Question

My custom control sets the values I want in the Properties for Anchor on my Custom Label.

With Serializable set to Visible I’m getting the code generated for run-time, which I didn’t with type Content, but the control in the designer has the Anchor values a Label is given, (Left and Top), so to get the correct behaviour in the designer needs a manual (non-)change to the Anchor property.

I don’t really want to write a designer to make this work (at my rate of progress I don’t think that’s wise!), is there an easier way?

public:
 [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility::Visible)]
  virtual property System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles Anchor
   {
    System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles get() override
     {
      return static_cast<System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles
       ((System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles::Top
       | System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles::Left) 
       | System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles::Right);;
     }

    void set(System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles x) override
     {
      __super::Anchor = static_cast<System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles
       ((System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles::Top
       | System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles::Left) 
       | System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles::Right);

     }
   }

Answer 1

You are hardcoding the property value. So assign the value in the constructor, make it non-browsable so it won’t show up in the properties window and ensure that the value cannot be changed and doesn’t get serialized. Like this:

ref class MyControl : Control {
public:
    MyControl() {
        __super::Anchor = AnchorStyles::Top | AnchorStyles::Left | AnchorStyles::Right;
    }

    [Browsable(false), EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState::Never)]
    [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility::Hidden)]
    virtual property System::Windows::Forms::AnchorStyles Anchor {
        AnchorStyles get() override {
            return __super::Anchor;
        }
        void set(AnchorStyles) override {
            // do nothing
        }
    }
};