Conditional "Browsable" Attribute

Question

Is there a way to make a "Browsable" attribute conditional, so the property that applies it will sometimes appear in the properties page and sometimes not?
thanks :)

Answer 1

I'm not sure this applies to your situation, but you can adjust the "Browsable" decoration at run-time by calling the function below.

/// <summary>
/// Set the Browsable property.
/// NOTE: Be sure to decorate the property with [Browsable(true)]
/// </summary>
/// <param name="PropertyName">Name of the variable</param>
/// <param name="bIsBrowsable">Browsable Value</param>
private void setBrowsableProperty(string strPropertyName, bool bIsBrowsable)
{
    // Get the Descriptor's Properties
    PropertyDescriptor theDescriptor = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(this.GetType())[strPropertyName];

    // Get the Descriptor's "Browsable" Attribute
    BrowsableAttribute theDescriptorBrowsableAttribute = (BrowsableAttribute)theDescriptor.Attributes[typeof(BrowsableAttribute)];
    FieldInfo isBrowsable = theDescriptorBrowsableAttribute.GetType().GetField("Browsable", BindingFlags.IgnoreCase | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

    // Set the Descriptor's "Browsable" Attribute
    isBrowsable.SetValue(theDescriptorBrowsableAttribute, bIsBrowsable);
}

Answer 2

There is no easy way.

You can possibly work this out by implementing ICustomTypeDescriptor. Here is a good article about implementing ICustomTypeDescriptor.

Or you can associate your own ControlDesigner with your class and override the PreFilterProperties method to add or remove properties viewed in the property grid.

Removing certain properties from property grid.