The following sections walk you through the steps of binding the Scheduler control to a data source and using the PropertyBridge class for binding non-dependency properties.

Bind Scheduler to a Data Source

To bind the Scheduler control to the C1NWind.mdb database, we must configure the data source. Then we can add the dataset as a resource in the project and map to the C1Scheduler Data Storage. To understand these steps in details, see Configure the Data Source and Bind Scheduler to the Data Source sections in the Quick Start topic.

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Data Binding Using the PropertyBridge Class

The PropertyBridge class exposes two dependency properties, PropertyBridge.Source and PropertyBridge.Target, of the System.Object type, and keeps these property values equal. In other words, when the value of one property is changed, the other property is set to the same value. This simple behavior allows you to use non-DependencyProperty properties along with WPF mechanisms that are designed to work with DependencyProperty-only properties. The following examples show how the PropertyBridge class can be used:   

• Binding between two non-dependency properties:
  Assign the PropertyBridge.Source property with a TwoWay binding having one non-dependency property as a source, and assign the PropertyBridge.Target property with a TwoWay binding having another non-dependency property as a source. Then the non-dependency properties will behave as bound properties. This will work well only in classes where exposing these non-dependency properties supports the INotifyPropertyChanged interfaces, which is the case for most classes from the C1ScheduleStorage object model.
• Setting a non-dependency property value from with a Trigger:
  Assign the PropertyBridge.Source property with a TwoWay or OneWayToSource binding having one non-dependency property as a source, and using Trigger's Setter to set a value to the PropertyBridge.Target property of PropertyBridge – this value will be assigned to the non-dependency property which is bound to PropertyBridge.Source.
• Many-to-many binding:
  Assign PropertyBridge.Source and PropertyBridge.Target with MultiBinding bindings to get many-to-many binding.
• Assign a value to a nested property:
  Set the target to a TwoWay or OneWayToSource binding with a Path referencing a nested property. Then, assign PropertyBridge.Source (directly or from within a Setter). The nested property will be assigned to this value.
• Assign the property of an object that is not accessible directly:
  Similar to assigning a value to a nested property, using RelativeSource in binding to PropertyBridge.Target, assign a property value for an element that can't be referenced directly in XAML, for example, TemplatedParent or some parent element in the visual tree.

The PropertyBridge class is derived from FrameworkElement and in order to work properly, it should be placed somewhere in the visual tree among other elements that it should communicate with. The derivation from FrameworkElement is intentional; it allows the PropertyBridge to be a part of a visual tree, which in turn provides bindings established on its properties with the correct context. For example, another theoretical option is to have PropertyBridge in the ResourceDictionary, but in this case, the bindings would be inoperable.

The PropertyBridge.Visibility property is set to Collapsed by default, so this object will not appear on a screen and doesn't participate in layout measurement and arrangement processes; it doesn't corrupt a visual representation of the visual tree where it is placed.

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