WPF: Binding a ItemsSource to a Directory

Question

I'm trying to do my first WPF project, and I've started with this sample project for image display. Part of it is the XAML that binds a Listbox to an Array of images:

<ListBox.ItemsSource>
    <x:Array Type="{x:Type ImageSource}">
        <ImageSource>http://static.flickr.com/34/70703587_b35cf6d9eb.jpg</ImageSource>
        <ImageSource>http://static.flickr.com/20/70703557_494d721b23.jpg</ImageSource>
        <ImageSource>http://static.flickr.com/35/70703504_3ebf8f0150.jpg</ImageSource>
        <ImageSource>http://static.flickr.com/35/70703474_18ef30450f.jpg</ImageSource>
    </x:Array>
</ListBox.ItemsSource>

Now that is nice, but I would like to bind it to all Images in a Subfolder and it's subfolders that match a pattern. My Directory structure is this:

Archive
    1994-01
        Index.jpg
        Page1.jpg
        ...
        PageN.jpg
    1994-02
        Index.jpg
        Page1.jpg
        ...
        PageN.jpg

I want to bind the Listbox to the various Index.jpg images.

My normal approach would be to do some CodeBehind using System.IO and Directory.GetFiles, but as XAML seems rather powerful, I'm just wondering: Can this type of binding be achieved entirely in the XAML?

As said, total beginner in WPF and I want to do it the "proper" way, which seems to be DataBinding.

Answer 1

The "proper" way from the WPF standpoint would be this (separating code and presentation):

    public class IndexReader: INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        public IEnumerable<string> IndexFiles 
            { get { ... } set { ... raise notify } }

        public void ReadIndexImagesFromFolder(string folder)
        {
...
        }
    }

you would still use binding to bind to the ListBox (after you set an set instance of IndexReader to DataContext of ListBox or one of its parents):

<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding IndexFiles}"/>

The rule is: if it cannot be bound easily, do not attempt it.