.NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell

Summary

The PropertyGrid provides a simple but effective way of presenting data for editing. It uses reflection to discover which properties are available for editing. It allows every aspect of the property editing process to be controlled by using a TypeConverter. We can manage conversions between the text displayed and edited onscreen, and the types stored in the object. We can control which properties are displayed, and how they are presented. We can even supply our own editor user interfaces for when simple text editing is insufficient.

The PropertyGrid is also central to the Windows Forms Designer, so an understanding of how it works is crucial to integrating your controls with the development environment successfully. In the next chapter, we will look in detail at Visual Studio .NET’s other design-time integration features.