Cannot data bind to a control when Control.Visible == false

Question

In WinForms with C# 4.0 / C# 2.0, I cannot bind to a control if the control\'s visible field is false:

this.checkBox_WorkDone.DataBindings.Add(\"Visible\", W         


        

Answer 1

I ran in to this exact situation before. Until the control is viable for the first time some back-end initialization never happens, part of that initialization is enabling the data binding. You must call CreateControl(true) before data binding works. However, that method it is a protected method so you must do it though reflection or by extending the control.

Via reflection:

private static void CreateControl( Control control )
{
    var method = control.GetType().GetMethod( "CreateControl", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic );
    var parameters = method.GetParameters();
    Debug.Assert( parameters.Length == 1, "Looking only for the method with a single parameter" );
    Debug.Assert( parameters[0].ParameterType == typeof ( bool ), "Single parameter is not of type boolean" );

    method.Invoke( control, new object[] { true } );
}

All events will be deferred until the control has Created set to true.