File: compmod\system\componentmodel\TypeDescriptionProvider.cs
Project: ndp\fx\src\System.csproj (System)
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <copyright file="TypeDescriptionProvider.cs" company="Microsoft">
//     Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
// </copyright>                                                                
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
namespace System.ComponentModel {
 
    using System;
    using System.Collections;
    using System.Reflection;
    using System.Security.Permissions;
 
    /// <devdoc>
    ///     The TypeDescriptionProvider class can be thought of as a "plug-in" for 
    ///     TypeDescriptor.  There can be multiple type description provider classes 
    ///     all offering metadata to TypeDescriptor
    /// </devdoc>
    [HostProtection(SharedState = true)]
    public abstract class TypeDescriptionProvider 
    {
        private TypeDescriptionProvider   _parent;
        private EmptyCustomTypeDescriptor _emptyDescriptor;
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     There are two versions of the constructor for this class.  The empty 
        ///     constructor is identical to using TypeDescriptionProvider(null).  
        ///     If a child type description provider is passed into the constructor, 
        ///     the "base" versions of all methods will call to this parent provider.  
        ///     If no such provider is given, the base versions of the methods will 
        ///     return empty, but valid values.
        /// </devdoc>
        protected TypeDescriptionProvider()
        {
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     There are two versions of the constructor for this class.  The empty 
        ///     constructor is identical to using TypeDescriptionProvider(null).  
        ///     If a child type description provider is passed into the constructor, 
        ///     the "base" versions of all methods will call to this parent provider.  
        ///     If no such provider is given, the base versions of the methods will 
        ///     return empty, but valid values.
        /// </devdoc>
        protected TypeDescriptionProvider(TypeDescriptionProvider parent)
        {
            _parent = parent;
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     This method is used to create an instance that can substitute for another 
        ///     data type.   If the method is not interested in providing a substitute 
        ///     instance, it should call base.
        ///
        ///     This method is prototyped as virtual, and by default returns null if no 
        ///     parent provider was passed.  If a parent provider was passed, this 
        ///     method will invoke the parent provider's CreateInstance method.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual object CreateInstance(IServiceProvider provider, Type objectType, Type[] argTypes, object[] args)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.CreateInstance(provider, objectType, argTypes, args);
            }
 
            if (objectType == null) {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("objectType");
            }
 
            return SecurityUtils.SecureCreateInstance(objectType, args);
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     TypeDescriptor may need to perform complex operations on collections of metadata.  
        ///     Since types are not unloaded for the life of a domain, TypeDescriptor will 
        ///     automatically cache the results of these operations based on type.  There are a 
        ///     number of operations that use live object instances, however.  These operations 
        ///     cannot be cached within TypeDescriptor because caching them would prevent the 
        ///     object from garbage collecting.  Instead, TypeDescriptor allows for a per-object 
        ///     cache, accessed as an IDictionary of key/value pairs, to exist on an object.  
        ///     The GetCache method returns an instance of this cache.  GetCache will return 
        ///     null if there is no supported cache for an object.
        /// </devdoc>
	    public virtual IDictionary GetCache(object instance)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.GetCache(instance);
            }
 
            return null;
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     This method returns an extended custom type descriptor for the given object.  
        ///     An extended type descriptor is a custom type descriptor that offers properties 
        ///     that other objects have added to this object, but are not actually defined on 
        ///     the object.  For example, in the .NET Framework Component Model, objects that 
        ///     implement the interface IExtenderProvider can "attach" properties to other 
        ///     objects that reside in the same logical container.  The GetTypeDescriptor 
        ///     method does not return a type descriptor that provides these extra extended 
        ///     properties.  GetExtendedTypeDescriptor returns the set of these extended 
        ///     properties.  TypeDescriptor will automatically merge the results of these 
        ///     two property collections.  Note that while the .NET Framework component 
        ///     model only supports extended properties this API can be used for extended 
        ///     attributes and events as well, if the type description provider supports it.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual ICustomTypeDescriptor GetExtendedTypeDescriptor(object instance)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.GetExtendedTypeDescriptor(instance);
            }
 
            if (_emptyDescriptor == null) {
                _emptyDescriptor = new EmptyCustomTypeDescriptor();
            }
 
            return _emptyDescriptor;
        }
 
        protected internal virtual IExtenderProvider[] GetExtenderProviders(object instance)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.GetExtenderProviders(instance);
            }
 
            if (instance == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("instance");
            }
            return new IExtenderProvider[0];
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     The name of the specified component, or null if the component has no name.
        ///     In many cases this will return the same value as GetComponentName. If the
        ///     component resides in a nested container or has other nested semantics, it may
        ///     return a different fully qualfied name.
        ///
        ///     If not overridden, the default implementation of this method will call
        ///     GetTypeDescriptor.GetComponentName.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual string GetFullComponentName(object component) {
            if (_parent != null) {
                return _parent.GetFullComponentName(component);
            }
 
