We then use the SelectObject property of the PropertyGrid and assign our customer object to this property.Upon assigning the customer to the grid, the grid will display all of the public properties we defined in our Customer class. In Listing 2 we created a new customer and populated it with values through its properties. Booleans can be edited with a combo box showing True or False (saves you from excess typing). For example, a Date of Birth property (of type DateTime) of the customer will allow you to edit the value of the the date with the calendar control. Another nice feature of the property grid is it will create special editing controls on each line that correspond to the value type on that line. DescriptionAttribute( 'Date of Birth of the Customer (optional)' )Īll that is left to do to get the grid running is assign an instance of our customer class to the property grid.The property grid will automatically figure out all the fields of the customer through reflection and display the property name along with the property value on each line of the grid.DescriptionAttribute( 'Address of the customer' ).DescriptionAttribute( 'Social Security Number of the customer' ).// Name property with category attribute and.// Customer class to be displayed in the property grid.Now we are ready to create our customer class to make it displayable in the property grid.In order to utilize the property grid attributes in Table 1, we need to import the namespace for these attributes so we add the using clause for the System.ComponentModel: Table 1 - Attributes to ready your class's properties for the property grid Unlike the other attributes, this attribute goes above the class.

If placed above a property, this property gets the focus when the property grid is first launched. Specifies the default value of the property shown in the property grid Use this attribute to make your property read only inside the property grid This is used to determine whether or not the property is shown or hidden in the property grid

This attribute places a description of your property at the bottom of the property grid This attribute places your property in the appropriate category in a node on the property grid. These attributes are contained in the System.ComponentModel namespace and are shown in the table below, Attribute In order to really make your property grid soar, you need to add special attributes to each of your properties. However, your property grid will be void of descriptions, categories and other niceties that property grids such as Visual Studio.NET contains. All properties should have get and set methods.(If you don't have a get method, the property won't show up in the PropertyGrid). If you just do the bare minimum of making public properties with get and set methods, your class instance can be displayed in the property grid. The first step is to create public properties for fields you want to expose. The property grid is fairly easy to use.The hard part is making the class that you want to display in the grid 'Property Grid Friendly'. Readying your Class for the Property Grid Figure 3 - Customize ToolBox Dialog for Adding your PropertyGrid Control to the Toolbox

Windows grid details