---
title: Unbound Mode
order: 80000
seealso: []
---
# Unbound Mode
The TreeList and TreeView controls support unbound mode, in which you can manually create a node hierarchy.
Do not initialize a control's `ItemSource` property. Otherwise, the control switches to bound mode, and thus it forbids you to manually add nodes.
Use the `TreeListControlBase.Nodes` property to add root nodes to the control. For each node, you can use the `TreeListNode.Nodes` property to add child nodes.
A node in the TreeList and TreeView controls is encapsulated by a `TreeListNode` object. Its `TreeListNode.Content` property allows you to specify a node's content. You can set the `TreeListNode.Content` property to a business object whose public properties provide data for the control's columns. For the TreeView control, you can set the `TreeListNode.Content` property to a String object.
If you use a TreeList control, ensure that the control's `TreeListControl.Columns` collection has columns bound to specific field names.
The following XAML code creates a hierarchical node structure in the `TreeListControl.Nodes` collection. Each node's `Content` property is initialized with a _Person_ object defined in code-behind.
``` xml
xmlns:mxtl="https://schemas.eremexcontrols.net/avalonia/treelist"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:AvaloniaApplication1"
...
```
``` cs
public partial class Person : ObservableObject
{
public Person() { }
public Person(string firstName, string lastName, string city, string phone)
{
this.firstName = firstName;
this.lastName = lastName;
this.city = city;
this.phone = phone;
}
[ObservableProperty]
string firstName;
[ObservableProperty]
string lastName;
[ObservableProperty]
string city;
[ObservableProperty]
string phone;
}
```
The following example creates a node structure in code-behind. It adds a _node1_ object to the TreeList's root level. Other nodes are added at nested levels.
``` cs
TreeListNode node1 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Kim", "Magnus", "Doha", "(5)433-07-12")
};
TreeListNode node11 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Patricia", "Rooney", "Cairo", "(5)450-39-49")
};
TreeListNode node111 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Victor", "Boev", "Sarajevo", "(98)328-23-54")
};
TreeListNode node12 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Vincent", "Novak", "Belgrad", "(476)487-598-465")
};
treeListUnbound.Nodes.Add(node1);
node1.Nodes.Add(node11);
node11.Nodes.Add(node111);
node1.Nodes.Add(node12);
```
### TreeView Specifics
You can set the TreeView node's `Content` property to a business object or simple string.
The following code shows how to populate TreeView nodes with simple strings.
``` xml
```
If you assign a business object to the `Content` property, set the `TreeViewControl.DataFieldName` member to the name of the business object's property that supplies display values for the control, as demonstrated in the example below.
``` cs
TreeListNode node1 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Kim", "Magnus", "Doha", "(5)433-07-12")
};
TreeListNode node11 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Patricia", "Rooney", "Cairo", "(5)450-39-49")
};
TreeListNode node111 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Victor", "Boev", "Sarajevo", "(98)328-23-54")
};
TreeListNode node12 = new TreeListNode()
{
Content = new Person("Vincent", "Novak", "Belgrad", "(476)487-598-465")
};
treeViewUnbound1.DataFieldName = "LastName";
treeViewUnbound1.Nodes.Add(node1);
node1.Nodes.Add(node11);
node11.Nodes.Add(node111);
node1.Nodes.Add(node12);
```