how do I host a control in a DataGridViewCell for displaying as well as editing?

Question

I've seen How to: Host Controls in Windows Forms DataGridView Cells which explains how to host a control for editing a cell in a DataGridView. But how can I host a control for displaying a cell?

I need to display a file name and a button in the same cell. Our UI designer is a graphic designer not a programmer, so I have to match the code to what he's drawn, whether it's possible - or wise - or not. We're using VS2008 and writing in C# for .NET 3.5, if that makes a difference.

UPDATE: The 'net suggests creating a custom DataGridViewCell which hosts a panel as a first step; anyone done that?

Answer 1

As per your "UPDATE", creating a custom DataGridViewCell is the way this is done. I've done it, and it doesn't require that much modification from the example code available from the MSDN. In my case, I needed a bunch of custom editing controls, so I ended up inheriting from DataGridViewTextBoxCell and DataGridViewColumn. I inserted into my class (the one inherited from DataGridViewTextBoxCell) a new custom control which implemented IDataGridViewEditingControl, and it all just worked.

I suppose that in your case, you could write a PanelDataGridViewCell which would contain a control MyPanelControl which would inherit from Panel and implement IDataGridViewEditingControl.

Answer 2

Rather than use a datagridview, how about using a TableLayoutPanel instead. Create your control that has a label and a button and events and fill your layout panel with them. Your control becomes the cell so to speak. It doesn't take much to make the table layout panel to look like a datagridview, if that is the layout style you want.