Introduction
Windows Forms DataGrid as supplied supports two column types:
DataGridTextBoxColumn for editing Strings and
DataGridBoolColumn for editing Booleans.
Of course, the Windows Forms Library developers realized that this would not be sufficient, so they provided a base class (DataGridColumnStyle) that can be used to implement additional column types. This article discusses the enhancement of the DataGrid with new column types to allow the editing of a wide range of data types. The source for these enhancements is released to the public domain as part of the SekosPD.Windows.Forms library.
Demo Application
The screen grab above shows a simple demonstration application that allows the input of the contributors for a set of scientific fields. The DataSet schema is shown below. Each contributor has a photo column and a number of property columns for dates of birth and death and colour code.
To keep the sample simple, the data is persisted by writing the DataSet to disk as an XmlDocument. In a real application, DataSet changes would of course be persisted to a Data Tier - probably a database such as Microsoft SQL Server.
New Column Styles
For this demo, we'll be augmenting the column types with:
DataGridDataPictureColumn for editing Pictures and
DataGridPropertyEditorColumn for editing pretty well any other data type.
Because the AgileStudio product from which this code is derived is an add-in for Visual Studio, it is able to override the standard collection editor for ColumnStyles. Thus, the Add dropdown lists all the column styles available. Indeed, the designer is also overridden to allow columns to be added to a DataGrid with Drag and Drop.
Because the demo in this article is standalone, you will only see the two standard column styles in your editor and will have to manually add the appropriate code. (One way to do this is to add a standard DataGridTextBoxColumn and then change its type afterwards in the code window. Once you have done this, you will be able to change properties such as Mapping in the editor.) If you are interested in how to avoid this, let me know and I'll cover it in a subsequent article.
Friend WithEvents DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1 As _
SekosPD.Windows.Forms.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn
�
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1 = _
New SekosPD.Windows.Forms.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn
�
<System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()> Private Sub _
InitializeComponent()
�
'
'DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1
'
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1.HeaderText = "Born"
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1.MappingName = "Born"
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1.NullText = ""
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1.PropertyType = GetType(System.DateTime)
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1.UseStringAsUnderlyingType = False
Me.DataGridPropertyEditorColumn1.Width = 150
Editing Pictures
This is done by having a column of type DataGridDataPictureColumn. A right mouse click will bring up a context menu to allow the transfer of images via the clipboard or to allow the pasting of an image from a file.
Currently, ADO.NET only supports a small range of data types. For this reason, the picture field is encoded as base64Binary which is equivalent in .NET types to an array of byte. Internal functions ByteArrayToImage and ImageToByteArray handle the required conversions.
If you are using Microsoft SQL Server as your data tier, make sure you are handling base64 binary correctly. For example, if you are getting the data as XML, use a statement like the following:
SELECT ... FOR XML EXPLICIT,BINARY BASE64
Editing nearly any other Data Type
This is accomplished by having a column of type DataGirdPropertyEditorColumn. The DataGridPropertyEditorColumns in this example makes use of two editors - one for System.DateTime and one for System.Drawing.Color. Both these were implemented by Microsoft as DropDowns. This is the most common method, but editors for some types, for example, System.Drawing.Font, are implemented as Popup Dialogs.
The really nice thing is that there are dozens of UITypeEditors and TypeConverters included with .NET as standard. These are needed to drive the PropertyGrid that is used to edit properties in Visual Studio. You get to leverage all this functionality with almost no work. Just set the PropertyType property in your column as appropriate and everything else is automatic. It is also fairly easy to implement a TypeConverter and UITypeEditor for a type that you have written yourself.
There is one other property of DataGridPropertyEditorColumn that is important to mention: UseStringAsUnderlyingType. This should be set to true when binding to a DataSet if the type that you are binding is not one of the types supported by DataSet (For example, System.DateTime is supported, but System.Drawing.Color is not.) If you are binding to a different data source that does not have this restriction, you can always set UseStringAsUnderlyingType to false for more efficient data transfer.
