如何在Visual Studio扩展的“属性窗口对象列表”中修改名称

Question

I am writing an extension for Visual Studio and have created a class that I use to display custom information in the Properties Window. I would like to modify the text that is shown in the object list at the top of the properties window, but have been unable to find a way to do this. I found this page which seems to describe what I want:

Properties Window Object List

However, that description doesn't seem to work. First of all, the description states that the "object name displayed to the left of the object type in bold is retrieved from the object itself using the Name property provided by the IProvideClassInfo interface", but IProvideClassInfo doesn't have a property named "Name". Also the description states that the method "GetClassInfo" of the class "IProvideClassInfo" returns an "ITypeInfo", but that function has an output parameter of type "Type", not "ITypeInfo".

The class for which I want to display information in the properties window currently looks something like this:

public class MyProperties
{
    [Description("MyDescription")]
    [Category("MyCategory")]
    public string MyProperty { get { return "The text"; } }
}

The property "MyProperty" shows up nicely with the correct description and category, but I have not been successful in modifying the text in the object list. I have tried to make the class "MyClass" extend the interface "IProvideClassInfo", but the method "GetClassInfo" doesn't seem to be executed when the information is displayed in the properties window.

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

I asked this question in a chat and the answer is that you need to implement ICustomTypeDescriptor interface or derive from the class CustomTypeDescriptor .

The respective methods you need to implement are GetComponentName (the bold/first name in the gridview-header) and GetClassName (the light/second name in the gridview-header).

However, if you just implement these two methods, no other properties will be displayed in the property-grid. AnkhSVN solved this in their AnkhPropertyGridItem (big thanks to rhuijben for this solution):

// Copyright 2008 The AnkhSVN Project
//
//  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
//  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
//  You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
//  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
//  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
//  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
//  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
//  limitations under the License.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace Ankh.Scc
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Base class for classes that are designed to be shown in the VS Property grid
    /// </summary>
    public abstract class AnkhPropertyGridItem : CustomTypeDescriptor
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the light/second name shown in the gridview header
        /// </summary>
        [Browsable(false)]
        protected abstract string ClassName
        {
            get;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the bold/first name shown in the gridview header
        /// </summary>
        [Browsable(false)]
        protected abstract string ComponentName
        {
            get;
        }


        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the name of the class represented by this type descriptor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// A <see cref="T:System.String"/> containing the name of the component instance this type descriptor is describing. The default is null.
        /// </returns>
        public override sealed string GetComponentName()
        {
            return ComponentName;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the fully qualified name of the class represented by this type descriptor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// A <see cref="T:System.String"/> containing the fully qualified class name of the type this type descriptor is describing. The default is null.
        /// </returns>
        public override sealed string GetClassName()
        {
            return ClassName;
        }

        TypeConverter _rawDescriptor;
        TypeConverter Raw
        {
            get { return _rawDescriptor ?? (_rawDescriptor = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(this, true)); }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a collection of property descriptors for the object represented by this type descriptor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// A <see cref="T:System.ComponentModel.PropertyDescriptorCollection"/> containing the property descriptions for the object represented by this type descriptor. The default is <see cref="F:System.ComponentModel.PropertyDescriptorCollection.Empty"/>.
        /// </returns>
        public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties()
        {
            return Raw.GetProperties(this);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a type converter for the type represented by this type descriptor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// A <see cref="T:System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter"/> for the type represented by this type descriptor. The default is a newly created <see cref="T:System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter"/>.
        /// </returns>
        public override TypeConverter GetConverter()
        {
            return Raw;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a filtered collection of property descriptors for the object represented by this type descriptor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="attributes">An array of attributes to use as a filter. This can be null.</param>
        /// <returns>
        /// A <see cref="T:System.ComponentModel.PropertyDescriptorCollection"/> containing the property descriptions for the object represented by this type descriptor. The default is <see cref="F:System.ComponentModel.PropertyDescriptorCollection.Empty"/>.
        /// </returns>
        public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties(Attribute[] attributes)
        {
            return Raw.GetProperties(null, null, attributes);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a <see cref="T:System.String"/> that represents the current <see cref="T:System.Object"/>.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// A <see cref="T:System.String"/> that represents the current <see cref="T:System.Object"/>.
        /// </returns>
        public override string ToString()
        {
            return ClassName;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an object that contains the property described by the specified property descriptor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="pd">The property descriptor for which to retrieve the owning object.</param>
        /// <returns>
        /// An <see cref="T:System.Object"/> that owns the given property specified by the type descriptor. The default is null.
        /// </returns>
        public override object GetPropertyOwner(PropertyDescriptor pd)
        {
            return this;
        }
    }
}