Supercharge Your WPF DataGrids with Runtime Conditional Formatting Using the Rules Manager UI
Quick Start Guide | |
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What You Will Need |
Visual Studio 2022 |
Controls Referenced | |
Tutorial Concept | This tutorial shows how to integrate the ComponentOne Rules Manager for WPF into a .NET application. See how to configure the rule management panel and set up runtime-editable formatting rules like gradients, icons, and data bars. |
In an era dominated by data-informed business practices, users expect real-time insights and visual clarity, not just raw tables. Whether you're building internal tools for finance, operations, or analytics, one of the fastest ways to add real value is by giving your users control over how their data is displayed and interpreted.
That's where the WPF Rules Manager UI comes in.
In this tutorial, we will highlight the benefits and demonstrate how to integrate the ComponentOne Rules Manager UI in a .NET WPF application in the sections below:
- Why Conditional Formatting Matters in Enterprise Apps
- What is the WPF Conditional Formatting Rules Manager?
- How to Get Started with WPF Rules Manager
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Why Conditional Formatting Matters in Enterprise Apps
Enterprise users often work with large data sets, whether financial or logistical data or CRM records. Highlighting critical values using color, icons, or visual indicators helps users:
- Quickly detect anomalies or trends
- Spot performance bottlenecks
- Prioritize what matters most
Traditionally, .NET developers write C# or VB.NET code to customize their DataGrid cells to highlight specific values. The biggest drawback to this approach is that the developer must write new code and rebuild the application whenever the user needs a new conditional formatting rule.
Instead of hardcoding formatting rules, the ComponentOne WPF Rules Manager enables runtime and user-driven customization, dramatically increasing flexibility and reducing development overhead.
What Is the WPF Conditional Formatting Rules Manager?
The ComponentOne Rules Manager is a runtime UI component library that allows users to apply, edit, and manage WPF conditional formatting rules for controls like DataGrids, ListViews, and ComponentOne FlexGrid and FlexPivot.
It offers a powerful mix of visual styling tools and logic-based rule evaluation, all wrapped in a user-friendly, dockable UI panel. It requires very little code for the developer to write and maintain.
Key Features of the WPF Rules Manager
- Create three-color gradient scales like heatmaps
- Display percentile-based data bars in DataGrid cells
- Add alert and indicator icon sets to data values
- Apply conditional formatting rules across multiple columns and cell ranges
- Deliver maximum flexibility for end-users with custom expression support
- Save development time with a complete Rule Management UI panel that lets users create, manage, and remove rules at runtime
As a WPF developer, your job isn't just writing code; it's about delivering tools that scale and adapt to ever-evolving enterprise needs. The Rules Manager helps by:
- Reducing support and change request overhead as users handle the formatting themselves
- Accelerating development with out-of-the-box runtime editors that remove the need for custom logic
- Ensuring consistency with formatting rules that apply uniformly across DataGrids, FlexGrids, and other supported controls
You can integrate the Rules Manager with just a few lines of code and tailor it to match your app's UI. Explore the UI library in detail on our product page.
How to Get Started with WPF Rules Manager
Working with the WPF Rules Manager requires two steps:
- Setting up the Rules Manager UI component
- Connecting to a DataGrid, FlexGrid, or ListView
Setting up the Rules Manager UI
The WPF Rules Manager UI component is part of the C1.WPF.RulesManager package. Add a reference to that package from nuget.org, then drop the C1RulesManager control on your form.
The control represents an entire panel that can contain many rule items in a vertical stack, so it's best displayed along the side of the form (or in its own popup). Below are some UI layout ideas:
- Inside a Grid Column with GridSplitter
- Inside a C1Expander, so the user can expand and collapse the panel
- Inside a C1DockControl Tab, so the user can rearrange the panels
- Inside a C1Window popup, launched by a button in your toolbar
In our samples, we typically have it fill the left or right column of a Grid and include a GridSplitter so the user can resize the panel.
Each C1RulesManager has a single rules engine. The rules engine can have any number of rules:
- Segments Rule (RulesEngineSegmentsRule) - used to create basic style segments where each segment has its own style containing text color, background color, border color, and icons
- Color Scale Rule (RulesEngineColorScaleRule) - used to create two or 3-color gradient scales
- Data Bar Rules (RulesEngineDataBarRule) - used to create percentile-based data bars
- Expression Rule (RulesEngineExpressionRule) - used to create a rule based on a custom formula or expression, like "[OrderTotal] > 100"
- Custom Rule (RulesEngineCustomRule) - used to create a custom rule written in a C# function
Learn more about each rule in the documentation.
Connecting to a DataGrid, FlexGrid, or ListView
It may look like magic, but in reality, some code and XAML are required to connect the WPF Rules Manager engine to your data controls.
Connecting to FlexGrid is easiest because we provide a complete behavior that handles the binding details.
Open the FlexGrid's suggested actions menu, and under the Behaviors tab, you can add the ConditionalFormattingBehavior.
This adds a package reference to C1.WPF.Grid.ConditionalFormatting and the following behavior interaction to your FlexGrid in XAML. Just bind the Engine property to your rules manager.
Connecting to DataGrid, C1ListView, or other controls requires defining a CellStyle with a MultiBinding Converter to connect it with the Rules Manager. Check out the documentation for more information.
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Conclusion
The Rules Manager isn't just another WPF UI control. It's a productivity accelerator for your end users and a time-saver for your development team. With runtime flexibility, enterprise-grade visuals, and minimal setup, it's one of the fastest ways to make your WPF applications more innovative and user-centric.
Whether you're building a WPF sales dashboard, project tracker, or enterprise management tool, the ComponentOne Rules Manager deserves a place in your UI toolbox. We also offer a version for your Windows Forms applications.
Download demos of the Rules Manager as part of the WPF Control Explorer.