How to Add a Smart-Tag to a User Control

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Introduction

This is my first article on this site and I hope it will help somebody. This is a three step sample to get a Smart-Tag in your own UserControl. My intention is to show how to do it, not get into detail in every part of the code.

Background

For this exercise, I made a Textbox control with an extra property to accept numbers only. Please remember that the scope of this code is how to get the smart-tag, not the property on the textbox.

Using the Code

For this exercise, you must be sure to include the references to System.dll, System.Windows.Forms.dll, System.Design.dll and System.Drawing.dll.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel.Design;
using System.Collections;
using System.Reflection;

OK, let's get started with it:

You will write three classes in the same Usercontrol namespace:

Step 1

Write the TextBox class, including properties and private fields.

You must have typed something like this:

[Designer(typeof(TxTNumCocDesigner))]
public partial class TxTNumCoc : System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
{
#region Campos de la Clase
    private bool Numbered = false;
#endregion
#region Constructores de la Clase
    public TxTNumCoc()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
#endregion
#region Propiedades de la Clase
    [Category("Special properties")]
    [Description("Limits to only numbers capture")]
    public bool SoloNumeros
    {
        get  {return this.Numbered;}
        set{this.Numbered = value;}
    }
#endregion
#region Eventos de la Clase
    private void TxTNumCoc_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
    {
        if (this.Numbered == true)
        {
            if (Char.IsNumber(e.KeyChar))
            {
                e.Handled = false;
            }
            if (Char.IsLetter(e.KeyChar))
            {
                e.Handled = true;
            }
            if (Char.IsPunctuation(e.KeyChar))
            {
                e.Handled = true;
            }
        }
    }
#endregion
}

Step 2

Now write the Designer for the Textbox and the support for the Smart-tag.  You must have something like this:

[System.Security.Permissions.PermissionSet(
    System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Demand, Name = "FullTrust")]
public class TxTNumCocDesigner : System.Windows.Forms.Design.ControlDesigner
{
#region Campos de la Clase
    private DesignerActionListCollection actionList;
#endregion
#region Propiedades de la Clase
    public override DesignerActionListCollection ActionLists
    {
        get
        {
            if (null == actionList)
            {
                actionList = new DesignerActionListCollection();
                actionList.Add(new TxTNumCocActionList(this.Component));
            }
            return actionList;
        }
    }
#endregion
}

Step 3

Now write the definition of the smart-tag entries and actions. You must have something like this:

public class TxTNumCocActionList : System.ComponentModel.Design.DesignerActionList
{
#region Fields of the Class
    private TxTNumCoc txtCoc;
    private DesignerActionUIService designerActionUISvc = null;
#endregion
#region Constructors of the Class
    public TxTNumCocActionList(IComponent component)
        : base(component)
    {
        this.txtCoc = component as TxTNumCoc;
        this.designerActionUISvc =
            GetService(typeof(DesignerActionUIService))
            as DesignerActionUIService;
    }
#endregion
#region Properties of the Class
    public bool SoloNumeros
    {
        get{return txtCoc.SoloNumeros;}
        set
        {
            GetPropertyByName("SoloNumeros").SetValue(txtCoc, value);
            this.designerActionUISvc.Refresh(this.Component);
        }
    }
#endregion
#region Method of the class
    private PropertyDescriptor GetPropertyByName(string propName)

    {
        PropertyDescriptor prop;
        prop = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(txtCoc)[propName];
        if (null == prop)
            throw new ArgumentException(
            "Property not found!",
            propName);
        else
            return prop;
    }
    public override DesignerActionItemCollection GetSortedActionItems()
    {
        DesignerActionItemCollection items = new DesignerActionItemCollection();
        items.Add(new DesignerActionHeaderItem("Apariencia"));
        items.Add(new DesignerActionHeaderItem("Información"));
        items.Add(new DesignerActionPropertyItem
	("SoloNumeros", "Sólo Números", "Apariencia", 
	"Limita el uso del TextBox a solo números"));
        StringBuilder location = new StringBuilder("Location: ");
        location.Append(txtCoc.Location);
        StringBuilder size = new StringBuilder("Size: ");
        size.Append(txtCoc.Size);
        items.Add(new DesignerActionTextItem(location.ToString(), "Información"));
        items.Add(new DesignerActionTextItem(size.ToString(), "Información"));
        return items;
    }
#endregion
#region Events of the class
#endregion
}

Any comments are welcome.

History

• 9^th October, 2008: Initial post