ObservableCollection Base Class With Expression Blend Designer Support

One of the big issues for me with using Expression Blend for design in conjunction with VS2008 for the hard coding, is that you need to create at least test data loading stubs in the middle tier, delivered over WCF/WS in order visualize databound controls in the Silverlight app. This means that you often need to have everything ‘working’ on the data delivery backend before you can effectively design the visual elements, otherwise you’ll be trying to work with empty ListBoxes and DataGrids etc. In order to solve this problem, I have designed a base collection class that automatically generates test data in debug builds, but loses all of that redundant functionality for efficiency and security in release builds.