Accessing additional context data in EditValue of UITypeEditor

Question

I'm tweaking a WinForms application. This application has a Form that contains a PropertyGrid. An object is assigned to the SelectedObject property so that the property grid displays the properties for the object.

The type of the object assigned has a property that carries an EditorAttribute specifying a UITypeEditor.

This implementation of UITypeEditor returns UITypeEditorEditStyle.Drop in its override of GetEditStyle method. Its EditValue method displays a ListBox from which a value for the instance property can be assigned.

All well an good so far.

Now I have an additional requirement which calls for the available items in the list to be modified based on other state held by the Form hosting the PropertyGrid. I can't work out how to get this contextual information to the EditValue method.

There doesn't seem to be anything on the context parameter even if I try casting it to more specific types. Neither can I work out how to add some other Service to retrieve from the provider.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I wonder if what you are trying to do would would better as a TypeConverter via GetStandardValues? But either way, both context.Instance and context.PropertyDescriptor seem to be populated in a quick test (for both GetEditStyle and EditValue):

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing.Design;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class MyData
{
    [Editor(typeof(MyEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]
    public string Bar { get; set; }

    public string[] Options { get; set; }
}
class MyEditor : UITypeEditor
{
    public override UITypeEditorEditStyle GetEditStyle(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
    {
        // break point here; inspect context
        return UITypeEditorEditStyle.DropDown;
    }
    public override object EditValue(ITypeDescriptorContext context, IServiceProvider provider, object value)
    {
        // break point here; inspect context
        return base.EditValue(context, provider, value);
    }

}
class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.Run(new Form
        {
            Controls =
            {
                new PropertyGrid {
                    Dock = DockStyle.Fill,
                    SelectedObject = new MyData()
                }
            }
        });
    }
}

Or as a type-converter:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class MyData
{
    [TypeConverter(typeof(MyConverter))]
    public string Bar { get; set; }

    public string[] Options { get; set; }
}
class MyConverter : StringConverter
{
    public override bool GetStandardValuesSupported(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
    {
        return true;
    }
    public override StandardValuesCollection GetStandardValues(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
    {
        MyData data = (MyData)context.Instance;
        if(data == null || data.Options == null) {
            return new StandardValuesCollection(new string[0]);
        }
        return new StandardValuesCollection(data.Options);
    }
}
class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.Run(new Form
        {
            Controls =
            {
                new PropertyGrid {
                    Dock = DockStyle.Fill,
                    SelectedObject = new MyData()
                }
            }
        });
    }
}

Answer 2

In the overridden EditValue method, context.Container will provide the object that the editor belongs to. The context.Container.Components property will list out all the controls which includes the form and all of its children.

Answer 3

I was in similar situation, I wanted to inject an object into my custom UITypeEditor's constructor.

I followed Nicolas Cadilhac comment in Here, GIVE HIM ALL THE CREDIT. It uses TypeDescriptionProvider.

Here is the complete set of code.

class Foo
{
    public Foo() { Bar = new Bar(); }
    public Bar Bar { get; set; }
}

class Bar
{
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

class BarTypeDescriptionProvider : TypeDescriptionProvider
{
    private TypeDescriptionProvider _baseProvider;
    string _extraParam;

    public BarTypeDescriptionProvider(Type t, string extraParam)
    {
        this._extraParam = extraParam;
        _baseProvider = TypeDescriptor.GetProvider(t);
    }

    public string ExtraParam
    { 
        get { return _extraParam; } 
    }

    public override ICustomTypeDescriptor GetTypeDescriptor(Type objectType, object instance)
    {
        return new BarTypeDescriptor(this, _baseProvider.GetTypeDescriptor(objectType, instance), objectType);
    }
}


class BarTypeDescriptor : CustomTypeDescriptor
{
    private Type _objectType;
    private BarTypeDescriptionProvider _provider;

    public BarTypeDescriptor(BarTypeDescriptionProvider provider,  ICustomTypeDescriptor descriptor, Type objectType): base(descriptor)
    {
        if (provider == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("provider");
        if (descriptor == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("descriptor");
        if (objectType == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("objectType");
        _objectType = objectType;
        _provider = provider;
    }

    public override object GetEditor(Type editorBaseType)
    {
        return new BarEditor(_provider.ExtraParam);
    }
}


class BarEditor : UITypeEditor
{
    private string _extraParam;
    public BarEditor(string x)
        : base()
    {
        _extraParam = x;
    }

    public override UITypeEditorEditStyle GetEditStyle(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
    {
        return UITypeEditorEditStyle.Modal;
    }
    public override object EditValue(ITypeDescriptorContext context, IServiceProvider provider, object value)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(_extraParam);
        return base.EditValue(context, provider, value);
    }
}

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        string extraParam = "Extra param from main form";

        TypeDescriptor.AddProvider(new BarTypeDescriptionProvider(typeof(Bar), extraParam), typeof(Bar));

        this.propertyGrid1.SelectedObject = new Foo();
    }
}

Michael