Hosting Windows Forms Designer - Serialize designer at runtime and generate C# code

Question

I am creating a designer surface and loading the controls to a runtime. I am having issues when deserializing/loading the controls to the runtime.

All methods I have tried seem to have some type of issue.

Issued faced for example:

• Controls are still bound of the design-time
• Not all properties deserialize with all the properties, namely nested properties.
• Control associations does seem to be followed, i.e. Button in a Panel, will not be in the panel anymore, even though the property is still the parent after loading.

I have created a sample Project on git here: Surface Designer Test

There are the main code snippets:

Serialization from the design-time

private void LoadRuntime(int type)
{
    var controls = surface.ComponentContainer.Components;
    SerializationStore data = (SerializationStore)surface.
        _designerSerializationService.Serialize(controls);
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    data.Save(ms);
    SaveData.Data = ms.ToArray();
    SaveData.LoadType = type;
    new RuntimeForm().Show();
}

public object Serialize(System.Collections.ICollection objects)
{
    ComponentSerializationService componentSerializationService = 
        _serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ComponentSerializationService)) as 
        ComponentSerializationService;
    SerializationStore returnObject = null;
    using (SerializationStore serializationStore = 
        componentSerializationService.CreateStore())
    {
        foreach (object obj in objects)
        {
            if (obj is Control control)
            {
                componentSerializationService.SerializeAbsolute(serializationStore, obj);
            }
            returnObject = serializationStore;
        }
    }
    return returnObject;
}

Deserialization in runtime

Here is attempt with reflection:

MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(SaveData.Data);
Designer d = new Designer();
var controls = d._designerSerializationService.Deserialize(ms);

ms.Close();
if (SaveData.LoadType == 1)
{
    foreach (Control cont in controls)
    {
        var ts = Assembly.Load(cont.GetType().Assembly.FullName);
        var o = ts.GetType(cont.GetType().FullName);
        Control controlform = (Control)Activator.CreateInstance(o);
        PropertyInfo[] controlProperties = cont.GetType().GetProperties();
        foreach (PropertyInfo propInfo in controlProperties)
        {
            if (propInfo.CanWrite)
            {
                if (propInfo.Name != "Site" && propInfo.Name != WindowTarget")
                {
                    try
                    {
                        var obj = propInfo.GetValue(cont, null);
                        propInfo.SetValue(controlform, obj, null);
                    }
                    catch { }
                }
                else { }
            }
        }
        Controls.Add(controlform);
    }
}

Here is attempt with loading controls directly (still bound to the design-time):

MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(SaveData.Data);
Designer d = new Designer();
var controls = d._designerSerializationService.Deserialize(ms);
foreach (Control cont in controls)
    Controls.Add(cont);

I feel like I am missing a concept from the System.ComponentModel.Design framework.

I also do not believe there is a need to write a custom serializer for each control, as surely the already have this has Visual Studio is able to serialize all their properties as they are changed in the PropertyGrid and load them back when you run the program.

I'd love to serialize the designer into a .cs file, but how? How do you serialize controls/form and changed properties to a file like the VS designer, I tried and looked only to find xml and binary serializer. My ideal solution would be build a designer.cs with the CodeDom.

What is the correct way do accomplish this serialization between design-time and run-time?

Answer 1

Assuming you have a DesignSurface to show a Form as root component of the designer and having some components created at run-time by using CreateComponent method of IDesignerHost, here is how I approach the problem:

• Get an instance of IDesignerHost from DesignSurface
• Create new DesignerSerializationManager
• Get an instance of TypeCodeDomSerializer from serialization manager
• Serialize the RootComponent of the IDesignerHost
• Create an instance of CSharpCodeProvider
• Generate code by calling GenerateCodeFromType and passing the serialized root component.

You can also extend the example a bit and use ISelectionService to get notified about selected components and change properties at run-time using a PropertyGrid:

Example - Generate C# code from DesignSurface at runtime

Here in this example, I'll show how you can host a windows forms designer at run-time and design a form containing some controls and components and generate C# code at run-time and run the generated code.

Please note: It's not a production code and it's just an example as a proof of concept.

Create the DesignSurface and host the designer

You can create the design surface like this:

DesignSurface designSurface;
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    designSurface = new DesignSurface(typeof(Form));
    var host = (IDesignerHost)designSurface.GetService(typeof(IDesignerHost));
    var root = (Form)host.RootComponent;
    TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(root)["Name"].SetValue(root, "Form1");
    root.Text = "Form1";

    var button1 = (Button)host.CreateComponent(typeof(Button), "button1");
    button1.Text = "button1";
    button1.Location = new Point(8, 8);
    root.Controls.Add(button1);

    var timer1 = (Timer)host.CreateComponent(typeof(Timer), "timer1");
    timer1.Interval = 2000;
    var view = (Control)designSurface.View;
    view.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
    view.BackColor = Color.White;
    this.Controls.Add(view);
}

Generate C# code using TypeCodeDomSerializer and CSharpCodeProvider

This is how I generate code from design surface:

string GenerateCSFromDesigner(DesignSurface designSurface)
{
    CodeTypeDeclaration type;
    var host = (IDesignerHost)designSurface.GetService(typeof(IDesignerHost));
    var root = host.RootComponent;
    var manager = new DesignerSerializationManager(host);
    using (manager.CreateSession())
    {
        var serializer = (TypeCodeDomSerializer)manager.GetSerializer(root.GetType(),
            typeof(TypeCodeDomSerializer));
        type = serializer.Serialize(manager, root, host.Container.Components);
        type.IsPartial = true;
        type.Members.OfType<CodeConstructor>()
            .FirstOrDefault().Attributes = MemberAttributes.Public;
    }
    var builder = new StringBuilder();
    CodeGeneratorOptions option = new CodeGeneratorOptions();
    option.BracingStyle = "C";
    option.BlankLinesBetweenMembers = false;
    using (var writer = new StringWriter(builder, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
    {
        using (var codeDomProvider = new CSharpCodeProvider())
        {
            codeDomProvider.GenerateCodeFromType(type, writer, option);
        }
        return builder.ToString();
    }
}

For example:

var code = GenerateCSFromDesigner(designSurface);

Run the code sing CSharpCodeProvider

Then to run it:

void Run(string code, string formName)
{
    var csc = new CSharpCodeProvider();
    var parameters = new CompilerParameters(new[] {
    "mscorlib.dll",
    "System.Windows.Forms.dll",
    "System.dll",
    "System.Drawing.dll",
    "System.Core.dll",
    "Microsoft.CSharp.dll"});
    parameters.GenerateExecutable = true;
    code = $@"
        {code}
        public class Program
        {{
            [System.STAThread]
            static void Main()
            {{
                System.Windows.Forms.Application.EnableVisualStyles();
                System.Windows.Forms.Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
                System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(new {formName}());
            }}
        }}";
    var results = csc.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, code);
    if (!results.Errors.HasErrors)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(results.CompiledAssembly.CodeBase);
    }
    else
    {
        var errors = string.Join(Environment.NewLine,
            results.Errors.Cast<CompilerError>().Select(x => x.ErrorText));
        MessageBox.Show(errors);
    }
}

For example:

Run(GenerateCSFromDesigner(designSurface), "Form1");