design time editvalue / uitypeeditor dirty

[alex sparsky]

I have a custom collection in my c# winform ui control called Items.
Items is a built in collection type that does not allow itself to be
replace (you can't 'set' the itemscollection in the control).
However, the contents of the Items collection is persisted through
designtime.

Currently this all works except for the following. When you bring up
the custom collection editor and add new items then close the
collection editor.

I add the items to the base control in the editvalue after success by
getting a reference to the control, clearing the items collection,
then re-adding all the items.

This all works except for one catch, it never thinks the collection
has changed. Since there is no 'Set' accessor on the collection in
the base control, for some reason the design time refuses to believe
it is changable even though it's been edited.

Now if I resize the control or change some other property, it puts the
little star on the forms name and when you save it properly serializes
the items collection.

So I need to know if there is a way in editvalue to force the designer
to know that the items collection is dirty (hence putting up the
little star in the name) so they can save and have it serialize out.

 

[Bele din Carpati]

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

 

[alex sparsky]

Tried that already and it made no difference. I'm still looking for a solution to this.

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

I have a custom collection in my c# winform ui control called Items.
Items is a built in collection type that does not allow itself to be
replace (you can't 'set' the itemscollection in the control).
However, the contents of the Items collection is persisted through
designtime.

Currently this all works except for the following. When you bring up
the custom collection editor and add new items then close the
collection editor.

I add the items to the base control in the editvalue after success by
getting a reference to the control, clearing the items collection,
then re-adding all the items.

This all works except for one catch, it never thinks the collection
has changed. Since there is no 'Set' accessor on the collection in
the base control, for some reason the design time refuses to believe
it is changable even though it's been edited.

Now if I resize the control or change some other property, it puts the
little star on the forms name and when you save it properly serializes
the items collection.

So I need to know if there is a way in editvalue to force the designer
to know that the items collection is dirty (hence putting up the
little star in the name) so they can save and have it serialize out.

 

[Bele din Carpati]

than try DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute

Tried that already and it made no difference. I'm still looking for a
solution to this.

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

I have a custom collection in my c# winform ui control called Items.
Items is a built in collection type that does not allow itself to be
replace (you can't 'set' the itemscollection in the control).
However, the contents of the Items collection is persisted through
designtime.

Currently this all works except for the following. When you bring up
the custom collection editor and add new items then close the
collection editor.

I add the items to the base control in the editvalue after success by
getting a reference to the control, clearing the items collection,
then re-adding all the items.

This all works except for one catch, it never thinks the collection
has changed. Since there is no 'Set' accessor on the collection in
the base control, for some reason the design time refuses to believe
it is changable even though it's been edited.

Now if I resize the control or change some other property, it puts the
little star on the forms name and when you save it properly serializes
the items collection.

So I need to know if there is a way in editvalue to force the designer
to know that the items collection is dirty (hence putting up the
little star in the name) so they can save and have it serialize out.

 

[Bele din Carpati]

see how the Controls property of Control object is marked with
DesignerSerializationVisibility:

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
System.Windows.Forms.SRDescription("ControlControlsDescr"),
Browsable(false)]
public System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlCollection Controls

{

get{....}

set{...}

}

Can you please let me know if this is helped you?

Cristi

Tried that already and it made no difference. I'm still looking for a
solution to this.

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

I have a custom collection in my c# winform ui control called Items.
Items is a built in collection type that does not allow itself to be
replace (you can't 'set' the itemscollection in the control).
However, the contents of the Items collection is persisted through
designtime.

Currently this all works except for the following. When you bring up
the custom collection editor and add new items then close the
collection editor.

I add the items to the base control in the editvalue after success by
getting a reference to the control, clearing the items collection,
then re-adding all the items.

This all works except for one catch, it never thinks the collection
has changed. Since there is no 'Set' accessor on the collection in
the base control, for some reason the design time refuses to believe
it is changable even though it's been edited.

Now if I resize the control or change some other property, it puts the
little star on the forms name and when you save it properly serializes
the items collection.

So I need to know if there is a way in editvalue to force the designer
to know that the items collection is dirty (hence putting up the
little star in the name) so they can save and have it serialize out.

 

[alex sparsky]

[
Description("Items Collection"),
Category("Items"),
DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
Editor(typeof(GItemEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor)),
RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All),
Browsable( true )
]

and none of those things are helping. :/

this is the header I've already been using.

see how the Controls property of Control object is marked with
DesignerSerializationVisibility:

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
System.Windows.Forms.SRDescription("ControlControlsDescr"),
Browsable(false)]
public System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlCollection Controls

{

get{....}

set{...}

}

Can you please let me know if this is helped you?

Cristi

Tried that already and it made no difference. I'm still looking for a
solution to this.

