Question

I have three classes and a user control that will use these three classes.
Here are the classes and their explanations:

//provides access to multiple ManagementMethods
[Serializable(), ParseChildren(true)]
public class ManagementDelegate
{
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always),
     PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
     public List<ManagementMethod> Method
     {
         get; set;
     }
}
//provides access to multiple ManagementParameters and the method name
[Serializable(), PersistChildren(false)]
public class ManagementMethod
{
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always)]
     public string Name
     {
         get; set;
     }
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always),
     PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
     public List<ManagementParameter> Parameter
     {
         get; set;
     }
}
//describes a parameter of method.
[Serializable(), PersistChildren(false)]
public class ManagementParameter
{
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always)]
     public string ParameterName
     {
         get; set;
     }
}
//===============================
//here is the part of user control code behind that uses the ManagementDelegate class.
[Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always),
PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
public ManagementDelegate SelectMethods
{
    get; set;
}

So here is an example of the structure that I’m looking for:

<UC:MyUc ID="test" runat="server">
    <SelectMethods>
        <!-- here when i open a tag asp.net lists the Method, but when i try to set the Name attribute it warns and won't run. -->
        <Method Name="meth">
            <Parameter ParameterName="id" />
            <Parameter ParameterName="word" />
        </Method
        <Method Name="meth2">
        </Method
    </SelectMethods>
</UC:MyUc>

The problem is that ASP.net recognizes the SelectMethod as an inner tag, it even recognizes the Method tag as an inner tag but it doesn’t recognize the type of Method tag which actually is ManagementMethod. When I change the type of any of the properties to a simple type, for example change the List to just ManagementMethod, ASP.net recognizes it and everything works fine. Thee same goes with any List<> object.

Answer 1

Here is a snippet from our production code, you can see that the ControlDependency class even allows children of ControlDependency

[PersistChildren(false), TypeConverter(typeof(ExpandableObjectConverter)), ParseChildren(true), Serializable()]
    public class ControlDependencySetting
    {
        [System.ComponentModel.DesignerSerializationVisibility(System.ComponentModel.DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
            PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
        public List<ControlDependency> ControlDependencies { get; set; }

        ***Code emitted
    }

[PersistChildren(false), TypeConverter(typeof(ExpandableObjectConverter)), ParseChildren(true),Serializable()]
    public class ControlDependency
    {
        [System.ComponentModel.DesignerSerializationVisibility(System.ComponentModel.DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content), 
            PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
        public List<ControlDependency> ControlDependencies { get; set; }

       **Code Emitted

    }

And is declared in the custom control as

[System.ComponentModel.DesignerSerializationVisibility(System.ComponentModel.DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content),
    PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty),
    NotifyParentProperty(true)]
    public List<ControlDependencySetting> ControlDependencySettings { get; set; }

Also note that i do create an instance of these lists in each constructor.

*EDIT***

You have called your list Method and your element Method , you are expecting child elements of ManagementDelegate to be automatically added to the list called Method, this is not how it works, when you want to add to the list you need to specify the list element and add inside of it , you have done the same for parameters.

This is what your current structure would be expecting.

<SelectMethods> 
  <Method> <--Now this is the list of methods, you have also called it method        
      <Method Name="meth"> <-- This is an element of the method type to add to the list you have called Method
            <Parameter> <-- This is the list of parameters you have called it Parameter
                <Parameter ParameterName="id" />   <--parameter element             
                <Parameter ParameterName="word" />                
            <Parameter>
      </Method>
  </Method>

You should rename to Methods and Parameters and use accordingly or re-structure your layout.

Something like

    //provides access to multiple ManagementMethods
[Serializable(), ParseChildren(true)]
public class ManagementDelegate
{
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always),
     PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
     public List<ManagementMethod> Methods
     {
         get; set;
     }
}

//provides access to multiple ManagementParameters and the method name
[Serializable(), PersistChildren(false),TypeConverter(typeof(ExpandableObjectConverter))]
public class ManagementMethod
{
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always)]
     public string Name
     {
         get; set;
     }
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always),
     PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
     public List<ManagementParameter> Parameters
     {
         get; set;
     }
}
//describes a parameter of method.
[Serializable(), PersistChildren(false),TypeConverter(typeof(ExpandableObjectConverter))]
public class ManagementParameter
{
     [Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always)]
     public string ParameterName
     {
         get; set;
     }
}
//===============================
//here is the part of user control code behind that uses the ManagementDelegate class.
[Browsable(true), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always),
PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
public ManagementDelegate SelectDelegate
{
    get; set;
}

Then

<UC:MyUc ID="test" runat="server">
    <SelectDelegate>
       <Methods>
          <Method Name="meth">
            <Parameters>
                <Parameter ParameterName="id" />
                <Parameter ParameterName="word" />
            <Parameters>
          </Method>
          <Method Name="meth2">
          </Method>
        </Methods>
    </SelectDelegate>
</UC:MyUc>

I believe there may also be away to specify that innner content belongs to a specific property by default, see PersistenceMode.InnerDefaultProperty – but i have never tried this.