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This page is specific to
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:
.NET Framework Class Library
PropertyGridEditorPart Class

Provides an editor control that enables end users to edit custom properties on an associated WebPart or server control. This class cannot be inherited.

Namespace:  System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts
Assembly:  System.Web (in System.Web.dll)
Visual Basic (Declaration)
<AspNetHostingPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction.LinkDemand, Level := AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)> _
Public NotInheritable Class PropertyGridEditorPart _
    Inherits EditorPart
Visual Basic (Usage)
Dim instance As PropertyGridEditorPart
C#
[AspNetHostingPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction.LinkDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
public sealed class PropertyGridEditorPart : EditorPart
Visual C++
[AspNetHostingPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction::LinkDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel::Minimal)]
public ref class PropertyGridEditorPart sealed : public EditorPart
JScript
public final class PropertyGridEditorPart extends EditorPart
ASP.NET
<asp:PropertyGridEditorPart />

The PropertyGridEditorPart provides a generic user interface (UI) that enables users to edit custom properties on WebPart and server controls placed in WebPartZoneBase zones. In contrast, the other EditorPart controls, such as the AppearanceEditorPart and BehaviorEditorPart controls, edit only existing, UI-oriented properties from the WebPart class.

Just as there are tool-oriented zones in the Web Parts control set (for details, see the ToolZone class overview), there are tool-oriented part controls, and each of these must reside in a corresponding type of tool zone. These kind of controls in the Web Parts control set have two distinguishing characteristics:

  • They are helper controls that enable end users to personalize the controls that form the primary UI of a page in a Web Parts application.

  • They are visible only in certain page display modes.

The PropertyGridEditorPart control is a special control, and it becomes visible only when a Web page is in edit mode, and when a specific WebPart or server control has been selected by a user for editing. The PropertyGridEditorPart control, like all other EditorPart controls, must reside in an EditorZone zone on the page.

Important noteImportant Note:

An EditorZone zone can contain only EditorPart controls, and EditorPart controls cannot be placed in any other type of zone.

The PropertyGridEditorPart control provides an editing UI for properties that are marked in the source code with the WebBrowsable attribute (from the WebBrowsableAttribute class). When a property is marked with this attribute, a PropertyGridEditorPart control creates the editing UI based on the type of the property, and uses a PropertyDescriptor object if needed to convert the value in each editing control to the type of the property. You can also add other attributes that help the PropertyGridEditorPart control to display the editing UI. The WebDisplayName attribute (from the WebDisplayNameAttribute class) allows you to specify the text for the label that appears with each control in the editing UI. The WebDescription attribute (from the WebDescriptionAttribute class) allows you to specify a string that appears as a ToolTip for each control in the editing UI.

The controls created to edit properties of various types are listed in the following table.

Property type

Control created to edit the property

String

TextBox

Int, Float, Unit

TextBox

Boolean

CheckBox

Enum

DropDownList (contains the list of enumerated values)

DateTime

TextBox

The PropertyGridEditorPart class has a Title property, which is used to get or set the visible title text for the control. There is also a protected Display property, which determines whether the control is displayed when the page enters edit mode.

The PropertyGridEditorPart class also has two important methods, ApplyChanges and SyncChanges, which it inherits from the EditorPart class and overrides. The methods are critical because they enable getting and setting the property values between the field values of the editor control and the properties on the WebPart control being edited.

Because the PropertyGridEditorPart control allows you to edit only custom properties, you will need the other EditorPart controls in the Web Parts control set to edit the appearance, layout, and behavior of WebPart controls. The other controls include the BehaviorEditorPart, the LayoutEditorPart, and the AppearanceEditorPart controls. These EditorPart controls should provide most editing features required to edit WebPart controls, but if necessary, you can also create a custom editor control by inheriting from the EditorPart class. For a code example, see the EditorPart class overview topic.

NoteNote:

To improve accessibility, the PropertyGridEditorPart control is rendered within a <fieldset> element. The <fieldset> element groups the related set of controls used for editing in the PropertyGridEditorPart control, and it facilitates tabbed navigation among those controls for both visual user agents (such as ordinary Web browsers) and speech-oriented user agents (such as screen-reading software).

Accessibility

The markup rendered by default for this control might not conform to accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) priority 1 guidelines. For details about accessibility support for this control, see ASP.NET Controls and Accessibility.

