How do I remove the elipsis for a custom UITypeEditor that is read-only?

Question

I have two fields that are of the same type in my property-grid. However, one is read-only, the other is editable.

Both of these fields are of a custom type, and thus have a custom UITypeEditor, which puts the elipsis ([...]) button on the field.

[
     CategoryAttribute("5 - Wind"),
     DisplayName("Factored Area"),
     Description("The factored area for the segment."),
     EditorAttribute(typeof(umConversionTypeEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor)),
     TypeConverter(typeof(umConversionTypeConverter)),
     ReadOnly(true)
]
public FactoredAreaClass FactoredArea { ... }

[
     CategoryAttribute("5 - Wind"),
     DisplayName("Factored Area Modifier"),
     Description("The factored area modifier."),
     EditorAttribute(typeof(umConversionTypeEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor)),
     TypeConverter(typeof(umConversionTypeConverter))
]
public FactoredAreaClass FactoredAreaMod { ... }

In this example, FactoredAreaMod is available to be edited, but BOTH have the elipsis, which will cause great confusion with the users. Any way to turn that off??

Answer 1

Use the ReadOnly attribute. This marks it as design-time read-only while keeping it read/write for runtime use.

Also, you should either apply the Editor attribute to the type rather than the properties. There's no gain in applying it to a property if you don't want that property to be editable.

Answer 2

Thanks to Jeff Yates, I came up with an alternate solution. Here's how I solved it...

The biggest issue was that the EditorAttribute was actually assigned in the FactoredAreaClass. I put it in the raw example just to show that there was an editor attribute assigned.

[
    CategoryAttribute("5 - Wind"),
    DisplayName("Factored Area"),
    Description("The factored area for the segment."),
    EditorAttribute(typeof(UITypeEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor)), // RESET THE UITYPEEDITOR to "nothing"
    ReadOnly(true)
]
public FactoredAreaClass FactoredArea { ... }

[
    CategoryAttribute("5 - Wind"),
    DisplayName("Factored Area Modifier"),
    Description("The factored area modifier."),
    // the EditorAttribute and TypeConverter are part of FactoredAreaClass
]
public FactoredAreaClass FactoredAreaMod { ... }

Answer 3

The trick is not to use the Modal style when the bounded property is readonly. Luckily for us, the context is provided in the GetEditStyle method. A simple code will do the job:

public override UITypeEditorEditStyle GetEditStyle(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
{
  return context.PropertyDescriptor.IsReadOnly 
          ? UITypeEditorEditStyle.None 
          : UITypeEditorEditStyle.Modal;       
}