In this article I will describe how I made the SharpRotator data boundable.
I thought that making a control data bindable was easier. Well afterwards it looks easy, but without seeing it before I think you should never come up with something like this. You can always bind a control by setting a property (object) to one of the supported datasources. But I wanted the data bound designer on my control. The data bound designer is used when you want to set the DataSource, DataMember and DataFields in design time.
I based my develop on the following articles:
I just want to explain in this article the highlines of the databounding because all the details you can find in the articles above.
For data binding support on a control in design time we to create a designer control.
Create a Designer class which inherits from the ControlDesigner class and the IDataSourceProvider interface.
|
public class DataSourceDesigner: ControlDesigner,IDataSourceProvider {
} |
Your control must be aware of the designer class so we add the Designer attribute to your webcontrol class like this:
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[ToolboxBitmap(typeof(SharpRotator), "srIcon.bmp"),
DefaultProperty("DataSource"),
ToolboxData("<{0}:SharpRotator runat=server>"),
ParseChildren(true, "Items"),
Designer(typeof(com.dotnet6.Design.DataSourceDesigner))] |
Maybe a short explaination of the other attributes:
- ToolboxBitmap: You use this attribute if you want that containers, as Visual Studio .NET Form Designer, can display the control as a bitmap. My srIcon.bmp is a "Embedded Resource" "Build Action" in my properties window.
- DefaultProperty: When the control is dropped on a Webform, in design time, the cursor will automatically be focused on the DataSource property.
- ToolboxData: Specifies the default tag generated for a custom control when it is dragged from a toolbox in a tool such as Visual Studio.
- ParseChildren: One of my design time properties is a collection (based on a class). The items within the collection will be added to the generated default tag as child tags instead of attributes on the default tag.
I will explain the rest of he data binding this week.