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DesignerAttribute Class

.NET Framework 2.0

Other Versions

Specifies the class used to implement design-time services for a component.

Namespace: System.ComponentModel
Assembly: System (in system.dll)

Syntax

C++

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[AttributeUsageAttribute(AttributeTargets.Class|AttributeTargets.Interface, AllowMultiple=true, Inherited=true)] 
public sealed class DesignerAttribute : Attribute

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/** @attribute AttributeUsageAttribute(AttributeTargets.Class|AttributeTargets.Interface, AllowMultiple=true, Inherited=true) */ 
public final class DesignerAttribute extends Attribute

JScript

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AttributeUsageAttribute(AttributeTargets.Class|AttributeTargets.Interface, AllowMultiple=true, Inherited=true) 
public final class DesignerAttribute extends Attribute

XAML

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Not applicable.

Remarks

The class you use for the design-time services must implement the IDesigner interface.

Use the DesignerBaseTypeName property to find the designer's base type. Use the DesignerTypeName property to get the name of the type of designer associated with this member.

For more information, see Attributes Overview and Extending Metadata Using Attributes.

Example

The following example creates a class called MyForm. MyForm has two attributes, a DesignerAttribute that specifies this class uses the DocumentDesigner, and a DesignerCategoryAttribute that specifies the Form category.

C++

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[Designer("System.Windows.Forms.Design.DocumentDesigner, System.Windows.Forms.Design.DLL", 
    typeof(IRootDesigner)),
    DesignerCategory("Form")]
public class MyForm : ContainerControl {
    // Insert code here.
}

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/** @attribute Designer("System.Windows.Forms.Design.DocumentDesigner,"+
    "System.Windows.Forms.Design.DLL", IRootDesigner.class)
    @attribute DesignerCategory("Form")
 */
public static class MyForm extends ContainerControl
{
    // Insert code here.
} //MyForm

The next example creates an instance of MyForm. Then it gets the attributes for the class, extracts the DesignerAttribute, and prints the name of the designer.

C++

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public static int Main() {
    // Creates a new form.
    MyForm myNewForm = new MyForm();
 
    // Gets the attributes for the collection.
    AttributeCollection attributes = TypeDescriptor.GetAttributes(myNewForm);
 
    /* Prints the name of the designer by retrieving the DesignerAttribute
     * from the AttributeCollection. */
    DesignerAttribute myAttribute = 
       (DesignerAttribute)attributes[typeof(DesignerAttribute)];
    Console.WriteLine("The designer for this class is: " + myAttribute.DesignerTypeName);
  
    return 0;
}

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public static void main(String[] args)
{
    // Creates a new form.
    MyForm myNewForm = new MyForm();

    // Gets the attributes for the collection.
    AttributeCollection attributes = 
        TypeDescriptor.GetAttributes(myNewForm);

    /* Prints the name of the designer by retrieving the 
       DesignerAttribute from the AttributeCollection. 
     */
    DesignerAttribute myAttribute = (DesignerAttribute)(
        attributes.get_Item(DesignerAttribute.class.ToType()));

    Console.WriteLine(("The designer for this class is: " 
        + myAttribute.get_DesignerTypeName()));
} //main

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
System.Attribute
System.ComponentModel.DesignerAttribute

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Platforms

Windows 98, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

Reference

DesignerAttribute Members
System.ComponentModel Namespace
Attribute

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FAQ

Using DesignerAttribute in Compact Framework

Compact Framework's System.ComponentModel namespace does not contain DesignerAttribute. In order to add this and other design-time attributes, you must add a "Design-Time Attribute File" (right-click on the project, Add-->New Item, in Windows Forms, select "Design-Time Attribute File"). This is an XML file with an .xtma extension. Using the Intellisense that's provided, you can see that you can add a Class tag and name the class you'd like to add the attribute to. Inside of that, further Intellisense will tell you that Designer is an available XML node. You will need to supply the Type as well as the BaseType (not sure why this is necessary, since base types can be determined through reflection), with fully qualified assembly names. Here is an example of what that looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>

<Classes xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2004/03/SmartDevices/XMTA.xsd">

  <Class Name="DeviceControlsLibrary.DeadlyControl">

    <Designer>

      <Type>DeviceControlDesignersLibrary.DeadlyControlDesigner, DeviceControlDesignersLibrary, 
        Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null</Type>

      <BaseType>System.ComponentModel.Design.IDesigner, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, 
        PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</BaseType>

    </Designer>

  </Class>

</Classes>

The <Type> tag is your control's type (with namespace), followed by the fully qualified assembly name. The BaseType should be used as shown here.

You can find more information on this topic in this article: http://dvanderboom.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/compact-framework-creating-custom-controls-and-designers-part-1/

History

3/14/2008
dvboom

5/28/2008
dvboom