How can I have a ListBox auto-scroll when a new item is added?

Question

I have a WPF ListBox that is set to scroll horizontally. The ItemsSource is bound to an ObservableCollection in my ViewModel class. Every time a new item is added, I want th

Answer 1

This works for me:

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath);
foreach (var fi in di.GetFiles("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
    int count = Convert.ToInt32(listBox1.Items.Count); // counts every listbox entry
    listBox1.Items.Add(count + " - " + fi.Name); // display entrys
    listBox1.TopIndex = count; // scroll to the last entry
}

Answer 2

This is the solution I use that works, might help someone else;

 statusWindow.SelectedIndex = statusWindow.Items.Count - 1;
 statusWindow.UpdateLayout();
 statusWindow.ScrollIntoView(statusWindow.SelectedItem);
 statusWindow.UpdateLayout();

Answer 3

You can extend the behavior of the ListBox by using attached properties. In your case I would define an attached property called ScrollOnNewItem that when set to true hooks into the INotifyCollectionChanged events of the list box items source and upon detecting a new item, scrolls the list box to it.

Example:

class ListBoxBehavior
{
    static readonly Dictionary<ListBox, Capture> Associations =
           new Dictionary<ListBox, Capture>();

    public static bool GetScrollOnNewItem(DependencyObject obj)
    {
        return (bool)obj.GetValue(ScrollOnNewItemProperty);
    }

    public static void SetScrollOnNewItem(DependencyObject obj, bool value)
    {
        obj.SetValue(ScrollOnNewItemProperty, value);
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty ScrollOnNewItemProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached(
            "ScrollOnNewItem",
            typeof(bool),
            typeof(ListBoxBehavior),
            new UIPropertyMetadata(false, OnScrollOnNewItemChanged));

    public static void OnScrollOnNewItemChanged(
        DependencyObject d,
        DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        var listBox = d as ListBox;
        if (listBox == null) return;
        bool oldValue = (bool)e.OldValue, newValue = (bool)e.NewValue;
        if (newValue == oldValue) return;
        if (newValue)
        {
            listBox.Loaded += ListBox_Loaded;
            listBox.Unloaded += ListBox_Unloaded;
            var itemsSourcePropertyDescriptor = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(listBox)["ItemsSource"];
            itemsSourcePropertyDescriptor.AddValueChanged(listBox, ListBox_ItemsSourceChanged);
        }
        else
        {
            listBox.Loaded -= ListBox_Loaded;
            listBox.Unloaded -= ListBox_Unloaded;
            if (Associations.ContainsKey(listBox))
                Associations[listBox].Dispose();
            var itemsSourcePropertyDescriptor = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(listBox)["ItemsSource"];
            itemsSourcePropertyDescriptor.RemoveValueChanged(listBox, ListBox_ItemsSourceChanged);
        }
    }

    private static void ListBox_ItemsSourceChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var listBox = (ListBox)sender;
        if (Associations.ContainsKey(listBox))
            Associations[listBox].Dispose();
        Associations[listBox] = new Capture(listBox);
    }

    static void ListBox_Unloaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var listBox = (ListBox)sender;
        if (Associations.ContainsKey(listBox))
            Associations[listBox].Dispose();
        listBox.Unloaded -= ListBox_Unloaded;
    }

    static void ListBox_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var listBox = (ListBox)sender;
        var incc = listBox.Items as INotifyCollectionChanged;
        if (incc == null) return;
        listBox.Loaded -= ListBox_Loaded;
        Associations[listBox] = new Capture(listBox);
    }

    class Capture : IDisposable
    {
        private readonly ListBox listBox;
        private readonly INotifyCollectionChanged incc;

        public Capture(ListBox listBox)
        {
            this.listBox = listBox;
            incc = listBox.ItemsSource as INotifyCollectionChanged;
            if (incc != null)
            {
                incc.CollectionChanged += incc_CollectionChanged;
            }
        }

        void incc_CollectionChanged(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add)
            {
                listBox.ScrollIntoView(e.NewItems[0]);
                listBox.SelectedItem = e.NewItems[0];
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            if (incc != null)
                incc.CollectionChanged -= incc_CollectionChanged;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding SourceCollection}" 
         lb:ListBoxBehavior.ScrollOnNewItem="true"/>

UPDATE As per Andrej's suggestion in the comments below, I added hooks to detect a change in the ItemsSource of the ListBox.

Answer 4

I use this solution: http://michlg.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/listbox-automatically-scroll-currentitem-into-view/.

It works even if you bind listbox's ItemsSource to an ObservableCollection that is manipulated in a non-UI thread.

Answer 5

So what i read in this topcs is a little bit complex for a simple action.

So I subscribed to scrollchanged event and then I used this code:

private void TelnetListBox_OnScrollChanged(object sender, ScrollChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        var scrollViewer = ((ScrollViewer)e.OriginalSource);
        scrollViewer.ScrollToEnd();

    }

Bonus:

After it I made a checkbox where I could set when I want use the autoscroll function and I relaized I forgot some times uncheck the listbox if I saw some interesting information for me. So I decided I would like to create a intelligent autoscrolled listbox what react to my mouse action.

private void TelnetListBox_OnScrollChanged(object sender, ScrollChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        var scrollViewer = ((ScrollViewer)e.OriginalSource);
        scrollViewer.ScrollToEnd();
        if (AutoScrollCheckBox.IsChecked != null && (bool)AutoScrollCheckBox.IsChecked)
            scrollViewer.ScrollToEnd();

        if (_isDownMouseMovement)
        {
            var verticalOffsetValue = scrollViewer.VerticalOffset;
            var maxVerticalOffsetValue = scrollViewer.ExtentHeight - scrollViewer.ViewportHeight;

            if (maxVerticalOffsetValue < 0 || verticalOffsetValue == maxVerticalOffsetValue)
            {
                // Scrolled to bottom

                AutoScrollCheckBox.IsChecked = true;
                _isDownMouseMovement = false;

            }
            else if (verticalOffsetValue == 0)
            {


            }

        }
    }



    private bool _isDownMouseMovement = false;

    private void TelnetListBox_OnPreviewMouseWheel(object sender, MouseWheelEventArgs e)
    {

        if (e.Delta > 0)
        {
            _isDownMouseMovement = false;
            AutoScrollCheckBox.IsChecked = false;
        }
        if (e.Delta < 0)
        {
            _isDownMouseMovement = true;
        } 
    }

When I scolled to botton the checkbox checked true and stay my view on bottom if I scroulled up with mouse wheel the checkox will be unchecked and you can explorer you listbox.

Answer 6

I found a much simpler way which helped me with a similar problem, just a couple of lines of code behind, no need to create custom Behaviors. Check my answer to this question (and follow the link within):

wpf(C#) DataGrid ScrollIntoView - how to scroll to the first row that is not shown?

It works for ListBox, ListView and DataGrid.