TopicLocation
How to: Set the Display Mode of a Web Parts PageBuilding ASP .NET Web Applications
How to: Set the Display Mode of a Web Parts PageBuilding ASP .NET Web Applications
How to: Set the Display Mode of a Web Parts PageBuilding ASP .NET Web Applications in Visual Studio
How to: Set the Display Mode of a Web Parts PageBuilding ASP .NET Web Applications in Visual Studio

The following code example demonstrates how to declare a PropertyGridEditorPart control on a Web page, and enable it to edit several UI properties of a WebPart control. The code example has four parts:

  • A user control that enables you to change display modes on a Web Parts page.

  • A Web page that contains an EditorZone control and a PropertyGridEditorPart control, along with a reference to a custom WebPart control.

  • A class that contains the custom WebPart control.

  • An explanation of how the example works when you load the page in a browser.

The source code for the user control comes from another topic. For this code example to work, you need to obtain the .ascx file for the user control from the Walkthrough: Changing Display Modes on a Web Parts Page topic, and place the file in the same folder as the .aspx page in this code example.

The second part of the code example is the Web page. It contains a declarative reference to an EditorZone control, with a child <zonetemplate> element that contains a declarative reference to a PropertyGridEditorPart control. The page references the custom WebPart control, using a Register directive for the assembly, and the <aspSample:UserInfoWebPart> element for the control.

Visual Basic
<%@ page language="VB" %>
<%@ register TagPrefix="uc1" 
  TagName="DisplayModeMenuVB" 
  Src="DisplayModeMenuVB.ascx" %>
<%@ register tagprefix="aspSample" 
  Namespace="Samples.AspNet.VB.Controls" 
  Assembly="UserInfoWebPartVB" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<script runat="server">

  Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
    Button1.Visible = False
    TextBox1.Visible = False
  End Sub

  Shared editControlTitle As String

  Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
    editControlTitle = Server.HtmlEncode(TextBox1.Text)
    PropertyGridEditorPart1.Title = editControlTitle 
  End Sub

  Protected Sub PropertyGridEditorPart1_Init(ByVal _
    sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
    If Not editControlTitle Is Nothing Then
      PropertyGridEditorPart1.Title = editControlTitle
    End If
  End Sub

  Protected Sub PropertyGridEditorPart1_PreRender(ByVal _
    sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
    Button1.Visible = True
    TextBox1.Visible = True
  End Sub

</script>
<html  >
  <head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title>
      User Information WebPart with EditorPart
    </title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
      <asp:webpartmanager id="WebPartManager1" runat="server"  />
      <uc1:DisplayModeMenuVB ID="DisplayModeMenu1" runat="server" />
      <asp:webpartzone id="zone1" runat="server" >
        <PartTitleStyle BorderWidth="1" 
          Font-Names="Verdana, Arial"
          Font-Size="110%"
          BackColor="LightBlue" />
        <zonetemplate>
          <aspSample:UserInfoWebPart 
            runat="server"   
            id="userinfo" 
            title = "User Information WebPart"
            BackColor="Beige" />          
        </zonetemplate>
      </asp:webpartzone> 
      <div>
      <hr />
      <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" 
        Text="Update EditorPart Title" 
        OnClick="Button1_Click" />
      <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
      </div>
      <asp:EditorZone ID="EditorZone1" runat="server">
        <ZoneTemplate>
          <asp:PropertyGridEditorPart ID="PropertyGridEditorPart1" 
            runat="server" 
            Title="Edit Custom Properties"
            OnPreRender="PropertyGridEditorPart1_PreRender" 
            OnInit="PropertyGridEditorPart1_Init" />   
        </ZoneTemplate>
      </asp:EditorZone>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>
C#
<%@ page language="c#" %>
<%@ register TagPrefix="uc1" 
  TagName="DisplayModeMenuCS" 
  Src="DisplayModeMenuCS.ascx" %>
<%@ register tagprefix="aspSample" 
  Namespace="Samples.AspNet.CS.Controls" 
  Assembly="UserInfoWebPartCS" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<script runat="server">

  protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    Button1.Visible = false;
    TextBox1.Visible = false;
  }

  private static String editControlTitle;

  protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    editControlTitle = Server.HtmlEncode(TextBox1.Text);
    PropertyGridEditorPart1.Title = editControlTitle;
  }

  protected void PropertyGridEditorPart1_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    if (editControlTitle != null)
      PropertyGridEditorPart1.Title = editControlTitle;
  }  

  protected void PropertyGridEditorPart1_PreRender(object sender,
    EventArgs e)
  {
    Button1.Visible = true;
    TextBox1.Visible = true;
  }

