The WinForms PropertyGrid is really useful, but it isn't particularly easy to customize - especially when binding to objects that are out of your control. DynamicDescriptors helps alleviate this pain by providing a runtime-customizable implementation of ICustomTypeDescriptor that can be bound to the PropertyGrid.
Properties can be customized with an easy-to-use fluent interface:
var instanceToBind = new ExampleClass(); var descriptor = DynamicDescriptor.CreateFromInstance(instanceToBind); descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyOne") // Get the property using its name. .SetDisplayName("Property #1") .SetDescription("The first property") .SetCategory("Example category"); descriptor.GetDynamicProperty((ExampleClass x) => x.Property2) // Get the property using an expression. .SetDisplayName("Property #2") .SetDescription("The second property") .SetCategory("Example category"); propertyGrid.SelectedObject = descriptor;
We can create a DynamicDescriptor for an object instance:
var instance = new ExampleClass(); var descriptor = DynamicDescriptor.CreateFromInstance(instance);
We can create a DynamicDescriptor backed by a dictionary. This will act as if the dictionary key/value pairs are properties of a bound object:
var data = new Dictionary<string, object>(); data["Property1"] = "hello"; data["Property2"] = "world"; var descriptor = DynamicDescriptor.CreateFromDictionary(data);
We can also supply type information:
var data = new Dictionary<string, object>(); data["Property1"] = "value"; data["Property2"] = 1; var types = new Dictionary<string, Type>(); types["Property1"] = typeof(string); types["Property2"] = typeof(int); var descriptor = DynamicDescriptor.CreateFromDictionary(data, types);
DisplayName:
descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyName").SetDisplayName("Property display name");
This modifies the value returned by the DisplayName property.
Description:
descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyName").SetDescription("A description of the property");
This modifies the value returned by the Description property.
Category:
descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyName").SetCategory("Category name");
This modifies the value returned by the Category property.
Converter:
TypeConverter converter = /* your custom type converter */; descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyName").SetConverter(converter);
This modifies the value returned by the Converter property.
IsReadOnly:
descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyName").SetReadOnly(true);
This modifies the value returned by the IsReadOnly property.
Property order:
descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyOne").SetPropertyOrder(1); descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyTwo").SetPropertyOrder(2); descriptor.GetDynamicProperty("PropertyThree").SetPropertyOrder(3);
This modifies the order in which properties are returned by the GetProperties method.
Just grab it from NuGet
PM> Install-Package DynamicDescriptors
Copyright Matthew King 2012-2022. Distributed under the MIT License. Refer to license.txt for more information.