Linking UI objects together : could I do it with attributes?

Question

I'm currently working on a custom UI engine for a game. I've very basic C# skills (I'm a C programmer by trade) and I'm having problems figuring out how to link a UI element with the data it represents. Here's what I mean:

class SomeClass
{
    //some stuff

    //This is what I want to monitor and/or modify.
    private SomeType _myVariable;
}

Elsewhere...

class UITextboxWidget
{
     //methods and stuff
}

Now, what I want is for the _myVariable element to be modified when the users enters a value in the textbox changes, and vice versa.

I first tried doing it by calling a method in the MyClass constructor and passing a Property on _myVariable by reference but I quickly discovered that this is not possible in C#.

Then I had a look at attributes and discovered you can create new ones : this is what I had in mind.

class MyClass
{
    [TextBoxAttribute(some, parameters)]
    private SomeType _myVariable;
}

That would make the embedding in the UI system very easy, but I'm not quite sure if it is possible to use attributes in this manner.

So, simply put:

1. Can I do this with attributes and if so, how?
2. If not, what would be a good way of doing this?

Answer 1

What you want to do is called 'Databinding'. Specificly in your situation, it is Object Data Binding. Follow this link and it will get you started.