DocumentProperties Class

Provides support for document-specific properties associated with a language service.

This API is not CLS-compliant. The CLS-compliant alternative is [None].

Namespace:  Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package
Assembly:  Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package.LanguageService.9.0 (in Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package.LanguageService.9.0.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<CLSCompliantAttribute(False)> _
Public MustInherit Class DocumentProperties _
    Inherits LocalizableProperties _
    Implements ISelectionContainer, IDisposable
'Usage
Dim instance As DocumentProperties
[CLSCompliantAttribute(false)]
public abstract class DocumentProperties : LocalizableProperties, 
    ISelectionContainer, IDisposable
[CLSCompliantAttribute(false)]
public ref class DocumentProperties abstract : public LocalizableProperties, 
    ISelectionContainer, IDisposable
public abstract class DocumentProperties extends LocalizableProperties implements ISelectionContainer, IDisposable

Remarks

Document properties appear in the Properties window when that document is opened in Visual Studio. Normally, source file documents do not have properties and so the Properties window is empty. However, a language service can supply properties that can be associated with any document type supported by that language service. For example, if your language service supports embedding an encoding scheme in the source file, this could be displayed as a document property. When the property is changed, the source file is updated.

It is up to the language service to determine how document-specific properties are persisted or saved. Typically, the properties are loaded from and saved to the source file itself. The properties can be obtained when the document is parsed. When a property is updated, the value can be inserted immediately into the source file so when the source file is saved, the property is saved with it.

Notes to Implementers:

If you need to support document-specific properties in your language service, you need to derive a class from the DocumentProperties class and add public properties representing the properties that can be viewed and changed. See the example in this topic to see how this is typically implemented. You must override the CreateDocumentProperties method in the LanguageService class to return an instance of your DocumentProperties object.

Notes to Callers:

Visual Studio manages the Properties window. The default implementation of the CreateDocumentProperties method returns a DocumentProperties object that has no viewable properties so the Properties window shows nothing. If you implement your own version of the DocumentProperties class with public properties that have the correct attributes, those properties automatically appear in the Properties window. Changes made to a property in the Properties window affect your DocumentProperties object immediately. See the example to see which attributes need to be applied to a property.

Examples

The following example shows a DocumentProperties object with one visible property.

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace MyLanguagePackage
{
    class MyDocumentProperties : DocumentProperties
    {
        private string m_encoding;

        public MyDocumentProperties(CodeWindowManager mgr) : base(mgr)
        {
        }

        [DisplayNameAttribute("Encoding")]
        [CategoryAttribute("General")]
        [DescriptionAttribute("Changes encoding scheme")]
        public string Encoding
        {
            get
            {
                return m_encoding;
            }
            set
            {
                m_encoding = value;
                // Write value to source text.
                // This can be done through a custom method
                // (called SetProperyValue in this example) on your
                // language service class like this:
                Source src = this.GetSource();
                if (src != null)
                {
                    MyLanguageService service = src.LanguageService as MyLanguageService;
                    if (service != null)
                    {
                        service.SetPropertyValue(src, "Encoding", m_encoding);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
  Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.LocalizableProperties
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package.DocumentProperties

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

See Also

Reference

DocumentProperties Members

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package Namespace