grid", though, the elements would have to naturally be the same size. – Bogard

Answer 3

I may be very late to the party, but anyway... ;-)

Thomas Levesque's SimpleGrid could be a suitable solution:

<my:SimpleGrid Rows="Auto,5,*" Columns="60,*">
    ...
</my:SimpleGrid>

See his blog for more details: https://thomaslevesque.com/2010/07/20/wpf-a-simpler-grid-using-xaml-attribute-syntax/

Honeycutt