Display names in dropdown in webpart property

Question

I would like to add custom property that offers a list of choices.

It is possible to use Enum type. The property will be then rendered as a combobox.

public enum Group
    {
        GroupA,
        GroupB,
        GroupC
    }

[WebBrowsable(true), 
Category("Miscellaneous"), 
Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
WebDisplayName("Group name")]
public Group SelectedGroup
{
get { return _group;  }
set { _group = value;}
}

It works fine - but I would like to use more complex group names like "John Doe's group". Is there any way to do that? I haven't found anything and I'd prefer not to create EditorPart and do all those things manually.

Answer 1

Enums in .Net can have spaces with System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute. Your example could be rewritten like this:

public enum Group
{
    [Description("John Doe's Group")]
    GroupA,
    [Description("Frank Star's Group")]
    GroupB,
    [Description("Stella Reinolds Group")]
    GroupC
}

Then using reflection you could access Description property

public static string GetGroupEnumDescription(Enum value)
{
    FieldInfo group= value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString());

    DescriptionAttribute[] descAttr= (DescriptionAttribute[])group.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(descAttr), false);

    if (descAttr!= null && descAttr.Length > 0) {
        return descAttr[0].Description;
    }
    else {
        return value.ToString();
    }
}

Then you will use this method GetGroupEnumDescription(Group.GroupA);

Putting this all together to populate your DropDownList you could use

foreach (Group group in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Group)))
{
    groupDropDown.Items.Add(GetGroupEnumDescription(group));
}