Implementing WPF HierarchyNavigator (Breadcrumb)

Guide for implementing the Syncfusion® WPF HierarchyNavigator control — a breadcrumb / address-bar component similar to the Windows Explorer address bar, enabling hierarchical path navigation with data binding, edit mode, history, and progress bar support.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Create a breadcrumb / address-bar navigation UI in WPF
• Populate HierarchyNavigator with declarative items (HierarchyNavigatorItem) or data-bound collections
• Use HierarchicalDataTemplate to display multi-level business objects, XML data, or WCF-sourced data
• Enable edit mode so users can type and autocomplete navigation paths
• Show navigation history via the back-arrow dropdown
• Add a Refresh button and handle HierarchyNavigatorRefreshButtonClick
• Display / cancel a progress bar during navigation operations
• Respond to item selection via Command binding (MVVM pattern)
• Apply tooltips, keyboard navigation, and built-in themes

Component Overview

HierarchyNavigator renders a breadcrumb bar where each segment is a clickable HierarchyNavigatorItem. Clicking a segment opens a popup listing its children for drill-down navigation.

Required assemblies:

• Syncfusion.Tools.WPF
• Syncfusion.Shared.WPF

XAML namespace:

xmlns:syncfusion="http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf"

C# namespace:

using Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls;

Documentation and Navigation Guide

Getting Started

📄 Read: references/getting-started.md

• Assembly references and NuGet setup
• Adding via Designer, XAML, and C#
• Adding items declaratively with HierarchyNavigatorItem
• Basic ItemsSource + HierarchicalDataTemplate binding
• Applying built-in themes

Populating Data

📄 Read: references/populating-data.md

• Binding to ObservableCollection business objects
• HierarchicalDataTemplate for multi-level hierarchies
• Binding XML data via XDocument parsing
• Binding via WCF service
• On-demand / lazy item loading

Edit Mode & AutoComplete

📄 Read: references/edit-mode-and-autocomplete.md

• IsEnableEditMode property to allow path typing
• AutoComplete filter dropdown showing matching paths
• Keyboard: Enter to confirm, Esc to cancel
• Behavior when an invalid path is entered

Navigation Features

📄 Read: references/navigation-features.md

• ShowToolTip and per-item tooltips
• Navigation history (back-arrow dropdown)
• Refresh button and HierarchyNavigatorRefreshButtonClick event
• ShowProgressBar() / CancelProgressBar() with optional TimeSpan
• Keyboard navigation reference table
• Restricting level selection

Command Binding (MVVM)

📄 Read: references/command-binding.md

• Command property binding to ICommand / DelegateCommand
• SelectedItemCommand pattern in ViewModel
• Responding to selected item changes
• Passing HierarchyNavigatorItem as CommandParameter

Appearance & Themes

📄 Read: references/appearance-and-themes.md

• ItemTemplate with HierarchicalDataTemplate for custom item display
• Customizing with Microsoft Expression Blend
• Applying built-in themes via SfSkinManager
• Creating custom themes with ThemeStudio

Quick Start

Declarative items (XAML)

<Window xmlns:syncfusion="http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf"
        x:Class="MyApp.MainWindow"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
  <Grid>
    <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator x:Name="navigator"
                                   VerticalAlignment="Top"
                                   Height="30"
                                   Width="600">
      <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator.Items>
        <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem Content="Syncfusion">
          <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem.Items>
            <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem Content="User Interface">
              <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem.Items>
                <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem Content="WPF"/>
                <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem Content="Silverlight"/>
              </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem.Items>
            </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem>
          </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem.Items>
        </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigatorItem>
      </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator.Items>
    </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator>
  </Grid>
</Window>

Data-bound (XAML + MVVM)

<syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator ItemsSource="{Binding HierarchyItems}"
                               Height="30" Width="600">
  <syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator.ItemTemplate>
    <HierarchicalDataTemplate ItemsSource="{Binding Children}">
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" Margin="2,0"/>
    </HierarchicalDataTemplate>
  </syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator.ItemTemplate>
</syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator>

C# code-behind

using Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls;

HierarchyNavigator navigator = new HierarchyNavigator { Height = 30 };
HierarchyNavigatorItem root = new HierarchyNavigatorItem { Content = "Syncfusion" };
HierarchyNavigatorItem child = new HierarchyNavigatorItem { Content = "WPF" };
root.Items.Add(child);
navigator.Items.Add(root);
this.Content = navigator;

Common Patterns

Choose the right population approach

• Static/known hierarchy → use declarative HierarchyNavigatorItem in XAML
• Business object collection → use ItemsSource + HierarchicalDataTemplate
• XML or WCF data → parse to ObservableCollection, then bind to ItemsSource
• Large/lazy-loaded hierarchy → load children on demand via item expanded event

Enable edit mode with AutoComplete

<syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator IsEnableEditMode="True" .../>

User clicks the control to enter a path; a filtered dropdown suggests matching nodes. Press Enter to confirm, Esc to cancel.

Show progress bar during navigation

// Show for default 500ms
navigator.ShowProgressBar();

// Show for custom duration
navigator.ShowProgressBar(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, 1000));

// Cancel immediately
navigator.CancelProgressBar();

MVVM command binding

<syncfusion:HierarchyNavigator Command="{Binding SelectedItemCommand}"
                               ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" .../>

The command fires when the selected breadcrumb item changes, passing the HierarchyNavigatorItem as parameter.

Key Properties & Methods