How does the component designer know which control values to intitialize in InitializeComponent

Question

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When creating a custom control (UserControl) the IDE gives you a standard Designer <usercontrol>.Designer.cs for your <usercontrol>.cs. I'm trying to understand how the designer knows which class members to initialize in InitializeComponent(). When I assign an event handler to and event what mechanism in Designer accomplishes this. I have a string member propert Text that is not being updated at design time.

this of course is the <usercontrol>.Designer.cs

C#

#region Component Designer generated code
/// <summary>
/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
/// the contents of this method with the code editor.
/// </summary>
private void InitializeComponent()
{
   this.SuspendLayout();
   //
   // SW
   //
   this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
   this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
   this.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.Fixed3D;
   this.Name = "SW";
   this.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(39, 42);
   this.Paint += new System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventHandler(this.BitSW_Paint);
   this.Resize += new System.EventHandler(this.BitSW_Resize);
   this.MouseUp += new System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventHandler(this.BitSW_MouseUp);
   this.ResumeLayout(false);
}

the UserControl.Text is overridden

C#

[Browsable(true)]
[EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always)]
[Description("Text label for this control.")]
public override string Text
{
   get
   {
      return base.Text;
   }
   set
   {
      if (value != base.Text)
      {
         base.Text = value;
         Invalidate();
      }
   }
}

Thanks guys and gals any help is greatly.

Posted 26-Jan-10 8:52am

garaber

Updated 26-Jan-10 11:41am

DaveyM69

v2

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3 solutions

Solution 1

All public properties that have a setter are serialized to the designer file so long as they aren't decorated with

[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Hidden)]

If a property has a default value (by either DefaultValue attribute or ShouldSerializePropertyName and ResetPropertyName) then it won't be serialized if it's current value == the default value.

Posted 26-Jan-10 9:44am

DaveyM69

Solution 2

C#

this.sw1.AlignText = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter;
this.sw1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
this.sw1.BackOff = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
this.sw1.BackOn = System.Drawing.Color.Lime;
this.sw1.bIsOn = false;
this.sw1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.Fixed3D;
this.sw1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Lime;
this.sw1.ForeOff = System.Drawing.Color.Lime;
this.sw1.ForeOn = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
this.sw1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(137, 81);
this.sw1.Name = "sw1";
this.sw1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(20, 74);
this.sw1.TabIndex = 0;

Something has changed then because there is no initializer for the Text property. Now I did override the UserControl.Text property

C#

/// <summary>
/// Text label for this control."
/// </summary>
[Browsable(true)]
[EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always)]
[Description("Text label for this control.")]
public override string Text
{
   get
   {
      return base.Text;
   }
   set
   {
      if (value != base.Text)
      {
         base.Text = value;
         Invalidate();
      }
   }
}

Posted 26-Jan-10 11:13am

garaber

Updated 26-Jan-10 11:39am

v2

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DaveyM69 · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-26T11:37:00

If you goto the definition for UserControl you will see that the Text property is like this:

C#

[Bindable(false)]
        [EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)]
        [Browsable(false)]
        [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Hidden)]
        public override string Text { get; set; }

In your override, do this

C#

[EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)]
[Browsable(true)]
[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Visible)]
public override string Text
{
    get { return base.Text; }
    set
    {
        if (value != base.Text)
        {
            base.Text = value;
            Invalidate();
        }
    }
}