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

 

[Bele din Carpati]

I created a sample UserControl that exposes a Collection
Serialization works in this sample, the single problem I found is that I
want to have an edit updated with number of items in the collection. For
that I had to call Control.Refresh() when CollectionEditor.SetItems() is
called. Can you please use this sample and tell if it is close to what you
need?
Tip1: I have to restart VStudio 2005 quite often (almost each time I modify
control)
Tip 2: I use dbmon or DbgView (from www.sysinternals.com) to see the output
of System.Diagonostics.Trace.WriteLine even if is in VStudio Designer

Here follows the source code
TestUserControl.cs
using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Drawing;

using System.Data;

using System.Text;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using System.Collections.ObjectModel;

using System.Drawing.Design;

using System.ComponentModel.Design;

namespace TestCollectionProperty

{

public class TestData

{

int intValue;

String strValue = string.Empty;

public int IntValue

{

get { return intValue; }

set { intValue = value; }

}


public String StrValue

{

get { return strValue; }

set { strValue = value; }

}

}



public class ValuesEditor : CollectionEditor

{

public ValuesEditor()

: base(typeof(List<TestData>))

{ }

protected override object SetItems(object editValue, object[] value)

{

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("SetItems1");

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("SetItems2: " + editValue);


object retValue = base.SetItems(editValue, value);

Control control = this.Context.Instance as Control;

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("SetItems3: " + control);

if (control != null)

{

control.Refresh();

}

return retValue;

}

}

public partial class TestUserControl : UserControl

{

private List<TestData> values = new List<TestData>();

public TestUserControl()

{

InitializeComponent();

}

[Browsable(true)]

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

[Editor(typeof(ValuesEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]

public List<TestData> Values

{

get { return values; }

}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)

{

this.textBox.Text = values.Count.ToString();

base.OnPaint(e);

}

}

}

TestUserCode.Design.cs

namespace TestCollectionProperty

{

partial class TestUserControl

{

/// <summary>

/// Required designer variable.

/// </summary>

private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

/// <summary>

/// Clean up any resources being used.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed;
otherwise, false.</param>

protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

{

if (disposing && (components != null))

{

components.Dispose();

}

base.Dispose(disposing);

}

#region Component Designer generated code

/// <summary>

/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify

/// the contents of this method with the code editor.

/// </summary>

private void InitializeComponent()

{

this.textBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();

this.SuspendLayout();

//

// textBox

//

this.textBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(24, 50);

this.textBox.Name = "textBox";

this.textBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(100, 20);

this.textBox.TabIndex = 0;

//

// TestUserControl

//

this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);

this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;

this.Controls.Add(this.textBox);

this.Name = "TestUserControl";

this.ResumeLayout(false);

this.PerformLayout();

}

#endregion

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox;

}

}

[
Description("Items Collection"),
Category("Items"),
DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
Editor(typeof(GItemEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor)),
RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All),
Browsable( true )
]

and none of those things are helping. :/

this is the header I've already been using.

see how the Controls property of Control object is marked with
DesignerSerializationVisibility:

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
System.Windows.Forms.SRDescription("ControlControlsDescr"),
Browsable(false)]
public System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlCollection Controls

{

get{....}

set{...}

}

Can you please let me know if this is helped you?

Cristi

Tried that already and it made no difference. I'm still looking for a
solution to this.


On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:00:18 +0200, "Bele din Carpati"

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

 

[Bele din Carpati]

For a short period of time the project can be downloaded from:
http://www.geocities.com/balcanuc/TestCollectionProperty.zip

I created a sample UserControl that exposes a Collection
Serialization works in this sample, the single problem I found is that I
want to have an edit updated with number of items in the collection. For
that I had to call Control.Refresh() when CollectionEditor.SetItems() is
called. Can you please use this sample and tell if it is close to what you
need?
Tip1: I have to restart VStudio 2005 quite often (almost each time I
modify control)
Tip 2: I use dbmon or DbgView (from www.sysinternals.com) to see the
output of System.Diagonostics.Trace.WriteLine even if is in VStudio
Designer

Here follows the source code
TestUserControl.cs
using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Drawing;

using System.Data;

using System.Text;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using System.Collections.ObjectModel;

using System.Drawing.Design;

using System.ComponentModel.Design;

namespace TestCollectionProperty

{

public class TestData

{

int intValue;

String strValue = string.Empty;

public int IntValue

{

get { return intValue; }

set { intValue = value; }

}


public String StrValue

{

get { return strValue; }

set { strValue = value; }

}

}



public class ValuesEditor : CollectionEditor

{

public ValuesEditor()

: base(typeof(List<TestData>))

{ }

protected override object SetItems(object editValue, object[] value)

{

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("SetItems1");

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("SetItems2: " + editValue);


object retValue = base.SetItems(editValue, value);

Control control = this.Context.Instance as Control;

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("SetItems3: " + control);

if (control != null)

{

control.Refresh();

}

return retValue;

}

}

public partial class TestUserControl : UserControl

{

private List<TestData> values = new List<TestData>();

public TestUserControl()

{

InitializeComponent();

}

[Browsable(true)]

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

[Editor(typeof(ValuesEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]

public List<TestData> Values

{

get { return values; }

}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)

{

this.textBox.Text = values.Count.ToString();

base.OnPaint(e);

}

}

}

TestUserCode.Design.cs

namespace TestCollectionProperty

{

partial class TestUserControl

{

/// <summary>

/// Required designer variable.

