Custom, Complicated, Dynamic Reflection Solution - C#

Question

I have many custom classes that I am using that I will explain and post examples of. After Explaining what they all do I will try to clearly describe the conditions under wh

Answer 1

Having worked with TypeConverters myself, I can confirm they are a major pain in the bottom parts. You get nada info about what is actually going wrong, only weird output...

Idk if it helps, but maybe it is a problem that you add an empty (null) array to anything that is not an IEnumerable? Try moving the add instruction into the scope of the if (...). I dont think there is any harm in that.

Also, are you certain that (in the last example with the EndJoint) the getter does not return a null pointer? Blank entries smell like null pointers being passed from my experiences.

Answer 2

You don't have to create special classes to use the property grid. Just decorate the properties with the proper attributes. Here is an example:

Two custom classes:

public class MyObjType1
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Name;
    }
}

public class MyObjType2
{
    public string Reference { get; set; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Reference;
    }
}

Note the ToString is overriden, that's what the property grid uses by default if no TypeConverter is defined for a given type.

One "holder" class that has a collection of custom objects:

public class MyHolder
{
    public MyHolder()
    {
        Objects = new List<object>();
    }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    [TypeConverter(typeof(MyCollectionConverter))]
    public List<object> Objects { get; private set; }
}

Note the custom TypeConverter applied directly to the Objects property. Here is the source:

public class MyCollectionConverter : ExpandableObjectConverter
{
    public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties(ITypeDescriptorContext context, object value, Attribute[] attributes)
    {
        IEnumerable enumerable = value as IEnumerable;
        if (enumerable == null)
            return base.GetProperties(context, value, attributes);

        int i = 0;
        List<PropertyDescriptor> list = new List<PropertyDescriptor>();
        foreach (object obj in enumerable)
        {
            MyItemPropertyDescriptor index = new MyItemPropertyDescriptor(i.ToString(), obj);
            list.Add(index);
            i++;
        }
        return new PropertyDescriptorCollection(list.ToArray());
    }

    public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType)
    {
        if (destinationType != typeof(string))
            return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);

        IEnumerable enumerable = value as IEnumerable;
        if (enumerable == null)
            return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        foreach (object obj in enumerable)
        {
            if (sb.Length > 0)
            {
                sb.Append(',');
            }
            sb.AppendFormat("{0}", obj);
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

Note we override ConvertTo and give it a special string that displays a comma-separated list of objects in the list. The GetProperties is also overriden and uses a special PropertyDescriptor; It adds an ExpandableObjectConverter attribute to sub objects so they can be expanded too:

public class MyItemPropertyDescriptor : PropertyDescriptor
{
    private object _value;

    public MyItemPropertyDescriptor(string name, object value)
        : base(name, new[] { new TypeConverterAttribute(typeof(ExpandableObjectConverter)) })
    {
        _value = value;
    }

    public override bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return false; }
    }

    public override object GetValue(object component)
    {
        return _value;
    }

    public override Type PropertyType
    {
        get { return _value == null ? typeof(object) : _value.GetType(); }
    }

    public override bool ShouldSerializeValue(object component)
    {
        return false;
    }

    public override Type ComponentType
    {
        get { return typeof(object); }
    }

    public override bool CanResetValue(object component)
    {
        return false;
    }

    public override void ResetValue(object component)
    {
    }

    public override void SetValue(object component, object value)
    {
    }
}

Now, here is some sample code:

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

        MyHolder holder = new MyHolder();
        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
            holder.Objects.Add(new MyObjType1 { Id = i, Name = i + "Name" });
        }
        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
            holder.Objects.Add(new MyObjType2 { Reference = "Ref" + i });
        }
        propertyGrid1.SelectedObject = holder;
    }
}

And the result: