Explicit Resource Expression

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I've converted a asp.net web project from VS 2005 to VS 2008. ASPX Web pages
are using explicit resource expression to retrieve label texts. Controls
using regular expression , VS 2008 design view displays complete expression
text like "Expression: ResourceFile,LabelLastSuccessfulLogin". This is
making really inconvenient to see the pages in design view and making
changes is really hard especially if you got a lot of labels using resource
expression. The whole page looks terrible as it messes up the alignment and
placement. VS 2005 allows to set text but not VS 2008 if text property is
being set through expression. Is there there any way to get around the issue
and avoid displaying expression in design view? Your help is greatly
appreciated.

Thanks
Vin

 

[Allen Chen [MSFT]]

Hi Vin,

My name is Allen Chen. It's my pleasure to work with you on this issue.

The root cause of this issue is the designer of Label control. The designer
of Label control is LabelDesigner, which has an attribute
SupportsPreviewControl set to true. Visual studio sees this attribute and
render something like "Expression: ResourceFile,LabelLastSuccessfulLogin"
on the design view.

To work around this issue we can write a custom designer and use our custom
control instead of the Label control.

Below is the designer class:

namespace AllenChen.Designer.Helper
{

//When this designer is applied the ID of the control will be displayed
public class MyDesigner : LabelDesigner
{

}

//When this designer is applied we can change the displayed text via a new
//property DesignerText in the property window. Please note the control
using
//this designer must has DesignerText property.

public class MyDesigner2 : LabelDesigner
{
public override string GetDesignTimeHtml()
{

string designTimeHtml;
Control viewControl = base.ViewControl;
PropertyInfo property =
viewControl.GetType().GetProperty("DesignerText");
string str = (string)property.GetValue(viewControl, null);
if (str == null || str.Length == 0)
{
designTimeHtml = "You can change DesignerText via property
window";
}
else { designTimeHtml = str; }

return designTimeHtml;
}

}
}

And below is the control class:

[Designer("AllenChen.Designer.Helper.MyDesigner ,
AllenChen.Designer.Helper, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=f1fbaa4ed5a434d7")]
public class NewLabel:Label
{
}

[Designer("AllenChen.Designer.Helper.MyDesigner2 ,
AllenChen.Designer.Helper, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=f1fbaa4ed5a434d7")]
public class NewLabel2 : Label
{

public string DesignerText { get; set; }
}

You can also test the AllenChen.Designer.Helper project directly:

http://cid-2fa13ebc6cc8e80f.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Newsgroup/All
enChen.Designer.Helper.zip

If you have other controls you can use the above way as well.

Please try it to see if it works and let me know if you have any further
questions.

Regards,
Allen Chen
Microsoft Online Support

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[Allen Chen [MSFT]]

Hi Vin,

Have you tried my code? Can it work?

Regards,
Allen Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support