I don't think you can get PropertyGrid to swap to asterisks, but you could perhaps use a one-way type-converter and a modal editor... 2 seconds...like so:
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing.Design;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms.Design;
class Foo
{
[TypeConverter(typeof(PasswordConverter))]
[Editor(typeof(PasswordEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]
public string Password { get; set; }
// just to show for debugging...
public string PasswordActual { get { return Password; } }
}
class PasswordConverter : TypeConverter
{
public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture, object value, System.Type destinationType)
{
return destinationType == typeof(string) ? "********" :
base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
}
}
class PasswordEditor : UITypeEditor
{
public override UITypeEditorEditStyle GetEditStyle(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
{
return UITypeEditorEditStyle.Modal;
}
public override object EditValue(ITypeDescriptorContext context, IServiceProvider provider, object value)
{
IWindowsFormsEditorService svc = (IWindowsFormsEditorService)
provider.GetService(typeof(IWindowsFormsEditorService));
if (svc != null) {
TextBox tb;
Button btn;
Form frm = new Form { Controls = {
(tb = new TextBox { PasswordChar = '*', Dock = DockStyle.Top}),
(btn = new Button { Text = "OK", Dock = DockStyle.Bottom, DialogResult = DialogResult.OK})
}, AcceptButton = btn};
if (frm.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
value = tb.Text;
}
}
return value;
}
}
static class Program {
[STAThread]
static void Main() {
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.Run(new Form {
Controls = {
new PropertyGrid {
Dock = DockStyle.Fill,
SelectedObject = new Foo { Password = "Bar"}
}
}
});
}
}
