XAML Tip: DataContext Comment

October 24, 2009

When working on large WPF or Silverlight applications, you can end up with a lot of XAML files.  If you are using the MVVM pattern, many of those XAML files contain a View whose DataContext is expected to be set to a certain type of ViewModel object.  It can sometimes become difficult to remember which Views expects which ViewModel as their DataContext.  One very simple and lightweight way to help you and your team remember a View’s expected DataContext type is to leave an XML comment at the top of the XAML file.  This incredibly simple and obvious technique can be a HUGE timesaver later on down the road!

datacontext

I highly suggest that you get into the habit of doing this, if you haven’t done so already.  You will thank yourself many times later…