All widgets may be bound to data sources using data binding. An ord links a bindings to a widget. A single binding consists of a single widget–object relationship. A binding’s ord property identifies the location of the object that updates and animates the widget.

For example, the most common type of binding, the value binding, provides some of the typical functions that are associated with building real-time information for presentation as both text and graphics. This includes support for mouse-over status and right-click actions. Additionally it provides a mechanism to animate any property of its parent widget using converters that convert the target object into property values. The following figure shows a value binding.

The following figure illustrates the object-to-widget property binding concept. In this example, a widget has three separate data bindings. This means that each binding is coming from a different object and therefore each binding has a different ord that defines its binding. Each binding provides access to an object’s values so that they may be used, as required, to animate the widget properties.

Figure 16.   Widget with three bindings