Building a composite control with a DataGridView

[Jon F]

I'd like to create a UserControl that consists of a DataGridView and a
couple of other things such as e.g. a button for resetting a filter.

The desired result would be to be able to use the UserControl just as a
DataGridView, i.e. without the need for the UserControl to publish the grid
by means of a property, but I can't seem to find a way to do that. If I'd
have to rather inherit from DataGridView I wouldn't know how to then add
other controls to it.

I thus created a public property "GridControl" that allows setting the
grid's properties when the UserControl is being used on a form. However,
when I attempt to access the columns collection I get a "Object reference
not set to an instance of an object." exception. While I can access the
columns collection by code, I'd prefer to be able to set them at design
time.

What would be the best approach for this?

Regards,
J.

 

[James Hahn]

Is the type of GridControl a DataGridView? If so, I don't think you will
get to work in the designer (although it may be a handy shortcut for
managing the DataGridView from code). The columns property should be a
Public Property of your user control, and should map directly through to the
columns property of the DataGridView in the control. Eg:

Public Property Columns() As DataGridViewColumnCollection
Get
Return DataGridView1.Columns
End Get
Set(ByVal value As DataGridViewColumnCollection)
DataGridView1.Columns.Clear()
For Each C As DataGridViewColumn In value
DataGridView1.Columns.Add(C)
Next
End Set
End Property

That's the theory. You will, however, immediately run into the problem
described here:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Fo...r/thread/c0903eb4-53fa-4881-82ed-1a07fb88dc83

It appears that the solution may be here:
http://www.devnewsgroups.net/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.windowsforms/topic57961.aspx

but I don't know if it's still available.

 

[Jon F]

Is the type of GridControl a DataGridView?
yes.

That's the theory. You will, however, immediately run into the problem
described here:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Fo...r/thread/c0903eb4-53fa-4881-82ed-1a07fb88dc83

It appears that the solution may be here:
http://www.devnewsgroups.net/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.windowsforms/topic57961.aspx

but I don't know if it's still available.

wow, pretty much work for something I had expected to be available out of
the box! But anyway, it's good to know that there IS a working way of
dealing with this, so, thank you sir!

Best,
J.