User Control as container at design time
- by Luca
I'm designing a simple expander control.
I've derived from UserControl, drawn inner controls, built, run; all ok.
Since an inner Control is a Panel, I'd like to use it as container at design time. Indeed I've used the attributes:
[Designer(typeof(ExpanderControlDesigner))]
[Designer("System.Windows.Forms.Design.ParentControlDesigner, System.Design", typeof(IDesigner))]
Great I say. But it isn't...
The result is that I can use it as container at design time but:
The added controls go back the inner controls already embedded in the user control
Even if I push to top a control added at design time, at runtime it is back again on controls embedded to the user control
I cannot restrict the container area at design time into a Panel area
What am I missing? Here is the code for completeness... why this snippet of code is not working?
[Designer(typeof(ExpanderControlDesigner))]
[Designer("System.Windows.Forms.Design.ParentControlDesigner, System.Design", typeof(IDesigner))]
public partial class ExpanderControl : UserControl
{
public ExpanderControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
....
[System.Security.Permissions.PermissionSet(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Demand, Name = "FullTrust")]
internal class ExpanderControlDesigner : ControlDesigner
{
private ExpanderControl MyControl;
public override void Initialize(IComponent component)
{
base.Initialize(component);
MyControl = (ExpanderControl)component;
// Hook up events
ISelectionService s = (ISelectionService)GetService(typeof(ISelectionService));
IComponentChangeService c = (IComponentChangeService)GetService(typeof(IComponentChangeService));
s.SelectionChanged += new EventHandler(OnSelectionChanged);
c.ComponentRemoving += new ComponentEventHandler(OnComponentRemoving);
}
private void OnSelectionChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
}
private void OnComponentRemoving(object sender, ComponentEventArgs e)
{
}
protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
ISelectionService s = (ISelectionService)GetService(typeof(ISelectionService));
IComponentChangeService c = (IComponentChangeService)GetService(typeof(IComponentChangeService));
// Unhook events
s.SelectionChanged -= new EventHandler(OnSelectionChanged);
c.ComponentRemoving -= new ComponentEventHandler(OnComponentRemoving);
base.Dispose(disposing);
}
public override System.ComponentModel.Design.DesignerVerbCollection Verbs
{
get
{
DesignerVerbCollection v = new DesignerVerbCollection();
v.Add(new DesignerVerb("&asd", new EventHandler(null)));
return v;
}
}
}
I've found many resources (Interaction, designed, limited area), but nothing was usefull for being operative...
Actually there is a trick, since System.Windows.Forms classes can be designed (as usual) and have a correct behavior at runtime (TabControl, for example).