Points of Interest
DataGridDataPictureColumn and DataGridPropertyEditorColumn employ DataPicture and PropertyEditor internally to handle a cell in edit mode. Both these controls can be used independently outside the DataGrid using standard simple data binding.
The source code for the SekosPD.Windows.Forms library is released to the public domain and is available here. Reference style documentation for the library source will be available here. You may also want to read the article "Edit Almost Anything - Part I", which examines other controls as well as the DataGrid.
The code released with this article is based on a portion of the AgileStudio product, which extends Visual Studio. Check out the free evaluation here which automatically maintains the datasets and SQL StoreProcs required for a specific user interface (for Windows or Web applications).
Conclusion
The code in this article is currently in VB.NET. If you would like a version in C#, let me know. I would also like to examine some of the really neat things that you can do with UITypeEditors including CollectionEditors to make the DataGridPropertyEditorColumn really fly. If you would like an article about this, get in touch.
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 | How to do this in Visual C++.net 2003
minad_786 | 2:50 21 Feb '07 |
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Hello,
Could anyone please tell me how
to do a similar thing (as stated in the original article) using Visual C++.net 2003.
Thank you.
Minad
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 | VC++.net 2003 and excel 2002
minad_786 | 2:50 24 Nov '06 |
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Hello,
I am trying to copy contents of excel file
to a datagrid(at run time) but all the contents are getting pasted in
the first cell.
How to overcome this.
Please help.
Mina.
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Hi,
I also want to write some records to excel file. I invoke ODBC API to write, but always fail. did You ever meet the same problem? Can u help me?
Please help
thanks
Haiwen.
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| Converting to VS 2005
RobertPhoenix | 14:59 20 Nov '06 |
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I wonder if anyone has had success converting this project to VS 2005
When I tried it the conversion everything appeared to go OK without any errors.
The first problem I saw was trying to open form1.vb
"One or more errors encountered while loading the designer. The errors are listed below. Some errors can be fixed by rebuilding your project, while others may require code changes."
"The designer cannot process the code at line 160: Me.DataGridDataPictureColumn1.HeaderText = "Picture" The code within the method 'InitializeComponent' is generated by the designer and should not be manually modified. Please remove any changes and try opening the designer again."
I also got a lot of errors in the error window, but that was fixed by creating a reference to SekosPD.Windows.Forms in the project "DataGridSample" Somehow that reference seemed to be lost during the conversion to VS 2005
After making that change the project will compile and run.
However, it is not so easy to examine the structure when the Form designer won't display.
Any suggestions?
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| Need help on Windows forms Datagrid control -- Urgent
reddy4all | 8:48 9 Nov '06 |
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Hi-
Is there any possiblity to make Datagrid control (Winforms) column header sort arrow more prominent in .net 2003. In Windows forms Datagrid control, when user click on the column header, default sort arrow will appear but i want to replace it by another image or bitmap file. Is there any possiblity or any methods to override, so that we can place different arrow or image on the datagrid contol column header sort arrow look more prominent?
Thanks in advance...
Thanks
Sunny
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| Thanks and vertical alignment
dsk3037 | 20:10 19 Jul '06 |
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I figured someone had to have done this already - thanks a lot!
There are a couple issues if you use the DataGridPropertyEditor column to display a type whose Editor doesn't support painting. First, those columns displayed nothing. I traced it to what appears to be a missing "else" in the DrawData method of PropertyEditor - it seemed to me it should read
if( mEditor != null && mPaintValueSupported )
{
...
}
else
{
g.DrawString( ... )
}
Second, the string is drawn at the top of the cell instead of in the center, which is easily corrected in the Paint method of DataGridPropertyEditorColumn by adding
format.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center;
Donald
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Thanks for the feedback Donald.
