CodeProject: How to Clone/Serialize/Copy & Paste a Windows Forms Control. Free source code and programming help

In the .NET environment, the System.Windows.Forms.Control class and all the concrete controls derived from it don�t have clone methods and they are not serializable. So there is no immediate way to clone, serialize, or copy & paste them.

This article presents an all-purpose approach to let you clone, serialize, or copy & paste a Windows Forms control through serializing its properties.

Background

Recently, I was doing some UI programming with C#. One problem I met is that I can not clone or copy & paste a Windows Forms control directly because the System.Windows.Forms.Control class is neither serializable nor does it have a Clone method. After searching the internet and reading James and Nish�s articles, Clipboard Handling with .NET (Part I, Part II), I came up with my own approach to copy & paste a Windows Forms control by serializing its properties.

Using the code

Using the code in the sample application to clone/serialize/copy & paste a Windows Forms control is very simple. The static methods to do serialization and deserialization are wrapped in the ControlFactory class.

Copy & Paste a control

Clone a control

Implementation Details

When you clone/paste a control, the ControlFactory creates a new control through reflection, with the class name and namespace (partialName) passed to it.

If the new control is successfully created, ControlFactory then sets the properties of the new control with the property values it had retrieved from the original control.

In .NET clipboard programming, to create a custom format that uses a class, you must make the class serializable, that is it needs to have the Serializable attribute applied to it. CBFormCtrl is such a custom data format, it also uses a hash table to store the serializable properties.

Points of Interest

I�ve tested this approach with almost all the Windows Forms controls, it works fine with most of them. Unfortunately, when I copy & paste a ListView/ListBox/CheckedListBox or a TreeView, their item data will be lost, that is because the �Items� property of a ListView/ListBox/CheckedListBox and the �Node� property of a TreeView are not serializable.

To completely copy & paste these controls with their item data, you need to do some extra handling of the �Items� property or the �Node� property. As a reference, you can look at Tom John�s article to see how to fully serialize a TreeView control.

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Actuall serialization is not working!

Fadik

4:07 15 Jul '09

Hi,

Thanks for the article, it certainly helped shed some light on reflection.
My question is that I am troubled by the meaning of "serialization" mentioned
in the article, because I am till this minute unsuccessful in actually serializing
the control.

CBFormCtrl has a Hashtable so this means that no xmlserialzer can take it (in .net 2.0)
I have replaced it with a custom implementation that is serializable but now
i am getting an error about the Color property not being serializable in the combobox or picturebox.

Any idea how to achieve actual serialization to file?

thanks

How I can save/read controls to file?

drinkmaker

12:43 21 Feb '09

Please help, How I can save controls to file and then read from? thanks!
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How about the TabControl

Sean_Miller

10:39 19 Feb '09

Is there a way to copy a TabControl with all of its TabPages? Nice article.
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Re: How about the TabControl [modified]

pataguillon

3:48 21 Jul '09

Here the code I added to manage TabControls cloning:

First, I created a new function to clone all controls for all pages:


public static Control CloneTabControl(TabControl origCtrl)
{
	TabControl oResult = new TabControl();
	foreach (TabPage page in origCtrl.TabPages)
	{
		TabPage newPage = new TabPage(page.Text);
		foreach (Control control in page.Controls)
		{
			Control ctrl = ControlFactory.CloneCtrl(control);
			newPage.Controls.Add(ctrl);
			ctrl.Show();
		}
		oResult.TabPages.Add(newPage);
	}
	return oResult;
}

Then, I changed the original code to get the TabControl in my new function like this :


public static Control CreateControl(string ctrlName,string partialName,Control original)
{
	try
	{
		Control ctrl;
		switch(ctrlName) 
		{				
			...

