How to use custom DesignerSerializer to generate a class declarati

[mnowosad]

I am trying to use a custom DesignerSerializer to generate a class
declaration based on the properties of a custom control which is used by a
page. The idea is that whenever the user changes the values of the control
properties, the class declaration is modified accordingly (like a simplified
code generation wizard).

However, I have been having problems to make it work. The issue is that I
can not make the Serialize method of the custom DesignerSerializer to
incorporate the class declaration.

First I tried to add the class declaration to the same namespace block of
the page class. But whenever I make this call:

public override object Serialize(IDesignerSerializationManager manager,
object value)
{
CodeNamespace namespaceBlock = (CodeNamespace)
manager.Context[typeof(CodeNamespace)];

/* Code that tries to use the namespaceBlock */
}

the variable namespaceBlock returns "null". So it seems that you can not
generate code outside the page class in the design-time.

As a result, I changed my strategy to generate a nested class inside the
page class. However, that did not work either. The strange thing is that I am
able to add method declaration to the page class. However, any attempt to a
add a nested class is ignored.

Here is the code:

public override object Serialize(IDesignerSerializationManager manager,
object value)
{
CodeDomSerializer baseSerializer = (CodeDomSerializer)
manager.GetSerializer(typeof(MyCustomControl).BaseType,
typeof(CodeDomSerializer));

object codeObject = baseSerializer.Serialize(manager, value);

// Get reference to the page Class code

CodeTypeDeclaration pageClassCode = (CodeTypeDeclaration)
manager.Context[typeof(CodeTypeDeclaration)];

// Generating the method declaration.

CodeMemberMethod myMethod = new CodeMemberMethod();
myMethod.Name = "MyMethod";
myMethod.Attributes = MemberAttributes.Family | MemberAttributes.Final;
myMethod.ReturnType = new CodeTypeReference(typeof(void));

// Generating the class declaration.

CodeTypeDeclaration myClass = new CodeTypeDeclaration("MyClass");
myClass.Attributes = MemberAttributes.Family | MemberAttributes.Final;
myClass.TypeAttributes = TypeAttributes.Class |
TypeAttributes.NestedFamily;

// This works beautifully.
// Method declaration is added to the page class code.

pageClassCode.Members.Add(myMethod);

// This does not work. :-(
// No nested class declaration is added to the page class code.

pageClassCode.Members.Add(myClass);

return codeObject;
}

Thanks in advance for any help in this issue.
Marcos