How to get parent of MMC SnapIn panel controls

Question

I'm developing my first MMC SnapIn. I'd like to have per SnapIn configuration information. I need to access that information from the SnapIn panel controls. I don't see any way to find the parent SnapIn object from those controls. Is there a method other than creating a static global?

The FormViewDescription that's part of the SnapIn seems to create the controls using a default constructor:

// Create a form view for the root node.
FormViewDescription fvd = new FormViewDescription();
fvd.DisplayName = "Status";
fvd.ViewType = typeof(SelectionFormView); 
fvd.ControlType = typeof(SelectionControl);

Thanks

Answer 1

In your control (SelectionControl) you can implement the Microsoft.ManagementConsole.IFormViewControl interface. You then receive a call to your Initializemethod with the FormView as argument. From this argument you can access the SnapIn.

Here's a sample:

public class SelectionControl : UserControl, IFormViewControl
{
    ...

    public void Initialize(FormView view)
    {
        var snapIn = view.ScopeNode.SnapIn;

        ...
    }
}

[EDITED]

You can use the following class as the base class of your control instead of UserControl:

//
//  @(#) FormViewControl.cs
//
//  Project:    usis.ManagementConsole
//  System:     Microsoft Visual Studio 2015
//  Author:     Udo Schäfer

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.ManagementConsole;

namespace usis.ManagementConsole
{
    //  ---------------------
    //  FormViewControl class
    //  ---------------------

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides an empty control that can be used to create the content of a Windows Forms view.
    /// </summary>
    /// <seealso cref="UserControl" />
    /// <seealso cref="IFormViewControl" />

    public class FormViewControl : UserControl, IFormViewControl
    {
        #region fields

        private Control oldParent;

        #endregion fields

        #region properties

        //  -----------------
        //  FormView property
        //  -----------------

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the associated Windows Forms view.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>
        /// The form view.
        /// </value>

        protected FormView FormView { get; private set; }

        //  ---------------
        //  SnapIn property
        //  ---------------

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the scope node's snap-in.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>
        /// The scope node's snap-in.
        /// </value>

        protected NamespaceSnapInBase SnapIn
        {
            get { return this.FormView.ScopeNode.SnapIn; }
        }

        #endregion properties

        #region overrides

        //  ----------------------
        //  OnParentChanged method
        //  ----------------------

        /// <summary>
        /// Raises the <see cref="Control.ParentChanged"/> event.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="e">An <see cref="T:System.EventArgs"/> that contains the event data.</param>

        protected override void OnParentChanged(EventArgs e)
        {
            if (Parent != null)
            {
                if (!DesignMode) Size = Parent.ClientSize;
                Parent.SizeChanged += Parent_SizeChanged;
            }
            if (oldParent != null)
            {
                oldParent.SizeChanged -= Parent_SizeChanged;
            }
            oldParent = Parent;
            base.OnParentChanged(e);
        }

        #endregion overrides

        #region IFormViewControl implementation

        //  -----------------
        //  Initialize method
        //  -----------------

        /// <summary>
        /// Uses the associated Windows Forms view to initialize the control.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="view">The associated <c>FormView</c> value.</param>

        public void Initialize(FormView view)
        {
            FormView = view;
            OnInitialize();
        }

        //  -------------------
        //  OnInitialize method
        //  -------------------

        /// <summary>
        /// Called when the control is initialized.
        /// </summary>

        protected virtual void OnInitialize() { }

        #endregion IFormViewControl implementation

        #region private methods

        //  -------------------------
        //  Parent_SizeChanged method
        //  -------------------------

        private void Parent_SizeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!DesignMode) Size = Parent.ClientSize;
        }

        #endregion private methods
    }
}

// eof "FormViewControl.cs"

(This will also resize the control inside it's parent.)

Be careful: Do not access the SnapIn property in the constructor of your class. Use the OnInitialize method instead.