UI data binding

UI data binding is a software design pattern to simplify development of GUI applications. UI data binding binds UI elements to an application domain model. Most frameworks employ the Observer pattern as the underlying binding mechanism. To work efficiently, UI data binding has to address input validation and data type mapping.

A bound control is a widget whose value is tied or bound to a field in a recordset (i.e., a column in a row of a table). Changes made to data within the control are automatically saved to the database when the control's exit event triggers.

Data binding frameworks and tools

Delphi

LiveBindings [1]
DSharp 3rd party Data Binding tool [2]
OpenWire Visual Live Binding - 3rd party Visual Data Binding tool [3]

Java

JSR-227 A Standard Data Binding & Data Access Facility for J2EE [4]
JFace Data Binding [5]

.NET

Windows Forms data binding overview [6]
WPF data binding overview [7]
Unity 3D data binding framework (available in modifications for NGUI, iGUI and EZGUI libraries) [8]

Flex

Flex data binding [9]