Next time I post a release, I'll make sure your fixes are included,
All the best,
Declan.
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| Visual Studio version
doby1 | 6:14 9 May '06 |
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What version of visual studio does this compile for? I am working on 2003 edition.
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It was written pre VS-2005 so you should have no problems. It is likely to port to VS-2005 with little or no change however.
Declan Brennan
Chief Architect
Sekos Technology Ltd
www.sekos.com
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I am getting the following error upon compiling:
The designer must create an instance of type 'System.Windows.Forms.DataGridColumnStyle' but it cannot because the type is declared as abstract.
Any suggestions?
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Are you getting this message as a compile time error or when you try to open a form design for a particular file?
If so which file.
If its not a compile time error, are you able to run the sample?
Thanks,
Declan.
Declan Brennan
Chief Architect
Sekos Technology Ltd
www.sekos.com
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I unzipped your file, and put them in their own directory, then started a new project at that directory.
The error occurs when I open the project. Double clicking on the error takes me to the top of GridColumnStyles.cs.
If i "F5" the solution, it successfully builds with no error and no warning. But the solution does not show the data grid. It has three records "quantium mechanics" but the data grid stands idle.
I opened the datagrid while in design mode to look at the table/column settings and found there were no columns defined.
I am very new to C# programming and it's likely that my compiler setup is wrong, or has not been patched propery, or some other macro error.
T
-- modified at 10:43 Thursday 11th May, 2006
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| insert some control(combobox)????
tvphuong05 | 23:50 10 Apr '06 |
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???i want insert control combobox -> a cell on datagrid????
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| Check value cell
tvphuong05 | 23:47 10 Apr '06 |
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check value a cell after pointer leave?????
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| qestion
tvphuong05 | 23:30 10 Apr '06 |
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i don't run project....error :not install ....cssprj
?????
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| c#
kirkegor | 5:11 22 Nov '05 |
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Could you please send me the same project with c# if you have.
Thanks
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| Re: c#
Declan Brennan | 7:41 22 Nov '05 |
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The underlying library is written in C#. It is just the demo that is written in VB.NET. The languages are very similar so you shouldn't have too many problems figuring out what is going on. If at some time in the future, I get the time to convert the demo to C#, I will of course post it on Code Project.
Declan Brennan
Chief Architect
Sekos Technology Ltd
www.sekos.com
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| image from sql server
kirkegor | 5:35 16 Nov '05 |
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Can I show the pictures which are saved as images to the sql server on the datagrid
Thanks
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In a word yes.
When producing your select statement make sure you append "FOR BINARY BASE 64". For example, try the free download of AgileStudio from www.sekos.com and look at the store procs it automatically generates. There are also subtleties in Data Set schema production and updating rows in SqlServer that are handled automatically among many other things.
Declan Brennan
Chief Architect
Sekos Technology Ltd
www.sekos.com
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| image from sql server
kirkegor | 5:35 16 Nov '05 |
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Can I show the pictures which are saved as images to the sql server on the datagrid
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Hi can you give me the solution for the same problem of populating images in the datagrid from the SQL Server?? I am able to populate it elsewhere byut not on a datagrid...
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| image from sql server
kirkegor | 5:29 16 Nov '05 |
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Thanks a lot for yor code.I want to ask if I can use an sql server which includes a column as image(byte[]) to show in the datagrid.I mean i want to show the pictures on the datagrid.
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| SekosPD.Windows.Forms in VB.Net
HarSha99 | 23:26 16 Sep '05 |
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SekosPD.Windows.Forms is written in VC, is it available in VB.Net
Thanks for your future answer and also for excellent article.
Hardik Shah
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It is not currently available in VB.NET. However if you're used to VB.NET, you won't have too much difficulty understanding C#. The languages have a huge amount in common.
Declan.
Declan Brennan
Chief Architect
Sekos Technology Ltd
www.sekos.com
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Last Updated 27 Feb 2005 |
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