How to Customize the DropDown item in WinUI AutoComplete?

This article explains how to customize the DropDown item in WinUI AutoComplete.

The ItemTemplate property helps you to decorate drop-down items using the custom templates. The default value of ItemTemplate is null. The following example shows how to customize drop-down items using templates.

C#

//Model.cs
public class Employee
{
   public string Name { get; set; }
   public BitmapImage ProfilePicture { get; set; }
   public string Designation { get; set; }
}

//ViewModel.cs
public class EmployeeViewModel
{
   public ObservableCollection<Employee> Employees { get; set; }
   public EmployeeViewModel()
   {
       this.Employees = new ObservableCollection<Employee>();
       this.Employees.Add(new Employee
       {
           Name = "Anne Dodsworth",
           ProfilePicture = new BitmapImage(new Uri(@"ms-appx:///Assets/AutoComplete/Employees/Employee1.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)),
           Designation= "Developer",
           ID="E001",
           Country= "USA",
       });
       this.Employees.Add(new Employee
       {
           Name = "Andrew Fuller",
           ProfilePicture = new BitmapImage(new Uri(@"ms-appx:///Assets/AutoComplete/Employees/Employee7.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)),
           Designation = "Team Lead",
           ID = "E002",
           Country = "England",
       });
       ...
   }
}

XAML

<editors:SfAutoComplete
   TextMemberPath="Name"
   DisplayMemberPath="Name"
   ItemsSource="{Binding Employees}"
   Width="250"
   x:Name="autoComplete">
   <editors:SfAutoComplete.DataContext>
       <local:EmployeeViewModel/>
   </editors:SfAutoComplete.DataContext>
   <editors:SfAutoComplete.ItemTemplate>
       <DataTemplate>
           <Grid
               Margin="0,5"
               HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
               VerticalAlignment="Stretch">
               <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                   <ColumnDefinition Width="48"/>
                   <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
               </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
               <Image 
                   Grid.Column="0"
                   HorizontalAlignment="Center"
                   VerticalAlignment="Center" 
                   Source="{Binding ProfilePicture}" 
                   Stretch="Uniform"/>
               <StackPanel
                   Grid.Column="1"
                   Margin="15,0,0,0"
                   HorizontalAlignment="Left"
                   VerticalAlignment="Center">
                   <TextBlock 
                       Opacity="0.87"
                       FontSize="14"
                       Text="{Binding Name}"/>
                   <TextBlock 
                       Opacity="0.54"
                       FontSize="12"
                       Text="{Binding Designation}"/>
               </StackPanel>
           </Grid>
       </DataTemplate>
   </editors:SfAutoComplete.ItemTemplate>
</editors:SfAutoComplete>

Customize the DropDown item based on condition

The ItemTemplateSelector property helps you to decorate drop-down items conditionally based on their content using the custom templates. The default value of ItemTemplateSelector is null.

C#

public class EmployeeTemplateSelector : DataTemplateSelector
{
   public DataTemplate EmployeeTemplate1 { get; set; }
   public DataTemplate EmployeeTemplate2 { get; set; }
   
   protected override DataTemplate SelectTemplateCore(object item, DependencyObject container)
   {
       var employeeName = (item as Employee).Name;
       if (employeeName.ToString() == "Anne Dodsworth" || employeeName.ToString() == "Emilia Alvaro" ||
           employeeName.ToString() == "Laura Callahan")
       {
           return EmployeeTemplate1;
       }
       else
       {
           return EmployeeTemplate2;
       }
   }
}

XAML

<Grid>
   <Grid.Resources>
       <DataTemplate x:Key="employeeTemplate1">
           <Grid Margin="0,5">
               <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                   <ColumnDefinition Width="48"/>
                   <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
               </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
               <Image 
                   Grid.Column="0"
                   Source="{Binding ProfilePicture}" 
                   Stretch="Uniform"/>
               <StackPanel
                   Grid.Column="1"
                   Margin="15,0,0,0">
                   <TextBlock 
                       Foreground="Blue"
                       Opacity="0.87"
                       FontSize="14"
                       Text="{Binding Name}"/>
                   <TextBlock 
                       Foreground="Coral"
                       Opacity="0.54"
                       FontSize="12"
                       Text="{Binding Designation}"/>
               </StackPanel>
           </Grid>
       </DataTemplate>
       
       <DataTemplate x:Key="employeeTemplate2">
           <Grid Margin="0,5">
               <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                   <ColumnDefinition Width="48"/>
                   <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
               </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
               <Image 
                   Grid.Column="0" 
                   Source="{Binding ProfilePicture}" 
                   Stretch="Uniform"/>
               <StackPanel
                   Grid.Column="1"
                   Margin="15,0,0,0">
                   <TextBlock
                       Foreground="Red"
                       Opacity="0.87"
                       FontSize="14"
                       Text="{Binding Name}"/>
                   <TextBlock 
                       Foreground="Green"
                       Opacity="0.54"
                       FontSize="12"
                       Text="{Binding Designation}"/>
               </StackPanel>
           </Grid>
       </DataTemplate>

       <local:EmployeeTemplateSelector
           x:Key="employeeTemplateSelector"
           EmployeeTemplate1="{StaticResource employeeTemplate1}"
           EmployeeTemplate2="{StaticResource employeeTemplate2}"/>
   </Grid.Resources>
   
   <editors:SfAutoComplete 
       TextMemberPath="Name"
       ItemsSource="{Binding Employees}"
       ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource employeeTemplateSelector}"        
       Width="250" 
       x:Name="autoComplete">
       <editors:SfAutoComplete.DataContext>
           <local:EmployeeViewModel/>
       </editors:SfAutoComplete.DataContext>
   </editors:SfAutoComplete>
</Grid>

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed learning how to customize the DropDown item in WinUI AutoComplete.

You can refer to our WinUI AutoComplete feature tour page to learn about its other groundbreaking feature representations and documentation, and how to quickly get started for configuration specifications.

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