Is it possible to bind a Canvas's Children property in XAML?

Question

I'm a little surprised that it is not possible to set up a binding for Canvas.Children through XAML. I've had to resort to a code-behind approach that looks something like this:

private void UserControl_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    DesignerViewModel dvm = this.DataContext as DesignerViewModel;
    dvm.Document.Items.CollectionChanged += new System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler(Items_CollectionChanged);

    foreach (UIElement element in dvm.Document.Items)
        designerCanvas.Children.Add(element);
}

private void Items_CollectionChanged(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
    ObservableCollection<UIElement> collection = sender as ObservableCollection<UIElement>;

    foreach (UIElement element in collection)
        if (!designerCanvas.Children.Contains(element))
            designerCanvas.Children.Add(element);

    List<UIElement> removeList = new List<UIElement>();
    foreach (UIElement element in designerCanvas.Children)
        if (!collection.Contains(element))
            removeList.Add(element);

    foreach (UIElement element in removeList)
        designerCanvas.Children.Remove(element);
}

I'd much rather just set up a binding in XAML like this:

<Canvas x:Name="designerCanvas"
        Children="{Binding Document.Items}"
        Width="{Binding Document.Width}"
        Height="{Binding Document.Height}">
</Canvas>

Is there a way to accomplish this without resorting to a code-behind approach? I've done some googling on the subject, but haven't come up with much for this specific problem.

I don't like my current approach because it mucks up my nice Model-View-ViewModel by making the View aware of it's ViewModel.

Answer 1

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Circles}">
    <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
         <ItemsPanelTemplate>
              <Canvas Background="White" Width="500" Height="500"  />
         </ItemsPanelTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
    <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <Ellipse Fill="{Binding Path=Color, Converter={StaticResource colorBrushConverter}}" Width="25" Height="25" />
        </DataTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    <ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>
        <Style>
            <Setter Property="Canvas.Top" Value="{Binding Path=Y}" />
            <Setter Property="Canvas.Left" Value="{Binding Path=X}" />
        </Style>
    </ItemsControl.ItemContainerStyle>
</ItemsControl>