Dynamically create Public Properties

Question

How dan I dynamically create some public properties on a custom webcontrol.

For example, web control has 5 TextBox controls. I need a public property for each TextBox control to be able to set a specific property of the TextBox control.

I want to be able to loop the controls in the webcontrol and create a public property for each TextBox control.

any ideas?

Answer 1

You could create a property like this

    private TextBox[] textBoxes; //declared as a class member variable

    public TextBox[] TextBoxes
    {
        get
        {
            if (textBoxes == null)
            {
                textBoxes =(from ctrl in this.Controls.OfType<Control>()
                            where ctrl is TextBox
                            select (TextBox)ctrl).ToArray();
            }
            return textBoxes;
        }
    }

Answer 2

Exposing the controls contained in a WebContol (or any class for that matter) is not a good design as it makes your code brittle and hard to maintain. You should put code that directly manipulates the TextBoxes inside the WebControl.

Answer 3

Edited:

If the child-controls are present at Design-Time then you need to explain why you want to dynamically add properties to access the control members--unless there is a good reason it just sounds like a poor design.

Here's my suggestion:

• Leave your controls as Friend or Private -- don't expose them directly (it leads to tight-coupling and gets nasty over time).

• Expose a new public property that gets/sets the corresponding property on 1x of your controls; so if you want to set .Text on 5x TextBoxes you'll have 5x properties.

• Be done with it.

If you're trying to be clever by dynamically adding them, then it's a good intention that will lead to poor results. Just remember: KISS (Keep it simple, stupid!).