New to the .NET framework is the concept of attribute-based development. Attributes provide an extensibility mechanism for classes, properties,
methods
, parameters, and return values. By applying attributes to a particular entity, the default behavior can be
altered
to produce a new desired result. For a complete description of attributes, refer to the MSDN help.
The .NET designer architecture makes heavy use of attributes to simplify common development
tasks
. Examples include defining the default value for a property, assigning a category and description to properties, and indicating the default event for a control, to
name
a few. No discussion of the designer architecture would be complete without a list of attributes commonly used for designers, controls, serialization, licensing, and the
PropertyGrid
. Table 5.12 lists the attributes found in the
System.ComponentModel
namespace, along with descriptions.
|
AmbientValueAttribute
|
The value for this property originates for another source,
generally
the containing control.
|
|
BrowsableAttribute
|
Used by the
PropertyGrid
to determine whether the property should be displayed.
|
|
CategoryAttribute
|
Defines the category for the property or event within the
PropertyTab
of the
PropertyGrid
.
|
|
DefaultEventAttribute
|
Defines the default event for the component.
|
|
DefaultPropertyAttribute
|
Defines the default property for a component.
|
|
DefaultValueAttribute
|
Defines the default value for a property.
|
|
DescriptionAttribute
|
Defines the description for the property or event.
|
|
DesignerAttribute
|
Identifies the designer for the specified component.
|
|
DesignerCategoryAttribute
|
Defines the category for the designer.
|
|
DesignerSeralizationVisibiltyAttribute
|
Specifies how the designer should serialize a property.
|
|
DesignOnlyAttribute
|
Specifies that the property is available only at design-time.
|
|
EditorAttribute
|
Specifies the
UITypeEditor
for the component property.
|
|
EditorBrowsableAttribute
|
Specifies whether the property is available to the
UITypeEditor
.
|
|
ImmutableObjectAttribute
|
Specifies that the component has no editable properties.
|
|
LicenseProviderAttribute
|
Specifies the
LicenseProvider
for the class.
|
|
ListBindableAttribute
|
Specifies a list can be used for data binding.
|
|
LocalizableAttribute
|
Localization for a property.
|
|
MergablePropertyAttribute
|
Specifies that a property can be combined with properties of other objects in the property window.
|
|
NotifyParentPropertyAttribute
|
Specifies that the parent property should be notified when the property is modified.
|
|
ParenthesizePropertyNameAttribute
|
Specifies that the property value should appear within a set of parentheses. Example:
(Collection)
appears
next
to collection-based properties such as the
Tabs
property of the
Tab
control.
|
|
PropertyTabAttribute
|
Identifies the property tab(s) to display for the class or classes.
|
|
ProvidePropertyAttribute
|
Defines the name of a property provided by the class that implements the
IExtenderProvider
interface. The
ToolTip
class is an extender provider.
|
|
ReadOnlyAttribute
|
Specifies that the property is read-only within the
PropertyGrid
.
|
|
RecommendedAsConfigurableAttribute
|
Specifies that the property can be used as an application setting.
|
|
RefreshPropertiesAttribute
|
Defines how the designer refreshes when the property is modified.
|
|
ToolboxItemAttribute
|
Specifies whether the component should be loaded in the toolbox.
|
|
ToolboxItemFilterAttribute
|
Specifies that the component will accept only other
ToolboxItem
s
belonging
to the specified namespace, or type.
|
