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WinForms.Library is a set of helper classes for data binding and using Json-backed document objects with my JsonSettings project. It's also a grab-bag of miscellaneous controls and extensions I reuse across several WinForm apps. I still work with WinForms a fair amount, and I noticed a lot of redundant data binding code, so this library grew out of a need to unify and standardize how I do that. I always felt that off-the-shelf data binding in .NET was too complicated and designer-dependent. A while back I wrote a CodeProject article about this, and this library is an update on that, removing the ORM dependency and simplifying things a bit more.

Classes

• ControlBinder for generic data binding with standard WinForm controls. Examples: SourceFolderCleanup project
• JsonSDI for opening and saving Json-based documents.
• FileSystem static class: Search, Icon retrieval, EnumFiles and Shell interaction.
• GridCellAutoComplete for implementing auto complete text boxes in DataGridView controls.

Abstract

• GridViewBinder lets you data-bind a DataGridView with straightforward OnSave and OnDelete methods which are much simpler than off-the-shelf binding. See an example usage in CredManager2.

Controls

• BuilderTextBox combines an ordinary text box with a button to the right that can display a "builder dialog" to selecting or creating a value in the text box.
• OpenFileButton for providing a standard way to access a file from a ToolStrip button or menu.
• WebUrlLinkLabel is a standard LinkLabel setup to visit web URLs.
• DropDownButton is a regular button control that renders a little dropdown chevron thingy on the right side. When clicked, displays the button's ContextMenuStrip underneath it. I couldn't figure out how to override the text rendering so it offsets correctly for the graphic, but you can work around by adding a few spaces to the end of your text.

Extensions

• ComboBoxExtensions for setting and getting values from combo boxes.
• ToolStripComboBoxExtensions similar to the regular combo box extension, but for ToolStripComboBox.

Interfaces

• IBoundControl for implementing your own user controls with ControlBinder.

Models

• FormPosition for saving and retrieving form positions.