Implicit DataTemplate doesn't work

Question

Why does the following implicit DataTemplate not work? Only the commented inline DataTemplate will work.

Note: If I remove both DataT

Answer 1

DataType requires the use of x:Type as the property's type is Object, so if you type DataType="ns:Type" you set it to the string "ns:Type". If the property's type were Type (as with Style.TargetType for example) the XAML processor would automatically convert that string to a Type.

Thus here you should write:

  <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:ProductListViewModel}">
    <v:ProductListView/>
  </DataTemplate>

(The property type is Object to allow data-templating of XML data, see the documentation for more information on that)