Как я могу использовать Смешение Выражения для редактирования DataTemplate, созданного в Visual Studio?

I just figured this out so allow me to answer my own question.

I read Laurent's Bugnion enlighting article on this and it turns out I just had to tweak the above code so that I could see the Data from my ViewModel displayed in the Expression Blend GUI and was able to edit the DataTemplate in Blend, save it, and then continued editing in Visual Studio.

Basically the changes are: (1) take out the DataContext statement from code behind, (2) add the "local" namespace in XAML, (3) define a local data provider in XAML ("TheDataProvider"), (4) bind to it directly from the ListBox.

Here is the code that works in Expression Blend and Visual Studio in full:

XAML:

<Window
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:TestStringFormat234"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" x:Name="window" x:Class="TestStringFormat234.Window1"
    Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300" mc:Ignorable="d">
    <Window.Resources>
        <local:CustomerViewModel x:Key="TheDataProvider"/>

        <DataTemplate x:Key="DataTemplateCustomers">
            <Border CornerRadius="5" Padding="5" Margin="3">
                <Border.Background>
                    <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.007,0.463" StartPoint="-0.011,0.519">
                        <GradientStop Color="#FFF4EEEE" Offset="0"/>
                        <GradientStop Color="#FFA1B0E2" Offset="1"/>
                    </LinearGradientBrush>
                </Border.Background>
                <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                    <TextBlock>
                    <TextBlock.Text>
                        <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}{0} {1} (hired on {2:MMM dd, yyyy})">
                            <Binding Path="FirstName"/>
                            <Binding Path="LastName"/>
                            <Binding Path="HireDate"/>
                        </MultiBinding>
                    </TextBlock.Text>
                    </TextBlock>
                </StackPanel>
            </Border>
        </DataTemplate>
    </Window.Resources>
    <Grid >
        <ListBox 
            ItemsSource="{Binding Path=GetAllCustomers, Source={StaticResource TheDataProvider}}"
            ItemTemplate="{StaticResource DataTemplateCustomers}" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

Code Behind:

using System.Windows;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System;

namespace TestStringFormat234
{
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
    }

    //view model
    public class CustomerViewModel
    {
        public ObservableCollection<Customer> GetAllCustomers {
            get {
                ObservableCollection<Customer> customers = new ObservableCollection<Customer>();
                customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Jim", LastName = "Smith", HireDate = DateTime.Parse("2007-12-31") });
                customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Jack", LastName = "Jones", HireDate = DateTime.Parse("2005-12-31") });
                return customers;
            }
        }
    }

    //model
    public class Customer
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public DateTime HireDate { get; set; }
    }
}