Make a property visible in DataGridView but NOT in PropertyGrid?

Question

Let's say I have a property which I want shown in a DataGridView, but not when the same object is shown in a PropertyGrid. I know I can use [Browsable(false)], but that hides it in both views. I can also do a gridView.Columns["blah"].Visible = false;, but this is the opposite of what I want, as it hides in the DataGridView but not in PropertyGrid. Is there some way to do the reverse? (Short of creating a whole new DataTable just to hold the same data minus one field, and rebinding everything to that instead - that's really a kludge way to do things.) Alternatively, I could live with a solution which adds a column to the DataGridView that is not present on the actual class.

Morpho

I'll accept them when they actually answer my questions. Half my questions have barely had any views, let alone good responses. – Morpho

I'm calling this a bug. Browsable specifically states that it determines the visibility of a member in a properties window. This has nothing to do with a DGV. You could open a connect issue, but the odds that they will fix it are exactly zero. A fix would undoubtedly break existing code. I think you are out of luck here. – Gand

Damn. Of course, they could add a new decorator rather than try and fix Browsable, but still sucks that there's no way to do this. You'd think it wouldn't be that uncommon a request... – Morpho

Yea, there is another reason they won't fix it, even if it were a non-breaking fix: WinForms has not been touched since 2.0; It is considered to have been superceeded by WPF. – Gand

Answer 1

it is possible to solve this issue by using the BrowsableAttributes property of a PropertyGrid. First, create a new attribute like this:

public class PropertyGridBrowsableAttribute : Attribute
{
    private bool browsable;
    public PropertyGridBrowsableAttribute(bool browsable){
        this.browsable = browsable;
    }
}

Then add this attribute to all those properties which you want to be shown in your PropertyGrid:

[DisplayName("First Name"), Category("Names"), PropertyGridBrowsable(true)]
public string FirstName {
    get { return ... }
    set { ... }
}

Then set the BrowsableAttributes property like this:

myPropertyGrid.BrowsableAttributes = new AttributeCollection(
    new Attribute[] { new PropertyGridBrowsableAttribute(true) });

This will only show the attributed properties in your property grid and the DataGridView can still access all properties with only a little bit more coding effort.

I would still go with Tergiver and call this behaviour a bug, since the documentation of the Browsable attribute clearly states its use for property windows only.

(Credit goes to user "maro" at http://www.mycsharp.de/wbb2/thread.php?postid=234565)

Disseminule

Well, it's 3 months since I last touched this project, and parts of it related to this were completely refactored, so I can't really test this anymore, but I'm going to go ahead and accept this answer anyhow, because it's the only one I've got, and it looks valid... – Morpho

I stumbled upon this a few days ago, having the same problem. It definitely works like a charm! But it is very interesting to see that this seems to have been touched only very few times and only ONE person has come up with a solution... Well, now it is available in English as well. – Disseminule