/// </summary>

private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

/// <summary>

/// Clean up any resources being used.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed;
otherwise, false.</param>

protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

{

if (disposing && (components != null))

{

components.Dispose();

}

base.Dispose(disposing);

}

#region Component Designer generated code

/// <summary>

/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify

/// the contents of this method with the code editor.

/// </summary>

private void InitializeComponent()

{

this.textBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();

this.SuspendLayout();

//

// textBox

//

this.textBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(24, 50);

this.textBox.Name = "textBox";

this.textBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(100, 20);

this.textBox.TabIndex = 0;

//

// TestUserControl

//

this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);

this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;

this.Controls.Add(this.textBox);

this.Name = "TestUserControl";

this.ResumeLayout(false);

this.PerformLayout();

}

#endregion

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox;

}

}

[
Description("Items Collection"),
Category("Items"),
DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
Editor(typeof(GItemEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor)),
RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All),
Browsable( true )
]

and none of those things are helping. :/

this is the header I've already been using.

see how the Controls property of Control object is marked with
DesignerSerializationVisibility:

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
System.Windows.Forms.SRDescription("ControlControlsDescr"),
Browsable(false)]
public System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlCollection Controls

{

get{....}

set{...}

}

Can you please let me know if this is helped you?

Cristi

Tried that already and it made no difference. I'm still looking for a
solution to this.


On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:00:18 +0200, "Bele din Carpati"

I think you should use RefreshPropertiesAttribute.

[RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.All)]

FooCollection FooProperties

 

[alex sparsky]

Hey, I really apprecaite you sending me the example project. I took a
look at it and there is one major thing your doing differently from
me. I'm implementing my own collection editor so I'm deriving from
UITypeEditor instead of CollectionEditor. So basically the routines
that I have to pick from are EditValue().

The crux of my problem seems to be somewhere in the fact that since
there is no Set accessor in the Items collection property then it
doesn't seem to matter what I return from the EditValue override in
the UITypeEditor.

So like I said, it sets the collection correctly, it puts the items
into it (well, it does because I put them in manually from the
editvalue in the uitypeeditor). The problem is that it's not setting
the dirty bit or whatever it is to make the form believe that the
collection changed. So you have to resize the control or something to
make it want to reserialize the collection. Once you do that though
the collection is set and serializes fine.

 

[Bele din Carpati]

I get it. I guess that you have to notify the designer about change using
the IComponentChange service
I used reflector to check how the CollectionEditor does this and seems that
you have to add one more line to your EditValue override:
this.Context.OnComponentChanged();



Cristi

 

[alex sparsky]

woohooo! That was the magic call I was looking for. I didn't see
that method in intellisense or the docs when I went looking for it. I
wonder why that wasn't there! Nice job, I really appreciate it. This
works perfectly now.

 

[Bele din Carpati]

I'm happy to hear that my advices helped you.
Here another tip: use reflector to see how the CollectionEditor creates a
transaction for property change. This helps designer to mark undo/redo
changes as only one step. (I guess).


key lines related to transaction:
IDesignerHost host1 = (IDesignerHost)
this.GetService(typeof(IDesignerHost));
DesignerTransaction transaction1 = null;

......

transaction1 =
host1.CreateTransaction(System.Design.SR.GetString("CollectionEditorUndoBatchDesc",
objArray1));

......

transaction1.Commit();


- Cristi

 

[alex sparsky]

Great advice, I will do that.

thanks again

I'm happy to hear that my advices helped you.
Here another tip: use reflector to see how the CollectionEditor creates a
transaction for property change. This helps designer to mark undo/redo
changes as only one step. (I guess).


key lines related to transaction:
IDesignerHost host1 = (IDesignerHost)
this.GetService(typeof(IDesignerHost));
DesignerTransaction transaction1 = null;

.....

transaction1 =
host1.CreateTransaction(System.Design.SR.GetString("CollectionEditorUndoBatchDesc",
objArray1));

.....

transaction1.Commit();


- Cristi

 

[Adrian Maull]

It's probably a mute point now since you guys nicely worked out this issue.
The following topics touch on the topic at hand:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...nentmodelitypedescriptorcontextclasstopic.asp

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.itypedescriptorcontext_members.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.propertydescriptor.setvalue.aspx