			case "TabControl":
				ctrl = CloneTabControl((TabControl)original);
				break;
		}		
		return ctrl; ...
	}
}

public static Control CloneCtrl(Control ctrl)
{
	...
	Control newCtrl = ControlFactory.CreateControl(cbCtrl.CtrlName,cbCtrl.PartialName,ctrl);
	...
}

public static Control GetCtrlFromClipBoard()
{
	...
	ctrl = ControlFactory.CreateControl(cbCtrl.CtrlName,cbCtrl.PartialName,null);
	...
}

Enjoy

modified on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:03 AM

Thank you very much it helped me a lot

SanShark

1:20 6 Feb '09

Thank you very much it helped me a lot

I created a function to clone a group of controls

private Control CopyProperties(Control ctSource)
{
Control ctNew = (Control)NewAs(ctSource.GetType());

PropertyDescriptorCollection p = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(ctSource);

Hashtable proplist = new Hashtable(p.Count);

foreach (PropertyDescriptor d in p)
{
//need to check this
if (d.PropertyType.IsSerializable)
{
proplist.Add(d.Name, d.GetValue(ctSource));
}
}

if (ctSource is ComboBox) // || ctSource is xpWinFormsControls.xpDropDown)
{
Object[] objItems = new Object[((ComboBox)ctSource).Items.Count];
((ComboBox)ctSource).Items.CopyTo(objItems, 0);
//for (int q = 0; q < c.Items.Count; c++)
//{
((ComboBox)ctNew).Items.AddRange(objItems);
//}
}

if (ctSource is xpWinFormsControls.xpDropDown)
{
Object[] objItems = new Object[((xpWinFormsControls.xpDropDown)ctSource).Items.Count];
((xpWinFormsControls.xpDropDown)ctSource).Items.CopyTo(objItems, 0);
//for (int q = 0; q < c.Items.Count; c++)
//{
((xpWinFormsControls.xpDropDown)ctNew).Items.AddRange(objItems);
//}
}

//This is Writtent here to avoide exception occured due to setting SelectedIndex more than 0
//When there are no any Items in Items collection .

//Get the properties collection from new created control.
PropertyDescriptorCollection pdNew = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(ctNew);

//Copy every property from hash table to this newly created property collection.
for (int h = 0; h < pdNew.Count; h++)
{
if (proplist.Contains(pdNew[h].Name))
{
try
{
pdNew[h].SetValue(ctNew, proplist[pdNew[h].Name]);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
continue;
}
}
}
return ctNew;
}

But I am unable to copy methods associated with this particular instance

Can you help me in this?

Tahnk you
Sandesh Daddi
http://sanshark.com

Thank you

hlmc

21:24 29 Apr '08

Thank you very much for your cloning function
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Copying data

Ajmeri

9:26 28 Feb '08

It works great, seems like it did copy all the properties, but waht baout data? How can we also copy the data. I have a user control that consists 3 datagridviews, when I make the clone, the data is not copied. What can I do to copy data in the correct cells of the datagrids? Thanks
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Just Great

shapez

3:58 22 Oct '07

Hi, Your Code works perfectly. I just wanna thank you Simply Copy'n'Paste'n'Working - like a dream. greez
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Assembly.LoadWithPartialName(string)' is obsolete

gajatko

9:03 26 Aug '07

Warning 5 'System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadWithPartialName(string)' is obsolete: 'This method has been deprecated. Please use Assembly.Load() instead. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=14202' ControlFactory.cs 59

Could u post some update? What should I correct?

Thanx in advce

Greetings - Gajatko

Portable.NET is part of DotGNU, a project to build a complete Free Software replacement for .NET - a system that truly belongs to the developers.

