Chapter 10. Creating Jump Lists with the Long List Selector

The LongListSelector is like a ListBox that allows you to group items together. It is effective for large lists, because it allows the user to more easily navigate through items by group.

LongListSelector supports full data and UI virtualization and can display flat lists and grouped lists. When using grouped lists, the user is able to jump between groups using a group picker interface, which overlays the list.

LongListSelector may be used in place of a ListBox for displaying flat lists. In fact, using the LongListSelector instead of the ListBox is recommended in Windows Phone 8.

LongListSelector was originally located in the Windows Phone Toolkit (formerly the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit) but with the release of Windows Phone 8, the control has been made a first-class citizen of the Windows Phone SDK and resides alongside other controls, such as the ListBox, in the Windows Phone FCL (Framework Class Library).

This chapter begins with an overview of the visual structure of the LongListSelector. You then learn the basics of how to present flat and grouped lists using the control.

The chapter then dives into a sample app that allows the user to group a set of marketplace items. You see how to create a CustomGrouping class to allow the user to dynamically change the way the control groups items.

Finally, the chapter examines some more advanced features of the LongListSelector with another sample that demonstrates how to display a list of contacts with the LongListSelector using a grid layout.

The source code for this chapter is located in the ControlExamples/LongListSelector/MarketplaceAppList directory of the WPUnleashed.Examples project, in the downloadable sample code.