</script>
<html  >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>
      User Information WebPart with EditorPart
    </title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
      <asp:webpartmanager id="WebPartManager1" runat="server"  />
      <uc1:DisplayModeMenuCS ID="DisplayModeMenu1" runat="server" />
      <asp:webpartzone id="zone1" runat="server" >
        <PartTitleStyle BorderWidth="1" 
          Font-Names="Verdana, Arial"
          Font-Size="110%"
          BackColor="LightBlue" />
        <zonetemplate>
          <aspSample:UserInfoWebPart 
            runat="server"   
            id="userinfo" 
            title = "User Information WebPart"
            BackColor="Beige" />          
        </zonetemplate>
      </asp:webpartzone> 
      <div>
      <hr />
      <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" 
        Text="Update EditorPart Title" 
        OnClick="Button1_Click" />
      <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
      </div>
      <asp:EditorZone ID="EditorZone1" runat="server">
        <ZoneTemplate>
          <asp:PropertyGridEditorPart ID="PropertyGridEditorPart1" 
            runat="server" 
            Title="Edit Custom Properties"
            OnPreRender="PropertyGridEditorPart1_PreRender" 
            OnInit="PropertyGridEditorPart1_Init" />   
        </ZoneTemplate>
      </asp:EditorZone>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

The third part of the code example is a custom WebPart class named UserInfoWebPart, which is referenced in the Web page. Notice that the various properties that contain information about a user are all marked with the WebBrowsable attribute. This enables the PropertyGridEditorPart control to provide the UI for editing those properties. The properties are also marked with a WebDisplayName attribute, to specify the text of the label that appears next to each control in the editing UI.

For the code example to run, you must compile this source code. You can compile it explicitly and put the resulting assembly in your Web site's Bin folder or the global assembly cache. Alternatively, you can put the source code in your site's App_Code folder, where it will be dynamically compiled at run time. For a walkthrough that demonstrates how to compile, see Walkthrough: Developing and Using a Custom Server Control.

Security noteSecurity Note:

This example has a text box that accepts user input, which is a potential security threat. By default, ASP.NET Web pages validate that user input does not include script or HTML elements. For more information, see Script Exploits Overview.

Visual Basic
Imports System
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.ComponentModel
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Security.Permissions
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Web.UI
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts

Namespace Samples.AspNet.VB.Controls

  <AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, _
    Level:=AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)> _
  <AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, _
    Level:=AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)> _
  Public Class UserInfoWebPart
    Inherits WebPart
    Private server As HttpServerUtility = HttpContext.Current.Server
    Private _userNickName As String = "Add a nickname."
    Private _userPetName As String = "Add a pet name."
    Private _userSpecialDate As DateTime = DateTime.Now
    Private _userIsCurrent As [Boolean] = True
    Private _userJobType As JobTypeName = JobTypeName.Unselected

    Public Enum JobTypeName
      Unselected = 0
      Support = 1
      Service = 2
      Professional = 3
      Technical = 4
      Manager = 5
      Executive = 6
    End Enum

    Private NickNameLabel As Label
    Private PetNickNameLabel As Label
    Private SpecialDateLabel As Label
    Private IsCurrentCheckBox As CheckBox
    Private JobTypeLabel As Label

    ' Add the Personalizable and WebBrowsable attributes to the  
    ' public properties, so that users can save property values  
    ' and edit them with a PropertyGridEditorPart control.

