AttributeProviderAttribute Class
Enables attribute redirection. This class cannot be inherited.
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
There are a few cases in the .NET Framework object model where a property is purposely typed to be vague. For example, the DataGridView.DataSource property is typed as object. The reason for this is that this property can accept several types of input. Unfortunately, this provides no common place to add metadata to describe the characteristics of the property. Each DataSource property throughout the .NET Framework needs to have identical metadata for type converters, UI type editors, and other services that require metadata. The AttributeProviderAttribute remedies this situation.
Once this attribute is placed on a property, the rules for obtaining attributes for the property descriptor's MemberDescriptor.Attributes collection differ. Typically, the property descriptor gathers local attributes, and then merges these with attributes from the property type. In this case, the attributes are taken from the type returned from the AttributeProviderAttribute, not from the actual property type. This attribute is used on DataGridView.DataSource to point the DataGridView.DataSource object's specific type to IListSource, and the appropriate metadata is placed on IListSource to enable data binding. In so doing, external parties can easily add metadata to all data sources.
Attributes obtained from a type declared in the AttributeProviderAttribute have a priority in between the attributes of the property’s type and the attributes on the property. The following list, in priority order, shows the full set of available merged attributes:
Property Attributes
Attribute Provider Attributes
Property Type Attributes
The following code example demonstrates using AttributeProviderAttribute to mark a DataSource property with a specific type of IListSource. For a full code listing, see How to: Apply Attributes in Windows Forms Controls.
<Category("Data"), _ Description("Indicates the source of data for the control."), _ RefreshProperties(RefreshProperties.Repaint), _ AttributeProvider(GetType(IListSource))> _ Public Property DataSource() As Object Get Return Me.dataGridView1.DataSource End Get Set(ByVal value As Object) Me.dataGridView1.DataSource = value End Set End Property
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.