Expose properties to the Properties window

Article
12/15/2023

This walkthrough exposes the public properties of an object to the Properties window. The changes you make to these properties are reflected in the Properties window.

Expose properties to the Properties window

In this section, you create a custom tool window and display the public properties of the associated window pane object in the Properties window.

To expose properties to the Properties window

Every Visual Studio extension starts with a VSIX deployment project, which will contain the extension assets. Create a Visual Studio VSIX project named MyObjectPropertiesExtension. You can find the VSIX project template in the New Project dialog by searching for "vsix".
Add a tool window by adding a Custom Tool Window item template named MyToolWindow. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the project node and select Add > New Item. In the Add New Item dialog, go to Visual C# Items > Extensibility and select Custom Tool Window. In the Name field at the bottom of the dialog, change the file name to MyToolWindow.cs. For more information about how to create a custom tool window, see Create an extension with a tool window.

Open MyToolWindow.cs and add the following using statement:

using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop;

Now add the following fields to the MyToolWindow class.

private ITrackSelection trackSel;
private SelectionContainer selContainer;

Add the following code to the MyToolWindow class.

private ITrackSelection TrackSelection
{
    get
    {
        if (trackSel == null)
            trackSel =
               GetService(typeof(STrackSelection)) as ITrackSelection;
        return trackSel;
    }
}

public void UpdateSelection()
{
    ITrackSelection track = TrackSelection;
    if (track != null)
        track.OnSelectChange((ISelectionContainer)selContainer);
}

public void SelectList(ArrayList list)
{
    selContainer = new SelectionContainer(true, false);
    selContainer.SelectableObjects = list;
    selContainer.SelectedObjects = list;
    UpdateSelection();
}

public override void OnToolWindowCreated()
{
    ArrayList listObjects = new ArrayList();
    listObjects.Add(this);
    SelectList(listObjects);
}

The TrackSelection property uses GetService to obtain an STrackSelection service, which provides an ITrackSelection interface. The OnToolWindowCreated event handler and SelectList method together create a list of selected objects that contains only the tool window pane object itself. The UpdateSelection method tells the Properties window to display the public properties of the tool window pane.

Build the project and start debugging. The experimental instance of Visual Studio should appear.
If the Properties window is not visible, open it by pressing F4.
Open the MyToolWindow window. You can find it in View > Other Windows.

The window opens and the public properties of the window pane appear in the Properties window.
Change the Caption property in the Properties window to My Object Properties.

The MyToolWindow window caption changes accordingly.

Expose tool window properties

In this section, you add a tool window and expose its properties. The changes you make to properties are reflected in the Properties window.

To expose tool window properties

Open MyToolWindow.cs, and add the public boolean property IsChecked to the MyToolWindow class.

[Category("My Properties")]
[Description("MyToolWindowControl properties")]
public bool IsChecked
{
    get {
        if (base.Content == null)  return false;
        return (bool)(( MyToolWindowControl) base.Content).checkBox.IsChecked;
    }
    set {
        ((MyToolWindowControl) base.Content).checkBox.IsChecked = value;
    }
}

This property gets its state from the WPF checkbox you will create later.

Open MyToolWindowControl.xaml.cs and replace the MyToolWindowControl constructor with the following code.
```
private MyToolWindow pane;
public MyToolWindowControl(MyToolWindow pane)
{
    InitializeComponent();
    this.pane = pane;
    checkBox.IsChecked = false;
}
```
This gives MyToolWindowControl access to the MyToolWindow pane.
In MyToolWindow.cs, change the MyToolWindow constructor as follows:
```
base.Content = new MyToolWindowControl(this);
```
Change to the design view of MyToolWindowControl.
Delete the button and add a check box from the Toolbox to the upper left corner.
Add the Checked and Unchecked events. Select the checkbox in the design view. In the Properties window, click the event handlers button (at the top right of the Properties window). Find Checked and type checkbox_Checked in the text box, then find Unchecked and type checkbox_Unchecked in the text box.

Add the check box event handlers:

private void checkbox_Checked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    pane.IsChecked = true;
    pane.UpdateSelection();
}
private void checkbox_Unchecked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    pane.IsChecked = false;
    pane.UpdateSelection();
}

Build the project and start debugging.
In the experimental instance, open the MyToolWindow window.

Look for the window's properties in the Properties window. The IsChecked property appears at the bottom of the window, under the My Properties category.
Check the check box in the MyToolWindow window. IsChecked in the Properties window changes to True. Clear the check box in the MyToolWindow window. IsChecked in the Properties window changes to False. Change the value of IsChecked in the Properties window. The check box in the MyToolWindow window changes to match the new value.

Note

If you must dispose of an object that is displayed in the Properties window, call OnSelectChange with a null selection container first. After disposing the property or object, you can change to a selection container that has updated SelectableObjects and SelectedObjects lists.

Change selection lists

In this section, you add a selection list for a basic property class and use the tool window interface to choose which selection list to display.

To change selection lists

Open MyToolWindow.cs and add a public class named Simple.

public class Simple
{
    private string someText = "";

    [Category("My Properties")]
    [Description("Simple Properties")]
    [DisplayName("My Text")]
    public string SomeText
    {
        get { return someText; }
        set { someText = value; }
    }

    [Category("My Properties")]
    [Description("Read-only property")]
    public bool ReadOnly
    {
        get { return false; }
    }
}

Add a SimpleObject property to the MyToolWindow class, plus two methods to switch the Properties window selection between the window pane and the Simple object.

private Simple simpleObject = null;
public Simple SimpleObject
{
    get
    {
        if (simpleObject == null) simpleObject = new Simple();
        return simpleObject;
    }
}

public void SelectSimpleList()
{
    ArrayList listObjects = new ArrayList();
    listObjects.Add(SimpleObject);
    SelectList(listObjects);
}

public void SelectThisList()
{
    ArrayList listObjects = new ArrayList();
    listObjects.Add(this);
    SelectList(listObjects);
}

In MyToolWindowControl.cs, replace the check box handlers with these lines of code:

private void checkbox_Checked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
 {
    pane.IsChecked = true;
    pane.SelectSimpleList();
    pane.UpdateSelection();
}
private void checkbox_Unchecked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    pane.IsChecked = false;
    pane.SelectThisList();
    pane.UpdateSelection();
}

Build the project and start debugging.
In the experimental instance, open the MyToolWindow window.
Select the check box in the MyToolWindow window. The Properties window displays the Simple object properties, SomeText and ReadOnly. Clear the check box. The public properties of the window appear in the Properties window.

Note

The display name of SomeText is My Text.

Best practice

In this walkthrough, ISelectionContainer is implemented so that the selectable object collection and the selected object collection are the same collection. Only the selected object appears in the Property Browser list. For a more complete ISelectionContainer implementation, see the Reference.ToolWindow samples.

Visual Studio tool windows persist between Visual Studio sessions. For more information on persisting the tool window state, see ProvideProfileAttribute.

Extend properties and the Property window

Expose properties to the Properties window