    <Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Nickname")> _
    Public Property NickName() As String
      Get
        Dim o As Object = ViewState("NickName")
        If Not (o Is Nothing) Then
          Return CStr(o)
        Else
          Return _userNickName
        End If
      End Get
      Set(ByVal value As String)
        _userNickName = server.HtmlEncode(value)
      End Set
    End Property

    <Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Pet Name")> _
    Public Property PetName() As String
      Get
        Dim o As Object = ViewState("PetName")
        If Not (o Is Nothing) Then
          Return CStr(o)
        Else
          Return _userPetName
        End If
      End Get
      Set(ByVal value As String)
        _userPetName = server.HtmlEncode(value)
      End Set
    End Property

    <Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Special Day")> _
    Public Property SpecialDay() As DateTime
      Get
        Dim o As Object = ViewState("SpecialDay")
        If Not (o Is Nothing) Then
          Return CType(o, DateTime)
        Else
          Return _userSpecialDate
        End If
      End Get

      Set(ByVal value As DateTime)
        _userSpecialDate = value
      End Set
    End Property

    <Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Job Type"), _
      WebDescription("Select the category that corresponds to your job.")> _
    Public Property UserJobType() As JobTypeName
      Get
        Dim o As Object = ViewState("UserJobType")
        If Not (o Is Nothing) Then
          Return CType(o, JobTypeName)
        Else
          Return _userJobType
        End If
      End Get
      Set(ByVal value As JobTypeName)
        _userJobType = CType(value, JobTypeName)
      End Set
    End Property

    <Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Is Current")> _
    Public Property IsCurrent() As [Boolean]
      Get
        Dim o As Object = ViewState("IsCurrent")
        If Not (o Is Nothing) Then
          Return CType(o, [Boolean])
        Else
          Return _userIsCurrent
        End If
      End Get
      Set(ByVal value As [Boolean])
        _userIsCurrent = value
      End Set
    End Property

    Protected Overrides Sub CreateChildControls()
      Controls.Clear()

      NickNameLabel = New Label()
      NickNameLabel.Text = Me.NickName
      SetControlAttributes(NickNameLabel)

      PetNickNameLabel = New Label()
      PetNickNameLabel.Text = Me.PetName
      SetControlAttributes(PetNickNameLabel)

      SpecialDateLabel = New Label()
      SpecialDateLabel.Text = Me.SpecialDay.ToShortDateString()
      SetControlAttributes(SpecialDateLabel)

      IsCurrentCheckBox = New CheckBox()
      IsCurrentCheckBox.Checked = Me.IsCurrent
      SetControlAttributes(IsCurrentCheckBox)

      JobTypeLabel = New Label()
      JobTypeLabel.Text = Me.UserJobType.ToString()
      SetControlAttributes(JobTypeLabel)

      ChildControlsCreated = True

    End Sub

    Private Sub SetControlAttributes(ByVal ctl As WebControl)
      ctl.BackColor = Color.White
      ctl.BorderWidth = 1
      ctl.Width = 200
      Me.Controls.Add(ctl)
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub RenderContents(ByVal writer As HtmlTextWriter)
      writer.Write("Nickname:")
      writer.WriteBreak()
      NickNameLabel.RenderControl(writer)
      writer.WriteBreak()
      writer.Write("Pet Name:")
      writer.WriteBreak()
      PetNickNameLabel.RenderControl(writer)
      writer.WriteBreak()
      writer.Write("Special Date:")
      writer.WriteBreak()
      SpecialDateLabel.RenderControl(writer)
      writer.WriteBreak()
      writer.Write("Job Type:")
      writer.WriteBreak()
      JobTypeLabel.RenderControl(writer)
      writer.WriteBreak()
      writer.Write("Current:")
      writer.WriteBreak()
      IsCurrentCheckBox.RenderControl(writer)

    End Sub

  End Class

End Namespace
C#
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

namespace Samples.AspNet.CS.Controls
{
  [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.Demand,
    Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
  [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand,
    Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
  public class UserInfoWebPart : WebPart
  {
    HttpServerUtility server = HttpContext.Current.Server;
    private String _userNickName = "Add a nickname.";
    private String _userPetName = "Add a pet name.";
    private DateTime _userSpecialDate = DateTime.Now;
    private Boolean _userIsCurrent = true;
    private JobTypeName _userJobType = JobTypeName.Unselected;
    public enum JobTypeName
    {
      Unselected = 0,
      Support = 1,
      Service = 2,
      Professional = 3, 
      Technical = 4,
      Manager = 5,
      Executive = 6
    }
    Label NickNameLabel;
    Label PetNickNameLabel;
    Label SpecialDateLabel;
    CheckBox IsCurrentCheckBox;
    Label JobTypeLabel;