Serializing Widows.Forms in C#

SakthiSurya

21:24 29 Apr '07

Hi, My application has a Form which contains a data table,graph, and many other controls.I want to save the Form as it is at some point of time while the form is running. when i tried to serialize the form object i am getting an exception as System.Windows.Forms.Form is not marked as serilized. How can i rectify this error and save the form object. Regards, Sakthi
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A Suggestion

fonk666

11:27 5 Feb '07

If you add this code to the method CloneCtrl: foreach (Control child in ctrl.Controls) { newCtrl.Controls.Add(CloneCtrl(child)); } It will clone the children of the control, what is useful for copying containers such groupboxes. Thanks for your code!
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About Events ?

whithix

2:02 19 Sep '06

Your code works very well, but I've got a problem with Events. Indeed, if my control (a Label for example) has been subscribed to an event (eg MouseClick), the clone method doesn't copy that event in the new object. Have you got a solution to solve this problem ? Thank you very much ! Stéphane
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Re: About Events ?

lxwde

21:23 19 Sep '06

hi, to copy the event of a control, you need to rely on the CodeDOM solution, please refer to the implementation of SharpDevelop or find some info in msdn about CodeDOM. thanks.
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Using this code with personalized controls.

DoXiGen

6:10 29 Aug '06

Hi!

I tried to use this code with my extended control. For example I have a my usercontrol with 2 properties like this:

public Color BorderColor
{
get { border_color; }

set { border_color = value; }
}

public int BorderWidth
{
get { border_w; }

set { border_w = value; }
}

this properties is setted well but CloneCtrl simply display a rectangle with size and location correctly (this is default properties....) but don't show my border properties....

have a solution for this problem?

TNX!

Best regards!

Re: Using this code with personalized controls.

lxwde

17:05 29 Aug '06

Hi,
I've tested your problem with a usercongrol, the user-defined properties are copied correctly. You can observe the values to see if they are being copyied when debugging. If you want to show the properties in the VS propertygrid, try to add Browserable attribute like this:

[Browsable(true)]
public Color BorderColor
{
get { return border_color; }

set { border_color = value; }
}

hope it helps.

Re: Using this code with personalized controls.

Hotcut

0:48 17 Oct '06

there is one problem with personalized controls though - if they have a name like "Me.My.Label", they will not be copied, as your method only looks at the "last name" of the control (hence trying to create a Windows.Forms.Label). It was easy to fix though - remove the part of your code that switches on the name, and it is done. Apart from that, I think you have done a really good job.
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Serialization thoughts ...

BillWoodruff

18:46 13 Feb '06

Nice work. I've wondered if there are any facilities in the FrameWork that could be exploited for using reflection and whatever-other techniques at run-time to parse all the properties of a control and clone/serialize.

Would like to know more about what's under the hood in the IDE when you use it to copy a control at design-time.

best, Bill

"The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis

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Re: Serialization thoughts ...

lxwde

3:24 14 Feb '06

Hi Bill, I am also wondering how the VS.net IDE copy&paste a control at design time. What I can tell is that it copies/serializes not only the control properties, but also the non-property members. It is more like a memberwise clone. But I can not figure out how to accomplish that without relying on `System.Windows.Forms.Design` Maybe you can find some hint from SharpDevelop.
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Re: Serialization thoughts ...

Nigel Savidge

8:17 2 Mar '06

lxwde wrote: I am also wondering how the VS.net IDE copy&paste a control at design time. I assume it uses the CodeDom classes in the same way as it does when it "serializes" a control between editing sessions? Team Leader - Team Code Project[^]
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Re: Serialization thoughts ...

Frank Hileman

3:08 7 Mar '06

Hi, Yes, that is exactly how it works. The controls are serialized to a code stream and deserialized at the other end. Essentially it is a stream of text. VG.net works the same way. check out VG.net: www.vgdotnet.com An animated vector graphics system integrated in Visual Studio
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I wonder...

Super Lloyd

17:16 7 Feb '06

...where one would use that?
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Re: I wonder...

lxwde

17:37 7 Feb '06

Two scenarios I can think of are dynamic UI and runtime form edit. see google group search results: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=clone+control+C%23[^] http://groups.google.com/groups?q=serialize+control+C%23[^]
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Last Visit: 20:20 21 Nov '09 Last Update: 20:20 21 Nov '09

Introduction

Background

Using the code

Copy & Paste a control

Clone a control

Implementation Details

Points of Interest