Author Archives: Amr

Adding Auto Format for ASP.NET Custom Controls Design Time

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Amr

Back to design time support, but this time with ASP.NET server controls, most complex & simple controls built in the .NET framework are associated with an Auto Format.. link in the smart tag as the one shown in the figure, … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Time Support | 3 Comments

Extracting Icons from Files

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Amr

Update: This approach is only to show one of the hidden gems in the .net framework and not to steal copyrighted icons.Icons of other programs should only be used after owner approval. Have you ever seen a file with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Windows Forms | 3 Comments

Exploring GDI+ : Using The Brush

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Amr

One of the core classes in the GDI+ framework built in .Net is the Brush class. There are 5 types of Brushes in .Net that help you to color your objects by lot of variations the five types are as … Continue reading →

Posted in GDI + | 2 Comments

The ASP.NET Configuration Model

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Amr

ASP.NET as well as .NET applications have one more excellent feature, ASP.NET uses a flexible configuration management system that keeps the application configuration separate from application code. ASP.NET configuration is stored in XML files with the .config extension, which makes … Continue reading →

Posted in ASP.NET | Leave a comment

Custom Controls Design Time Support Part 15: Debugging Design Time

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Amr

This is final part of my series/tutorial on design time support, it was really fun writing it and hearing your comments and suggestions, I really learnt alot and hope you too had some experience in writing design time support for … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Time Support | 8 Comments

Custom Controls Design Time Support Part 14: Extra Property Tab

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Amr

The default PropetryWindow in the visual studio shows 2 Tabs one for properties and another for events. If one day you thought that you have set of members might be Properties that you need to put them in an extra … Continue reading →

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Custom Controls Design Time Support Part 13: Adding Snaplines

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Amr

Another new feature added in the Design Time Environment in visual studio 2005 and 2008 for windows forms and windows user controls designers is the Snaplines. What is a snapline? A snapline is a dynamically generated UI layout guide line. … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Time Support | 4 Comments

Custom Controls Design Time Support Part 12: Adding SmartTag

Posted on February 1, 2008 by Amr

One more advantage you get from building a custom designer for your custom controls is that you can add smart tag panel to add important most used properties and methods. What is a Smart Tag? SmartTag is one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Time Support | 4 Comments

Custom Controls Design Time Support Part 11: Designer Verbs

Posted on January 26, 2008 by Amr

This post is simple and neat, the goal now is to add some designer verbs, so lets get straight. What is a Designer Verb? A designer can use the DesignerVerb class to add menu commands to the shortcut menu for … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Time Support | 1 Comment

Custom Controls Design Time Support Part 10: Filtering Control Members

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Amr

As I  mentioned in introducing the Designer post that one of the designer powers is filtering the control members, filtering here means removing or adding members (Properties, Events or Attributes) to the DesignTime Environment in the PropertyWindow. The IDesignerFilter interface has … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Time Support | 12 Comments