    // Add the Personalizable and WebBrowsable attributes to the  
    // public properties, so that users can save property values  
    // and edit them with a PropertyGridEditorPart control.
    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable, WebDisplayName("Nickname")]
    public String NickName
    {
      get 
      { 
        object o = ViewState["NickName"];
        if (o != null)
          return (string)o;
        else
          return _userNickName;        
      } 

      set { _userNickName = server.HtmlEncode(value); }
    }

    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable, WebDisplayName("Pet Name")]
    public String PetName
    {
      get 
      { 
        object o = ViewState["PetName"];
        if (o != null)
          return (string)o;
        else
          return _userPetName;        
      }

      set { _userPetName = server.HtmlEncode(value); }
    }

    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Special Day")]
    public DateTime SpecialDay
    {
      get
      {
        object o = ViewState["SpecialDay"];
        if (o != null)
          return (DateTime)o;
        else
          return _userSpecialDate;

      }

      set { _userSpecialDate = value; }
    }

    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Job Type"), 
      WebDescription("Select the category that corresponds to your job.")]
    public JobTypeName UserJobType
    {
      get
      {
        object o = ViewState["UserJobType"];
        if (o != null)
          return (JobTypeName)o;
        else
          return _userJobType;
      }

      set { _userJobType = (JobTypeName)value; }
    }

    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable(), WebDisplayName("Is Current")]
    public Boolean IsCurrent
    {
      get
      {
        object o = ViewState["IsCurrent"];
        if (o != null)
          return (Boolean)o;
        else
          return _userIsCurrent;
      }

      set { _userIsCurrent = value; }
    }


    protected override void CreateChildControls()
    {
      Controls.Clear();

      NickNameLabel = new Label();
      NickNameLabel.Text = this.NickName;
      SetControlAttributes(NickNameLabel);

      PetNickNameLabel = new Label();
      PetNickNameLabel.Text = this.PetName;
      SetControlAttributes(PetNickNameLabel);

      SpecialDateLabel = new Label();
      SpecialDateLabel.Text = this.SpecialDay.ToShortDateString();
      SetControlAttributes(SpecialDateLabel);

      IsCurrentCheckBox = new CheckBox();
      IsCurrentCheckBox.Checked = this.IsCurrent;
      SetControlAttributes(IsCurrentCheckBox);

      JobTypeLabel = new Label();
      JobTypeLabel.Text = this.UserJobType.ToString();
      SetControlAttributes(JobTypeLabel);

      ChildControlsCreated = true;

    }

    private void SetControlAttributes(WebControl ctl)
    {
      ctl.BackColor = Color.White;
      ctl.BorderWidth = 1;
      ctl.Width = 200;
      this.Controls.Add(ctl);
    }

    protected override void RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer)
    {
      writer.Write("Nickname:");
      writer.WriteBreak();
      NickNameLabel.RenderControl(writer);
      writer.WriteBreak();
      writer.Write("Pet Name:");
      writer.WriteBreak();
      PetNickNameLabel.RenderControl(writer);
      writer.WriteBreak();
      writer.Write("Special Date:");
      writer.WriteBreak();
      SpecialDateLabel.RenderControl(writer);
      writer.WriteBreak();
      writer.Write("Job Type:");
      writer.WriteBreak();
      JobTypeLabel.RenderControl(writer);
      writer.WriteBreak();
      writer.Write("Current:");
      writer.WriteBreak();
      IsCurrentCheckBox.RenderControl(writer);
    }
  }
}

When you load the page in a browser, select Edit Mode in the Display Mode drop-down list control to switch to edit mode. You can click the verbs menu (the downward arrow) in the title bar of the User Information WebPart control, and click Edit to edit the control. When the editing UI is visible, you can see the PropertyGridEditorPart control. Notice that a control is rendered for each of the properties of the UserInfoWebPart class, based on the type of the property. If you make some changes in the editing UI and click the Apply button, you can use the Display Mode drop-down list to return the page to browse mode and see the full effect of the editing changes.

System..::.Object
  System.Web.UI..::.Control
    System.Web.UI.WebControls..::.WebControl
      System.Web.UI.WebControls..::.Panel
        System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts..::.Part
          System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts..::.EditorPart
            System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts..::.PropertyGridEditorPart
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0
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