"Items collection must be empty before using ItemsSource."

I'm trying to get images to display in a WPF ListView styled like a WrapPanel as described in this old ATC Avalon Team article: How to Create a Custom View.

When I try to populate the ListView with a LINQ-to-Entities queried collection of ADO.NET Entity Framework objects I get the following exception:

Exception

Items collection must be empty before using ItemsSource.

My code…

Visual Basic

Private Sub Window1_Loaded(...) Handles MyBase.Loaded
    ListViewImages.ItemsSource = From g In db.Graphic _
                                 Order By g.DateAdded Ascending _
                                 Select g
End Sub

XAML

<ListView Name="ListViewImages"
          SelectionMode="Single"
          ItemsSource="{Binding}">
    <local:ImageView />
</ListView>

I put a breakpoint on that line. ListViewImages.ItemsSource is Nothing just before the LINQ assignment.

Solution 1:

I had this same error for a while in a slightly different scenario. The cause was invalid XAML, because some tags were missing.

I had

<wpftoolkit:DataGrid
    AutoGenerateColumns="False"
    ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Accounts}" >
    <wpftoolkit:DataGridTextColumn 
        Header="Account Name" 
        Binding="{Binding Path=AccountName}" />
</wpftoolkit:DataGrid>

which I fixed to be

<wpftoolkit:DataGrid
    AutoGenerateColumns="False"
    ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Accounts}" >
    <wpftoolkit:DataGrid.Columns>
        <wpftoolkit:DataGridTextColumn 
            Header="Account Name" 
            Binding="{Binding Path=AccountName}" />
    </wpftoolkit:DataGrid.Columns>
</wpftoolkit:DataGrid>

Solution 2:

The reason this particular exception gets thrown is that the content of the element gets applied to the ListView's Items collection. So the XAML initialises the ListView with a single local:ImageView in its Items collection. But when using an ItemsControl you must use either the Items property or the ItemsSource property, you can't use both at the same time. Hence when the ItemsSource attribute gets processed an exception is thrown.

You can find out which property the content of an element will get applied to by looking for the ContentPropertyAttribute on the class. In this case it's defined higher in the class hierarchy, on the ItemsControl:

[ContentPropertyAttribute("Items")]

The intention here was that the ListView's View be set to a local:ImageView so the fix is to explicitly indicate the property to be set.

Fix the XAML and the exception goes away:

<ListView Name="ListViewImages"
          SelectionMode="Single"
          ItemsSource="{Binding}">
    <ListView.View>
        <local:ImageView />
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

It was missing that <ListView.View> tag.

Solution 3:

I just ran into a VERY insidious example of this problem. My original fragment was much more complex, which made it difficult to see the error.

   <ItemsControl           
      Foreground="Black"  Background="White" Grid.IsSharedSizingScope="True"
      x:Name="MyGrid" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
      >
      <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
           <!-- All is fine here -->
      </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
      <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
           <!-- All is fine here -->
      </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
      <!-- Have you caught the error yet? -->
    </ItemsControl>

The bug? The extra > after the initial opening <ItemsControl> tag! The < got applied to the built-in Items collection. When the DataContext was later set, instant crashola. So look out for more than just errors surround your ItemsControl specific data children when debugging this problem.

Solution 4:

Me too on a different scenario.

<ComboBox Cursor="Hand" DataContext="{Binding}"  
              FontSize="16" Height="27" ItemsSource="{Binding}" 
              Name="cbxDamnCombo" SelectedIndex="0" SelectedValuePath="MemberId">

        <DataTemplate>
            <TextBlock DataContext="{Binding}">
                <TextBlock.Text>
                  <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}{0} / {1}">
                    <Binding Path="MemberName"/>
                    <Binding Path="Phone"/>
                  </MultiBinding>
                </TextBlock.Text>
            </TextBlock>
        </DataTemplate>

</ComboBox>

Now when you complete with the missing tag Control.ItemTemplate, everything gets to normal:

<ComboBox Cursor="Hand" DataContext="{Binding}"  
              FontSize="16" Height="27" ItemsSource="{Binding}" 
              Name="cbxDamnCombo" SelectedIndex="0" SelectedValuePath="MemberId">
    <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <TextBlock DataContext="{Binding}">
                <TextBlock.Text>
                  <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}{0} / {1}">
                    <Binding Path="MemberName"/>
                    <Binding Path="Phone"/>
                  </MultiBinding>
                </TextBlock.Text>
            </TextBlock>
        </DataTemplate>
    <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
</ComboBox>

Solution 5:

I had this same error in a different scenario

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding TableList}">
    <ItemsPanelTemplate>
        <WrapPanel Orientation="Horizontal"/>
    </ItemsPanelTemplate>
</ItemsControl>

The solution was to add the ItemsControl.ItemsPanel tag before the ItemsPanelTemplate

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding TableList}">
    <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
        <ItemsPanelTemplate>
            <WrapPanel Orientation="Horizontal"/>
        </ItemsPanelTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
</ItemsControl>