Value Editors and Value Editing Controls

Table of Contents Value Editors and Controls Single Value Editors Multiple Value Editors Special Purpose WPF Other Value Editing Controls Topics in this section

A value editor is typically associated with a value editing control that provides the user interface to display and edit a property's value. The type of control is appropriate for the data type of the property.

A value editing control is embedded in a complex property editing control, such as the GridControl or PropertyGrid controls that the GridPropertyEditor and PropertyEditor components are built on. These property editor controls ultimately rely on the PropertyView class, which is the abstract base class for complex property editing controls, providing formats, fonts, data binding, persistent settings, and category/property information. For more information on property editor containers, see Property Editor Components.

Some value editing controls contain a button ( or ) to display a dialog or drop down to get information. For example, clicking the button in the value editing control for FolderUriEditor displays a folder selection dialog. Similarly, the ColorEditor's value editing control drops down color swatches on tabs.

In addition, some value editing controls contain a button () next to the value description to set the value to its default value. This button displays only when the value is selected. Some of the value editing controls in the table show this button.

The value editing control is specified by the value editor — not the property descriptor. As noted in Value Editors, a value editor can specify the value editing control in two ways:

• Implement the IPropertyEditor interface, whose GetEditingControl() method returns a value editing control object.
• Derive from System.Drawing.Design.UITypeEditor and define an EditValue() method that creates a value editing control object, which gets the new value from the user and returns it.

Some value editors, such as BoundedIntEditor, do both of these. The value editing controls obtained in these two ways for a single value editor may be different, as they are for BoundedIntEditor.

Value Editors and Controls

The tables show the value editors and their associated controls in various categories. The "Type" column indicates whether the editor implements IPropertyEditor, derives from UITypeEditor, or both. Some editors listed have no controls associated with them.

Single Value Editors

Value Editor	Value Editing Control	Appearance	Type	Description
BoolEditor	BoolControl (private class)		IPropertyEditor	Edit a Boolean value using a CheckBox. Used in several samples, such as ATF FSM Editor Sample.
BoundedFloat- Editor	BoundedFloat- Control		IPropertyEditor UITypeEditor	Edit a bounded float value. It displays a slider and TextBox in the GUI. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
BoundedInt- Editor	BoundedInt- Control		IPropertyEditor UITypeEditor	Edit a bounded int value. It displays a slider and TextBox in the GUI. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
ColorEditor	Uses control in System. Drawing. Design. ColorEditor. EditValue()		UITypeEditor	Derives from System.Drawing.Design.ColorEditor. Edit color values. Clicking the button () drops down color swatches on tabs to select another color. Used in ATF Circuit Editor Sample and ATF Timeline Editor Sample.
ColorPicker- Editor	ColorPicker		UITypeEditor	Edit colors, derived from System.Drawing.Design.ColorEditor. ColorPicker is similar to ColorEditor's value editor, displaying a color button and color components including alpha, shown in the top figure. Clicking the button ( ) in the control displays an Adobe color picker clone dialog, shown in the bottom figure. In addition, the Sce.Atf.Controls.PropertyEditing. ColorPickerEditor derived from this value editor allows using color stored as an ARGB int. Used in ATF DOM Property Editor Sample and ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
DateTime- Editor	Uses control in System. ComponentModel. Design. DateTimeEditor. EditValue()		UITypeEditor	Edit date and time values. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
EnumUIType- Editor	ListBox		UITypeEditor	Handle dynamic enumerations, where display names are associated with integer values. Used in several samples, such as ATF Simple DOM Editor Sample.
FileUri- Editor	OpenFileDialog		UITypeEditor	Use file open dialog box to allow the user to select a path as a string or URI. Used by ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample and in PropertyEditingCommands component.
FlagsUIType- Editor	CheckedListBox		UITypeEditor	Handle dynamic flag enumerations, selecting as many flags as desired in a list box. Used in ATF Timeline Editor Sample.
FolderBrowser- Dialog- UITypeEditor	FolderBrowser- Dialog		UITypeEditor	Select folder in folder browser dialog. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
FolderUri- Editor	FolderBrowser- Dialog		UITypeEditor	Select folder path (stored as string or URI). Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
LongEnum- Editor	LongEnum- Control- Wrapper (private class)		IPropertyEditor	Edit long enum-like attributes and values with an autocomplete ComboBox. The editor can also display images. The enum list can be updated programmatically. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
NumericEditor	NumericTextBox (private class)		IPropertyEditor	Text box for entering numeric values. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.

Multiple Value Editors

Value Editor	Value Editing Control	Appearance	Type	Description
ArrayEditor	ArrayEditing- Control		IPropertyEditor	Edit the size, order, and values of an array whose elements are numeric. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
Collection- Editor	Collection- Editing- Control		IPropertyEditor	Editor that provides collection editing controls. Entering text selects the item with a matching first character. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
NumericMatrix- Editor	NumericMatrix- Control		IPropertyEditor UITypeEditor	Edit numeric matrices. Supports all numeric types except Decimal. Can be used with the standard .NET PropertyGrid, DataGrid, and DataGridView, as well as ATF's GridControl and PropertyGrid controls that the GridPropertyEditor and PropertyEditor components are built on. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
NumericTuple- Editor	NumericTuple- Control		IPropertyEditor UITypeEditor	Edit a numeric tuple (vector) of arbitrary dimensions. All numeric types except Decimal are supported. Can be used with the standard .NET PropertyGrid, DataGrid, and DataGridView, as well as ATF's GridControl and PropertyGrid controls that the GridPropertyEditor and PropertyEditor components are built on. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.
UniformArray- Editor	UniformArray- TextBox		IPropertyEditor	Edit an array (of arbitrary length) of identical numeric values of the same type; the control displays only the single value. Used in ATF DOM Tree Editor Sample.

Special Purpose

Value Editor	Value Editing Control	Appearance	Type	Description
Embedded- Collection- Editor	Collection- Control		IPropertyEditor	Embedded property editor for adding, removing, and editing items in a collection. Supports multiple item inserter functions, allowing you to insert child items of various types (typically derived from a common base class). Used in ATF DOM Property Editor Sample. For a discussion and illustration of this editor in the sample, see EmbeddedCollectionEditor Class.
Nested- Collection- Editor	Nested- Collection- EditorForm		UITypeEditor	Nested collections editor form. Used in ATF Tree List Editor Sample.

WPF

Value Editor	Value Editing Control	Appearance	Type	Description
MultiLine- TextValue- Editor	None			Class for editing a value with a multi-line TextBox and a SliderValueEditor.
SliderValue- Editor	None			Class for editing a value with a slider control.
ValueEditor	None			Base class for editing a value with a control. MultiLineTextValueEditor and SliderValueEditor derive from it.

Other Value Editing Controls

These controls are not used directly with value editors.

Value Editing Control	Description
PropertyEditingControl	Universal property editing control that can be embedded in complex property editing controls. It uses TypeConverter and UITypeEditor objects to provide a GUI for every kind of .NET property. It gets used by default if no custom value editing control is provided.
BoolInputControl	Edit a Boolean value.

Topics in this section