Blue Theme Orange Theme Green Theme Red Theme
 
Home | Forums | Videos | Advertise | Certifications | Downloads | Blogs | Interviews | Jobs | Beginners | Training
 | Consulting  
Submit an Article Submit a Blog 
 Jump to
Skip Navigation Links
TechnologyExpand Technology
WebsiteExpand Website
6 Months Free & No Setup Fees ASP.NET Hosting!
Search :       Advanced Search »
Home » Windows Forms C# » Object Inspector in C#

Object Inspector in C#

A cool C# control that allows to control and manage all the controls in a form at runtime.

Page Views : 15124
Downloads : 464
Rating :
 Rate it
Level : Beginner
   Print Read/Post comments Post a comment  Similar Articles  
   Email to a friend  Bookmark  Author's other articles  
Download Files:
objectinspector_src.zip
 
 
6 Months Free & No Setup Fees ASP.NET Hosting!
Become a Sponsor
DevExpress Free UI Controls
Become a Sponsor
 Tag Cloud
 Latest Jobs
More ... 
 Latest Interview Questions
More ... 


objectinspector.jpg 

What's new?

In this update I added some cool features like:

  • Recompiled for framework2 
  • Revisited the graphic interface 
  • Added a info panel on the footer 
  • More properties are exposed 
  • Some refactoring methods are exposed 
  • Added the show method list 
  • Added the show type attribute 
  • Added the preview Control in new Form

Introduction

The framework give us a useful component to show information's about a control. I'm speaking about the property grid. It's a beautiful control but unfortunately it don't list controls, so the user can select a specific control. I try to resolve this problem with this control.

Object Inspector

Object inspector is an advanced property grid that list and show every control on the form. When user selects one item, Object Inspector shows all its properties. An alternative to list all the properties is to click the "Show properties button" that display like this:

propertylist.jpg

Finding all components on loading (or when user call reload) the control scans the form to find every control. The search is obviously recursive and my solutions(maybe not the best...) is shown below:

public void FindChild(Control par)

{

          foreach (Control cc in par.Controls)

          {

                   if (cc.Name!=null&&cc.Name!="")

                             this.comboBox1.Items.Add(cc.Name);

                   if(cc.Controls.Count>0)

FindChild(cc);

          }

}

 

public void FindEach()

{

          this.comboBox1.Items.Clear();

          if (this.Parent!=null&&this.Parent.Controls.Count>0)

                   foreach (Control cc in this.Parent.Controls)

                   {

                             this.comboBox1.Items.Add(cc.Name);

                             if (cc.Controls.Count > 0)

FindChild(cc);

                             }

}

Finding the selected component

When user selects a control on the list, this control searches on the form's control the right object. Also in this case I used a recursive search. When the right object has been found, I send it to the property grid to show all its features.

public Control FindChildByName(ref string name,Control par)

{

          Control c=null;

          foreach (Control cc in par.Controls)

          {

                   if(cc.Name==name)

                             return cc;

                    if(cc.Controls.Count>0)

                   {

                             c= FindChildByName(ref name,cc);

                             if (c!=null)

                                       return c;

                   }

          }

          return null;

}

 

public Control FindObjectByName(string name)

{

          Control c=null ;

          if (this.Parent!=null&&this.Parent.Controls.Count>0)

                   foreach (Control cc in this.Parent.Controls)

                   {

                             if(cc.Name==name)

                                      return cc;

                             if (cc.Controls.Count > 0)

                             {

                                      c= FindChildByName(ref name,cc);

                                      if (c!=null)

                                                return c;

                             }

                   }

return null;

}

Credits

This is only one of the possible solutions. Maybe isn't the better, but I think that's simple and fast. For every advice, question or problem please contact me. If you want to see my other work please visit my home page:http://zeppaman.altervista.org

Comment Request!
Thank you for reading this post. Please post your feedback, question, or comments about this post Here.
Login to add your contents and source code to this article
 [Top] Rate this article
 
 About the author
 
zeppaman
Looking for C# Consulting?
C# Consulting is founded in 2002 by the founders of C# Corner. Unlike a traditional consulting company, our consultants are well-known experts in .NET and many of them are MVPs, authors, and trainers. We specialize in Microsoft .NET development and utilize Agile Development and Extreme Programming practices to provide fast pace quick turnaround results. Our software development model is a mix of Agile Development, traditional SDLC, and Waterfall models.
Click here to learn more about C# Consulting.
 
Introducing MaxV - one click. infinite control. Hyper-V Hosting from MaximumASP.
Finally – a virtual platform that delivers next-generation Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization technology from a managed hosting partner you can truly depend on. Visit www.maximumasp.com/max for a FREE 30 day trial. Hurry offer ends soon. Climb aboard the MaxV platform and take advantage of High Availability, Intelligent Monitoring, Recurrent Backups, and Scalability – with no hassle or hidden fees. As a managed hosting partner focused solely on Microsoft technologies since 2000, MaximumASP is uniquely qualified to provide the superior support that our business is built on. Unparalleled expertise with Microsoft technologies lead to working directly with Microsoft as first to offer IIS 7 and SQL 2008 betas in a hosted environment; partnering in the Go Live Program for Hyper-V; and product co-launches built on WS 2008 with Hyper-V technology.
Dynamic PDF
ceTE software specializes in components for dynamic PDF generation and manipulation. The DynamicPDF™ product line allows you to dynamically generate PDF documents, merge PDF documents and new content to existing PDF documents from within your applications.
Discover the Top 5 .NET Memory Management Fundamentals
To write the best .NET code, you need to know exactly how the .NET framework really manages memory. Ricky Leeks presents the Top 5 fundamental facts of .NET memory management. Learn more.
Nevron Chart for .NET 2010.1 Now Available
The leading .NET charting control now features PDF, Flash and Silverlight export, visualization of large datasets and more. Deliver true charting functionality to your BI, Scorecard, Presentation or Scientific apps. Download evaluation now.
ASP.NET 4 Hosting
Get 2 Months Free of ASP.NET Hosting for Only $4.95/month! Receive FREE MS SQL and MySQL Databases Including ASP.NET 4/3.5, MVC 3.0, Silverlight 4, Windows 2008/IIS 7.0 Plus FREE IIS 7 Modules. Host UNLIMITED ASP.NET Web Sites – Click Here!
 
 Post a Feedback, Comment, or Question about this article
Subject:
Comment:
Team Foundation Server Hosting
Become a Sponsor
 Comments
Nevron Chart
 © 2012  contents copyright of their authors. Rest everything copyright Mindcracker. All rights reserved.