Windows forms Property grid Collection Editor

Question

I have a .NET windows forms property grid which is tied to the collection of entities

public class Entity
{

public string A { get; set; }
public string B { get; set; }
public string C { get; set; }
}

It has a collectioneditor derived from CollectionEditor and attached to entities collection. The collection Editor works perfectly well when invoked from the property grid .

[Editor(typeof(EntityCollectionEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]
    public EntityCollection Entities
    {
        get { return entityCollection; }
    }

How can i invoke the propertygrid's instance Collection Editor on the click of a toolbar button with all the collectiondata?

The propertygrid instance is EntityPropertyGrid.

Answer 1

See if this is what you are looking for, replaced Hours with your model.

To see where this came from see the following.

internal class Editor : UITypeEditor
{
    private IWindowsFormsEditorService _svc;
    public override UITypeEditorEditStyle GetEditStyle(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
    {
        return UITypeEditorEditStyle.DropDown;
    }
    public override object EditValue(ITypeDescriptorContext context, IServiceProvider provider, object value)
    {
        _svc = (IWindowsFormsEditorService)provider.GetService(typeof(IWindowsFormsEditorService));

        var listBox = new ListBox();
        var hours = new Hours();
        var data = hours.Range(ParentIncrement);

        foreach (var item in data)
        {
            listBox.Items.Add(item);
        }

        if (value != null)
        {
            listBox.SelectedItem = value;
        }

        _svc.DropDownControl(listBox);

        value = (string)listBox.SelectedItem;

        return value;
    }

}

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply @Karen Payne MVP .

I do have the editor attached to the property grid implemented similar to the code which you have shared and I can display the collection editor when clicked on the property grid control.

The question is , how can i show the collection Editor from the property grid instance when clicked on a toolbar item ?

Answer 3

Hi Kallzz-7817,

As per your need there is no official documented way or approach, but as we have Winforms button, so you can do anything with it. You'll need to use your own editor. But you can derive from the standard editor class too. Here is an example of such approach:-

You can define the custom editor attribute on the collection property in following way :-

[Editor(typeof(MyCollectionEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]
public List<Child> Children { get; }
With this editor code:

// CollectionEditor needs a reference to System.Design.dll
public class MyCollectionEditor : CollectionEditor
{
public MyCollectionEditor(Type type)
: base(type)
{
}

protected override CollectionForm CreateCollectionForm()
{
    CollectionForm form = base.CreateCollectionForm();
    var addButton = (ButtonBase)form.Controls.Find("addButton", true).First();
    addButton. Click += (sender, e) =>
        {
            MessageBox. Show("hello world");
        };
    return form;
}

}

Here the add button is a simple Winforms button, so you can do anything with it.

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