how to show the friendly names for a property of type ENUM in wpfpropertygrid

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I need help!

Using .net 4.0 and WPF I have a property Grid that is bounded to a class and all its properties. One of the properties of the class is of type enum like:

C#

public enum ColorChoices
{
    [Description("My favorite color - Red")]
    Red,
    [Description("My second favorite color - Black")]
    Black,
   [Description("My third favorite color - White")]
    White
}

It shows up on the UI as a drop down with choices of Red, Black, White. How do I get the UI to use the custom descriptions defined in Description?

Thanks

Here is my binding. I just bound the propertyGrid to the class preferences which has many properties, one of which is the enum ColorChoices above. I dont specifically bind to a combobox. Just to the propertygrid.

XML

<propGrid:PropertyGrid
    Grid.Column="0"
    Width="Auto"
    MinWidth="200"
    SelectedObject="{Binding Path=Preferences}"
    AdvancedOptionsMenu="{x:Null}"
    IsCategorized="True"
    ShowSearchAndOrderOptions="True"
    DisplaySummary="True">
    <propGrid:PropertyGrid.EditorDefinitions>
        <propGrid:EditorDefinition
            TargetType="{x:Type questinfra:SerializableColor}">
            <propGrid:EditorDefinition.EditorTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <propGridControls:ColorPicker
                        DisplayColorAndName="True"
                        SelectedColor="{Binding Value, Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource SerializableColorToColorConverter}}" />
                </DataTemplate>
            </propGrid:EditorDefinition.EditorTemplate>
        </propGrid:EditorDefinition>
    </propGrid:PropertyGrid.EditorDefinitions>
</propGrid:PropertyGrid>

Posted 1-Aug-12 11:06am

Hamid Moradi

Updated 1-Aug-12 11:22am

v5

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Comments

Kenneth Haugland 1-Aug-12 17:11pm

And how does your binding in XAML look like? You could just design a celltemplate that binds to you Enum while the combobox binds to the colors.

Hamid Moradi 1-Aug-12 17:41pm

Thank you for your reply> I added my binding to the original question. I dont bind to a combo box. I bind the entire class that has many properties to the PropertyGrid.

Kenneth Haugland 1-Aug-12 18:14pm

I think your question is answer, dont you? ;)

Hamid Moradi 3-Aug-12 17:47pm

The answer might be there but I still dont see it! Every example or article I read talks about how to bound enums to a combo box and get friendly names from it. The article below talks about how to do it in the code without the UI. I have a WPF property grid (have to use it!) that is bounded to a class where some members of the class are enums are some are strings and some are integers. I can not replace the property grid with a combo box. Have to be able to tell the property grid to use the freindly name for the enum whereever the property is an enum. Am I missing something from the replies below?

3 solutions

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 1 · 2012-08-01T11:59:00

Solution 3

I have a very general article on the problem of human-readable names for .NET enumeration members, with very universal approach. Please read it:
Human-readable Enumeration Meta-data[^].

—SA

Posted 1-Aug-12 11:59am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Kenneth Haugland 1-Aug-12 18:05pm

Thats windows Forms no? I could tell by the nasty colors ;)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Aug-12 18:13pm

Of course not. (Who do you think I am to waste time on tightly couple stuff and lock-ins?) Absolutely universal code, not related to UI. Demo for Forms and WPF, .NET Framework 2.0, 3.5, 4.0 and Mono.
--SA

Kenneth Haugland 1-Aug-12 18:16pm

Oh... You buildt it for everytthing... My bad... :-/

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Aug-12 18:19pm

No problem. This is a cycle of 3 articles on enumerations, based on making enumeration... enumerate, pretty interesting, most readers said...
--SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Aug-12 18:15pm

And nasty color was default XP, totally tasteless. I always switched to old not-so-good-but-not-too-bad classical W2K style, before Windows 7, which is much better.
--SA

Kenneth Haugland 1-Aug-12 18:18pm

Wondered if you put it throuh Instagram (the polaroyd program for normal pictures) .... Pyuck.. (means what my face looks like when Im throwing up like color)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Aug-12 18:21pm

What is that Instagram, I wonder? I'm quite interested in stuff like industrial design and have some "pro" background in color measurements, etc...
--AS

Kenneth Haugland 1-Aug-12 18:24pm

Hah... You should ask a new Question... Facebook paid a billion for the company I think...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Aug-12 18:43pm

Ah, "problem sharing, reinvented"? No problem, I'll read about it. Why would one put it "throw"?
--SA

André Kraak · Answer 2 · 2012-08-01T11:17:00

Solution 2

Have a look at this article: Displaying User Friendly Enum Values in WPF[^]
It has a section called Text customization using code attributes.

Addition:
Another article is Binding and Using Friendly Enums in WPF[^], it is actually mentioned in the first article I listed.

Posted 1-Aug-12 11:17am

André Kraak

Updated 1-Aug-12 11:20am

v2

Kenneth Haugland · Answer 3 · 2012-08-01T11:15:00

Solution 1

Your question has a full demo here:
Step by Step WPF Data Binding with Comboboxes[^]

Posted 1-Aug-12 11:15am

Kenneth Haugland