Hide some properties in PropertyGrid at run-time

Question

I am doing a project that allows user to customized the properties of a Control. I have a form that has a control like Label, TextBox, Button and PropertyGrid control. When the user clicks on the Label i am showing the properties of the Label in the ProeprtyGrid which is all working fine using below code:

propertyGrid1.SelectedObject = SelectedControl;

But I just want to show some properties like BackColor, Font, ForeColor, Text. Is it possible to hide the properties since I don't want user to change it or show to them? If yes, how?

Sulfanilamide

Answer 1

I believe you are looking for custom type descriptors.

While the other answer is sharing correct information about Browsable attribute and BrowsableAttributes of PropertyGrid, but I'd say it's not a proper practical solution for the problem.

It's not practical to set Browsable attribute, or any other custom attributes for existing control classes like Label, Button, and so on. Because in this way, the op needs to override all properties of those classes and decorate them with suitable attribute. And even worst, not all propertied are overridable.

What's the practical solution?

As I mentioned earlier, I believe you are looking for custom type descriptors. You can provide metadata about an object assigning a new TypeDescriptor or implementing ICustomTypeDescriptor or deriving from CustomTypeDescriptor.

Example

Here for example, I create a CustomObjectWrapper class deriving from CustomTypeDescriptor which accepts an object in constructor. This way I can simply filter the properties of the wrapped object by overriding GetProperties.

Then instead of assigning button1 to PropertyGrid, I wrap it in CustomObjectWrapper and assing the CustomObjectWrapper to property grid. This way it just shows the filtered properties and the properties are actually come from button1.

Here is the implantation:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
public class CustomObjectWrapper : CustomTypeDescriptor
{
    public object WrappedObject { get; private set; }
    public List<string> BrowsableProperties { get; private set; }
    public CustomObjectWrapper(object o)
        :base(TypeDescriptor.GetProvider(o).GetTypeDescriptor(o))
    {
        WrappedObject = o;
        BrowsableProperties = new List<string>() { "Text", "BackColor" };
    }
    public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties()
    {
        return this.GetProperties(new Attribute[] { });
    }
    public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties(Attribute[] attributes)
    {
        var properties = base.GetProperties(attributes).Cast<PropertyDescriptor>()
                             .Where(p=>BrowsableProperties.Contains(p.Name))
                             .Select(p => TypeDescriptor.CreateProperty(
                                 WrappedObject.GetType(),
                                 p,
                                 p.Attributes.Cast<Attribute>().ToArray()))
                             .ToArray();
        return new PropertyDescriptorCollection(properties);
    }
}

And as usage:

propertyGrid1.SelectedObject = new CustomObjectWrapper(button1);

You can simply add new property names to BrowsableProperties of the CustomObjectWrapper. It's a public property.

Kelp

What do you think about having a Designer class that inherits ControlDesigner and overrides its PreFilterProperties? The properties parameter is a IDictionary<string, PropertyDescriptor>. Properties could then be removed using properties.Remove("[PropertyName]"). – Gibrian

I tried this one and it's works great. Thank you so much. – Sulfanilamide

@Gibrian Thanks for the feedback. If the requirement was for design-time, I'd used ControlDesigner, like this post or this one. But here the OP is asking it for run-time, by setting propertyGrid1.SelectedObject. That's why I used TypeDescriptor. – Kelp

Yes, of course. I was more interested in your opinion on the matter (eventual problem, drawbacks...). Btw, those answers didn't come up on a search. That's a bummer. – Gibrian

Answer 2

UPDATE

Please note this is only useful for Hiding properties (when you can). Reza Aghaei answer is actually the correct answer.

I'll leave this here as it's suitable for the other case when you just simply want to hide a property when you have access to it.

Original

Easiest way is probably to use

[Browsable(false)]

BrowsableAttribute Class

Specifies whether a property or event should be displayed in a Properties window.

[Browsable(false)]
public int SecretSquirrels
{
  get; set;
}

Also as pointed out by Marc Gravell, there is also

PropertyGrid.BrowsableAttributes Property

Gets or sets the browsable attributes associated with the object that the property grid is attached to.

Uropod

generalizing that a bit, there is a BrowsableAttributes property that you can use to provide custom filters (or : different views on the same object), but: it is quite likely that [Browsable(false)] does everything OP needs – Tody

Thanks. Do I need to create a Custom PropertyGrid? Say I want to show this list string[] ShowThisPropertyList = new string[] { "Text", "BackColor", "ForeColor" }; – Sulfanilamide

@Sulfanilamide You are probably doing to have to create a new object that reference the properties in the label you want, and thats the one you put in the propertyGrid – Uropod

While this answer is sharing correct information about Browsable attribute and BrowsableAttributes of PropertyGrid, but I'd say it's not a proper practical solution for the problem. It's not practical to set Browsable attribute, or any other custom attributes for existing control classes like Label, Button, and so on. Because in this way, the op needs to override all properties of those classes and decorate them with suitable attribute. And even worst, not all propertied are overridable. – Kelp