Adding controls to WinForms form designer using code

AlterNET Studio Support
1

Hi,

How can I create WinForms controls and inject them unto the design surface of the form designer via code. A demo program will be very much appreciated.

Thanks

2

I’ve got it working with the following:

var host = formDesignerControl1.DesignerHost;
var form = host.RootComponent as Form;
var button = (Button)host.CreateComponent(typeof(Button), "Button1");
button.Text = "Button1";
button.Parent = form;

Is this the recommended way or are there better ways?

Thanks

3

Yes, you are correct.

In case you may need it, below is an additional code snippet. It shows how to assign an auto-generated component name to the newly created component. Also it shows how to initialize it with a custom designer’s IComponentInitializer, if any.

private T AddNewComponent<T>(IDesignerHost host)
{
	var ncs = (INameCreationService)host.GetService(typeof(INameCreationService));
	var obj = (T)host.CreateComponent(typeof(T), ncs.CreateName(host.Container, typeof(T)));
	(host.GetDesigner((IComponent)obj) as IComponentInitializer)?.InitializeNewComponent(null);
	return obj;
}
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