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Add custom controls to the Data Sources window for .NET Framework applications

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Datasets and related classes are legacy .NET Framework technologies from the early 2000s that enable applications to work with data in memory while the applications are disconnected from the database. They are especially useful for applications that enable users to modify data and persist the changes back to the database. Although datasets have proven to be a very successful technology, we recommend that new .NET applications use Entity Framework Core. Entity Framework provides a more natural way to work with tabular data as object models, and it has a simpler programming interface.

When you drag an item from the Data Sources window to a design surface to create a data-bound control, you can select the type of control that you create. Each item in the window has a dropdown list that displays the controls that you can choose from. The set of controls associated with each item is determined by the data type of the item. If the control that you want to create does not appear in the list, you can follow the instructions in this topic to add the control to the list.

For more information about selecting data-bound controls to create for items in the Data Sources window, see Set the control to be created when dragging from the Data Sources window.

Customize the bindable controls list

To add or remove controls from the list of available controls for items in the Data Sources window that have a specific data type, perform the following steps.

To select the controls to be listed for a data type

  1. Make sure that the WPF Designer or the Windows Forms Designer is open.

  2. In the Data Sources window, click an item that is part of a data source you added to the window, and then click the dropdown list menu for the item.

    Tip

    If the Data Sources window isn't open, open it by selecting View > Other Windows > Data Sources.

  3. In the dropdown list menu, click Customize. One of the following dialog boxes opens:

    • If the Windows Forms Designer is open, the Data UI Customization page of the Options dialog box opens. For more information, see Data UI Customization options dialog box.

    • If the WPF Designer is open, the Customize Control Binding dialog box opens.

  4. In the dialog box, select a data type from the Data type dropdown list.

    • To customize the list of controls for a table or object, select [List].

    • To customize the list of controls for a column of a table or a property of an object, select the data type of the column or property in the underlying data store.

    • To customize the list of controls to display data objects that have user-defined shapes, select [Other]. For example, select [Other] if your application has a custom control that displays data from more than one property of a particular object.

  5. In the Associated controls box, select each control that you want to be available for the selected data type, or clear the selection of any controls that you want to remove from the list.

    Note

    If the control that you want to select does not appear in the Associated controls box, you must add the control to the list. For more information, see Add associated controls.

  6. Click OK.

  7. In the Data Sources window, click an item of the data type that you just associated one or more controls, and then click the dropdown list menu for the item.

    The controls you selected in the Associated controls box now appear in the dropdown list menu for the item.

Add associated controls

If you want to associate a control with a data type, but the control does not appear in the Associated controls box, you must add the control to the list. The control must be located in the current solution or in a referenced assembly. It must also be available in the Toolbox and have an attribute that specifies the control's data binding behavior.

To add controls to the list of associated controls:

  1. Add the desired control to the Toolbox by right-clicking the Toolbox and selecting Choose Items.

    The control must have one of the following attributes:

    Attribute Description
    DefaultBindingPropertyAttribute Implement this attribute on simple controls that display a single column (or property) of data, such as a TextBox.
    ComplexBindingPropertiesAttribute Implement this attribute on controls that display lists (or tables) of data, such as a DataGridView.
    LookupBindingPropertiesAttribute Implement this attribute on controls that display lists (or tables) of data, but also need to present a single column or property, such as a ComboBox.

  2. For Windows Forms, on the Options dialog box, open the Data UI Customization page. Or, for WPF, open the Customize Control Binding dialog box. For more information, see Customize the list of bindable controls for a data type.

  3. In the Associated controls box, the control that you just added to the Toolbox should now appear.

    Note

    Only controls that are located within the current solution or in a referenced assembly can be added to the list of associated controls. (The controls must also implement one of the data-binding attributes in the previous table.) To bind data to a custom control that is not available in the Data Sources window, drag the control from the Toolbox onto the design surface, and then drag the item to bind to from the Data Sources window onto the control.

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