.NET Tips and Tricks -Persist properties correctly with PersistenceModeAttribute

Persist properties correctly with PersistenceModeAttribute

System.Web.UI.PersistenceModeAttribute specifies how a property should be persisted by the designer. This attribute is usually necessary when creating custom Web controls.

This attribute takes one parameter, which is a System.Web.UI.PersistenceMode enumeration member:

Attribute- specifies that the property should be persisted as an attribute. Use this value for simple (or primitive) properties.
InnerProperty - specifies that property should be persisted as a nested element. Use this value for complex (or non-primitive) properties, collections, and templates.

Note that PersistenceModeAttribute and PersistenceMode are two different types.

Let's look at an example for clarity.

Example

		
public class SearchControl : Control
{
    private TextBox _searchTextBox = new TextBox();
  
    [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]
    [PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
    public TextBox SearchTextBox
    {
        get
        {
            return _searchTextBox;
        }
    }
}

The above sample control gets persisted the following way on a Web form:

<asp:SearchControl><SearchTextBox Length="1" BackColor="White"/></asp:SearchControl>

See DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute for an example where the property is persisted as an attribute.

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