Alternative of VirtualizingStackPanel.CacheSize in .Net 4.0

Question

What are the factors that virtualizingstackpanel consider when it decides visualizing items around the visible item?

Ex: Having a listview, when viewing item 7, item 6& 8 will be visualized too although they are not seen.

How can limit visualized items, so that ONLY visible item is visualized?

Answer 1

I have solved the problem by overriding MeasureOverride function, we already purchased the book Sheridan has mentioned in his answer, depending on virtualization chapter, here is what I did to my class that extends VirtualizingStackPanel : and it worked!

private ItemsControl ItemsOwner { get; set; }
        private int StartIndex { get; set; }
        private int EndIndex { get; set; }


        protected override void OnInitialized(EventArgs e)
        {
            ItemsOwner = ItemsControl.GetItemsOwner(this) as ItemsControl;
        }


        protected override Size MeasureOverride(Size availableSize)
        {
            ItemsControl itemsControl = ItemsControl.GetItemsOwner(this);

            // we can set StartIndex& EndIndex to mimic 
            // VirtualizingStackPanel.CacheSize in .Net 4.5
            // for my problem, I just fixed them at the index of item to be shown 
            StartIndex = PagesView.Instance.SelectedIndex;
            EndIndex = StartIndex;

            // Virtualize items
            IItemContainerGenerator generator = ItemsOwner.ItemContainerGenerator;

            GeneratorPosition startPos = generator.GeneratorPositionFromIndex(StartIndex);
            int childIndex = startPos.Offset == 0 ? startPos.Index : startPos.Index + 1;
            using (generator.StartAt(startPos, GeneratorDirection.Forward, true))
            {
                for (int i = StartIndex; i <= EndIndex; i++, childIndex++)
                {
                    bool isNewlyRealized;
                    UIElement child = generator.GenerateNext(out isNewlyRealized) as UIElement;
                    if (isNewlyRealized)
                    {
                        if (childIndex >= InternalChildren.Count)
                        {
                            AddInternalChild(child);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            InsertInternalChild(childIndex, child);
                        }
                        generator.PrepareItemContainer(child);
                    }
                }
            }



            //DumpGeneratorContent();


            // Measure
            foreach (UIElement child in InternalChildren)
            {
                child.Measure(availableSize);
            }

            // Clean up
            CleanupItems();

            return availableSize;
        }

        private void CleanupItems()
        {
            IItemContainerGenerator generator = ItemsOwner.ItemContainerGenerator;
            for (int i = InternalChildren.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            {
                GeneratorPosition position = new GeneratorPosition(i, 0);
                int itemIndex = generator.IndexFromGeneratorPosition(position);
                if (itemIndex < StartIndex || itemIndex > EndIndex)
                {
                    generator.Remove(position, 1);
                    RemoveInternalChildRange(i, 1);
                }
            }
        }

Answer 2

Virtualization is quite a complicated subject, but I have a book that describes it well. Furthermore, this book also shows how to implement custom virtualization, which you may need to implement to achieve your goal. Luckily for you, I found that someone has posted a PDF of the book online and you can find it by clicking on this link.

The virtualization section starts on page 129, but it is well worth reading the rest of it too as it has some very interesting stuff in it.