            return GetTypeDescriptor(component).GetComponentName();
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     The GetReflection method is a lower level version of GetTypeDescriptor.  
        ///     If no custom type descriptor can be located for an object, GetReflectionType 
        ///     is called to perform normal reflection against the object.
        /// </devdoc>
        public Type GetReflectionType(Type objectType)
        {
            return GetReflectionType(objectType, null);
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     The GetReflection method is a lower level version of GetTypeDescriptor.  
        ///     If no custom type descriptor can be located for an object, GetReflectionType 
        ///     is called to perform normal reflection against the object.
        ///
        ///     This method is prototyped as virtual, and by default returns the
        ///     object type if no parent provider was passed.  If a parent provider was passed, this 
        ///     method will invoke the parent provider's GetReflectionType method.
        /// </devdoc>
        public Type GetReflectionType(object instance)
        {
            if (instance == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("instance");
            }
 
            return GetReflectionType(instance.GetType(), instance);
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     The GetReflection method is a lower level version of GetTypeDescriptor.  
        ///     If no custom type descriptor can be located for an object, GetReflectionType 
        ///     is called to perform normal reflection against the object.
        ///
        ///     This method is prototyped as virtual, and by default returns the
        ///     object type if no parent provider was passed.  If a parent provider was passed, this 
        ///     method will invoke the parent provider's GetReflectionType method.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual Type GetReflectionType(Type objectType, object instance)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.GetReflectionType(objectType, instance);
            }
 
            return objectType;
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     The GetRuntimeType method reverses GetReflectionType to convert a reflection type
        ///     back into a runtime type.  Historically the Type.UnderlyingSystemType property has
        ///     been used to return the runtime type.  This isn't exactly correct, but it needs
        ///     to be preserved unless all type description providers are revised.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual Type GetRuntimeType(Type reflectionType)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.GetRuntimeType(reflectionType);
            }
 
            if (reflectionType == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("reflectionType");
            }
 
            if (reflectionType.GetType().Assembly == typeof(object).Assembly)
            {
                return reflectionType;
            }
 
            return reflectionType.UnderlyingSystemType;
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     This method returns a custom type descriptor for the given type / object.  
        ///     The objectType parameter is always valid, but the instance parameter may 
        ///     be null if no instance was passed to TypeDescriptor.  The method should 
        ///     return a custom type descriptor for the object.  If the method is not 
        ///     interested in providing type information for the object it should 
        ///     return base.
        /// </devdoc>
        public ICustomTypeDescriptor GetTypeDescriptor(Type objectType)
        {
            return GetTypeDescriptor(objectType, null);
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     This method returns a custom type descriptor for the given type / object.  
        ///     The objectType parameter is always valid, but the instance parameter may 
        ///     be null if no instance was passed to TypeDescriptor.  The method should 
        ///     return a custom type descriptor for the object.  If the method is not 
        ///     interested in providing type information for the object it should 
        ///     return base.
        /// </devdoc>
        public ICustomTypeDescriptor GetTypeDescriptor(object instance)
        {
            if (instance == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("instance");
            }
 
            return GetTypeDescriptor(instance.GetType(), instance);
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     This method returns a custom type descriptor for the given type / object.  
        ///     The objectType parameter is always valid, but the instance parameter may 
        ///     be null if no instance was passed to TypeDescriptor.  The method should 
        ///     return a custom type descriptor for the object.  If the method is not 
        ///     interested in providing type information for the object it should 
        ///     return base.
        ///
        ///     This method is prototyped as virtual, and by default returns a
        ///     custom type descriptor that returns empty collections for all values
        ///     if no parent provider was passed.  If a parent provider was passed, 
        ///     this method will invoke the parent provider's GetTypeDescriptor 
        ///     method.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual ICustomTypeDescriptor GetTypeDescriptor(Type objectType, object instance)
        {
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.GetTypeDescriptor(objectType, instance);
            }
 
            if (_emptyDescriptor == null) {
                _emptyDescriptor = new EmptyCustomTypeDescriptor();
            }
 
            return _emptyDescriptor;
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     This method returns true if the type is "supported" by the type descriptor
        ///     and its chain of type description providers.
        /// </devdoc>
        public virtual bool IsSupportedType(Type type)
        {
            if (type == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("type");
            }
 
            if (_parent != null)
            {
                return _parent.IsSupportedType(type);
            }
 
            return true;
        }
 
        /// <devdoc>
        ///     A simple empty descriptor that is used as a placeholder for times
        ///     when the user does not provide their own.
        /// </devdoc>
        private sealed class EmptyCustomTypeDescriptor : CustomTypeDescriptor {
        }
    }
}