ControlArray

The ControlArray is a Component that allows you to logically group Controls on a Form so you can capture all common Events for each Control and also be able to set the same Property on all Controls with one line of code. It supports all Events and all appropriate Properties of the System.Windows.Forms.Control. It also has Methods (InvokeMethod and SetProperty) to call Methods and set Properties that don't exist in the ControlArray already without having to use Reflection.

The ControlArray is a good demonstration on design time support in Visual Studio .NET, including right mouse click support to add/remove Controls to/from a ControlArray on the Form designer surface, a custom UITypeEditor and also demonstrations how to use IMenuCommandService, ISelectionService, DesignerVerbs and Shadow Properties.

If you have used Visual Basic 6 and miss ControlArrays (since they don't exist in WindowsForms), then you'll definitely enjoy using this Component as it works very similarly. Even if you never used VB6, you will probably find a use for it to save you some coding. It's great for Data Entry Forms or any Form where you need to edit the state of many Controls at runtime.

The ControlArray comes with two version of the source code that works with Visual Studio .NET 2002 & 2003 on .NET 1.0 and .NET 1.1. It also comes with a sample that will demonstrate how to use it in both VB.NET and C#. The actual ControlArray Component, however, is written in VB.NET.