How to detect broken WPF Data binding?

Question

While trying to answer a question in the vicinity 'Unit Testing WPF Bindings' I had the following niggling question..
What's the best way to find if you have WPF Data Binding wiring setup incorrectly (or you just broke something that was wired up correctly) ?

Although the unit-testing approach seems to be like Joel's 'ripping off your arm to remove a splinter'.. I am looking around for easier less Overhead ways to detect this.

Everyone seems to have committed themselves to data binding in a big way with WPF.. and it does have its merits.

Answer 1

In .NET 3.5 it was introduced a new way to specifically output tracing information about specific data bindings.

This is done through the new System.Diagnostics.PresentationTraceSources.TraceLevel attached property that you can apply to any binding or data provider. Here is an example:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:diag="clr-namespace:System.Diagnostics;assembly=WindowsBase"
    Title="Debug Binding Sample"
    Height="300"
    Width="300">
    <StackPanel>
        <TextBox Name="txtInput" />
        <Label>
            <Label.Content>
                <Binding ElementName="txtInput"
                         Path="Text"
                         diag:PresentationTraceSources.TraceLevel="High" />
            </Label.Content>
        </Label>
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

This will put trace information for just that particular binding in Visual Studio's Output Window, without any tracing configuration required.