Static And Dynamic Line Chart In WPF With MVVM Pattern Using Prism Library

I hope, you have some knowledge of WPF and XAML before starting.To know more about MVVM using Prism, follow this link: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/getting-started-mvvm-pattern-using-prism-library-in-wpf.

Before starting, I hope you have added the ‘Prism.Unity’ from ‘NuGet Packages’ and for charting, we will do the same for charting controls package.

Note

In this article, I am using Visual Studio 2015.

Step 1

Create a project named ‘PrismMVVMTestProject’ of WPF Application.

Step 2

Right click on the project and select ‘Manage NuGet Packages’.

Step 3

For charting controls, type ‘System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization ‘ in browse section, select that package, and click on "Install" button.

After successfully installing the package, the screenshot will be, as shown below.

Now, you can see the newly added DLLs in the reference section of the project.

Step 4

It’s a better approach to create the 3 different folders in the project for Model, View and View model respectively.

Step 5

Create the pages in all the folders
Create a View named ‘TestView.xaml’ in the Views folder.

Create a Model named ‘TestModel.xaml’ in the Models folder.

Create a ViewModel Named ‘TestViewModel.xaml’ in the ViewModels folder.

Step 6

Add the namespace named ‘Prism.MVVM’ in the TestModel page to inherit the class named ‘Bindable Base’.

Create a class for chart binding with the key and value properties for Axis-X and Y.

class Keyvalue : BindableBase
{
private string _Key;
public string Key { get { return _Key; } set { SetProperty(ref _Key, value); } }
private int _Value;
public int Value { get { return _Value; } set { SetProperty(ref _Value, value); } }
}
ii) Create a list type property named DataList to store multiple values of keyvalue class
class TestModel : BindableBase
{
private List<Keyvalue> _DataList;
public List<Keyvalue> DataList { get { return _DataList; } set { SetProperty(ref _DataList, value); } }
}

Step 7

On the TestView page, we do as shown below.

Access the assembly of charting on the top of the view .

xmlns:ChartToolKit="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Charting;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Toolkit"

Create 2 Group boxes with different header names for static and dynamic chart respectively, where 1st will contain a chart with a line series with the itemsource, IndependentvaluePath and DependentvaluePath property.

Note

Here, Itemsource property is bound with ‘DataList’ property, which we have created in TestModel class and for IndependentvaluePath & DependentvaluePath property, which we use ‘Key’ and ‘Value’ of KeyValue class.

The second groupbox didn’t contain anything; as it just has a name.

<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<GroupBox Grid.Row="0" Header="Static Line Chart">
<ChartToolKit:Chart>
<ChartToolKit:LineSeries ItemsSource="{Binding Path=TestModel.DataList,
UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged,Mode=TwoWay, NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True }"
IndependentValuePath="Key"
DependentValuePath="Value">
</ChartToolKit:LineSeries>
</ChartToolKit:Chart>
</GroupBox>
<GroupBox Grid.Row="1" Header="Dynamic Line Chart" x:Name="GroupBoxDynamicChart">
</GroupBox>
</Grid>

Step 8

Add PrismMVVMTestProject.ViewModels namespace and bind datacontext of TestView Page to the ViewModel named ‘TestViewModel’. and pass the 2^nd groupbox into it.

using System.Windows;
using PrismMVVMTestProject.ViewModels;
namespace PrismMVVMTestProject.Views
{
/// <summary>
/// Interaction logic for TestView.xaml
/// </summary>
public partial class TestView : Window
{
public TestView()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.DataContext = new TestViewModel(GroupBoxDynamicChart);
}
}
}

Step 9

Add the namespace named ‘Prism.MVVM’ and ‘PrismMVVMTestProject.Models’ in the TestViewModel page to inherit the class named ‘Bindable Base’ and access TestModel in this page.
Create a property of TestModel class object, where ‘ref‘ parameter allows you to update its value.
Create a local list of keyvalue class named ‘tempList’ and add some data into it.
1. List<Keyvalue> tempList = new List<Keyvalue>();
2. tempList.Add(new Keyvalue() { Key = "Rs.100", Value = 50 });
3. tempList.Add(new Keyvalue() { Key = "Rs.500", Value = 18 });
4. tempList.Add(new Keyvalue() { Key = "Rs.1000", Value = 25 });
5. tempList.Add(new Keyvalue() { Key = "Rs.2000", Value = 5 });

Assign ‘tempList’ to ‘TestModel.DataList’ to bind the static chart.

//Bind the sttaic Chart
TestModel.DataList = tempList;

Create the dynamic chart and line series.
Bind the item source of line series with ‘tempList’.
To bind the IndependentvaluePath & DependentvaluePath property we use ‘Key’ and ‘Value’ of KeyValue Class same as in static chart.
Add the line series in to the chart and chart into the groupbox.

Create the dynamic chart, bind it and add it into the 2nd groupBox

Chart dynamicChart = new Chart();
LineSeries lineseries = new LineSeries();
lineseries.ItemsSource = tempList;
lineseries.DependentValuePath = "Value";
lineseries.IndependentValuePath = "Key";
dynamicChart.Series.Add(lineseries);
GroupBoxDynamicChart.Content = dynamicChart;

Run the page and see the output.