Non-trivial example of binding to the DataTemplate of a ListView or CollectionView

[h0lg]

I'd like to bind a collection of complex items on a view model to the DataTemplate of a ListView or CollectionView.
I've found this trivial example binding a list of flat items, but don't know how to approach binding item properties to different controls within the DataTemplate.

Is there an example for that somewhere? If not - does anybody have an idea on how to do that? Thanks!

For example, how would I bind the Blog.Posts of the following view model to a ListView or CollectionView?

public class Blog
{
    public List<Post> Posts { get; set; }

    public class Post
    {
        public string Title { get; set; }
        public string Author { get; set; }
        public DateTime Published { get; set; }
    }
}

[brminnick]

Existing Examples from Sample App + Unit Tests

Here's a non-trivial example from our sample app:

Maui.Markup/samples/CommunityToolkit.Maui.Markup.Sample/Pages/NewsPage.cs

Line 25 in 5ab559f

.ItemTemplate(new StoryDataTemplate())

For your specific example, you'll need to use nested-bindings which are egregiously more complex. I highly recommend avoid using nested classes in your models to avoid nested-bindings.

We have a few examples of nested-bindings in our Unit Tests; here's one for example:

Maui.Markup/src/CommunityToolkit.Maui.Markup.UnitTests/TypedBindingExtensionsTests.cs

Lines 297 to 312 in 5ab559f

	entry.Bind(Entry.TextColorProperty,
	static (NestedViewModel vm) => vm.Model?.Model?.TextColor,
	new (Func<NestedViewModel, object?>, string)[]
	{
	(vm => vm, nameof(NestedViewModel.Model)),
	(vm => vm.Model, nameof(NestedViewModel.Model)),
	(vm => vm.Model?.Model, nameof(NestedViewModel.Model.TextColor))
	},
	static (NestedViewModel vm, Color? color) =>
	{
	if (vm.Model?.Model?.TextColor is not null && color is not null)
	{
	vm.Model.Model.TextColor = color;
	}
	},
	bindingMode);

[h0lg]

Thank you for your prompt and detailed reply! I understand that

1. implementing a custom DataTemplate is the intended way to bind properties of complex list items and
2. my specific example using nested view models would require complicated nested bindings, which luckily I can avoid.

That helps - I'll try that. Cheers!