Categories and Property Management in Indicator Settings

This indicator is intended to demonstrate how you can control the collapse and expansion of categories and properties to provide the user with a flexible and convenient interface for managing objects.

Main functions:

• Category management: The CategoryManager property controls the collapse/expand state for the category named Managed category.
• Property management: The PropertyManager property controls the collapse/expand state of the ExpandableProperty property, which is represented by the PenSettings type.

Main properties:

• CategoryManager - controls whether the Managed category is expanded in the editor.
• PropertyManager - controls whether the ExpandableProperty is expanded in the editor.
• ExpandableProperty - managed property.
• ManagedProperty1 and ManagedProperty2 - properties belonging to the Managed category.

Steps to create an indicator:

• Inherit your indicator from the Indicator class and implement the IPropertiesEditorOwner interface so that your indicator can interact with the property editor:

using ATAS.Indicators;
using OFT.Rendering.Settings;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Drawing;
 
[DisplayName("Expand and collapse categories or properties")]
public class ExpandAndCollapseCategoriesOrPropertiesIndicator : Indicator, IPropertiesEditorOwner
{
 
}

• Define private fields to store the state of categories and properties, and to work with the property editor object:

private IPropertiesEditor _propertiesEditor;
private bool _categoryManager;   
private bool _propertyManager;

• Add public properties for grouping and display in the property editor:

[Display(Name = "Category", GroupName = "Management")]
public bool CategoryManager
{
    get => _categoryManager;
    set => SetProperty(ref _categoryManager, value, () => _propertiesEditor?.SetIsExpandedCategory(_managedCategoryCategoryName, value));
}
 
[Display(Name = "Property", GroupName = "Management")]
public bool PropertyManager
{
    get => _propertyManager;
    set => SetProperty(ref _propertyManager, value, () => _propertiesEditor?.SetIsExpandedProperty(nameof(ExpandableProperty), value));
}

Use SetProperty to notify about changes and perform specific actions when a property's state changes.

• In this example, using the CategoryManager property, we will manage a group of properties such as ManagedProperty1 and ManagedProperty2, and using the PropertyManager property, we will manage the ExpandableProperty property of the PenSettings type, which has several properties for configuration.

[Display(Name = "Expandable property", GroupName = "Custom class properties")]
public PenSettings ExpandableProperty { get; set; } = new();
 
[Display(Name = "Managed Property 1", GroupName = _managedCategoryCategoryName)]
public int ManagedProperty1 { get; set; }
 
[Display(Name = "Managed Property 2", GroupName = _managedCategoryCategoryName)]
public int ManagetProperty2 { get; set; }

• Implement the IPropertiesEditorOwner property, which will store the editor object and handle its changes:

[Browsable(false)]
 IPropertiesEditor IPropertiesEditorOwner.PropertiesEditor
 {
     get => _propertiesEditor;
     set
     {
         if (_propertiesEditor == value)
             return;
 
         _propertiesEditor = value;
         PropertiesEditorOnChanged(value);
     }
 }

• Implement the PropertiesEditorOnChanged method, which will update the state of the property editor when it changes:

private void PropertiesEditorOnChanged(IPropertiesEditor? newValue)
{
    newValue?.BeginInit();
 
    newValue?.SetIsExpandedCategory(_managedCategoryCategoryName, CategoryManager);
    newValue?.SetIsExpandedProperty(nameof(ExpandableProperty), PropertyManager);
 
    newValue?.EndInit();
}

Categories and properties are managed in this method between calls to the BeginInit and EndInit editor methods.

To manage categories, we call the SetIsExpandedCategory editor method and pass the name of the managed category as the first argument and the CategoryManager control property as the second argument. To manage a property, we call the SetIsExpandedProperty editor method and pass the name of the managed property as the first argument and the PropertyManager control property as the second argument.

This is how our indicator settings window will look when the managed group and property are collapsed:

Group and property are collapsed

If you check the Category property, the Managed category group will expand.

The group has been expanded

If you check the Property property, the Expandable property will expand and you will have access to its properties, such as Color, Line style, Width.

The property has been expanded

Below is the complete code for this indicator:

using ATAS.Indicators;
using OFT.Rendering.Settings;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Drawing;
 
[DisplayName("Expand and collapse categories or properties")]
public class ExpandAndCollapseCategoriesOrPropertiesIndicator : Indicator, IPropertiesEditorOwner
{
    #region Fields
 
    private const string _managedCategoryCategoryName = "Managed category";
 
    private IPropertiesEditor _propertiesEditor;
    private bool _categoryManager;   
    private bool _propertyManager;
 
    #endregion
 
    #region Properties
 
    [Display(Name = "Category", GroupName = "Management")]
    public bool CategoryManager
    {
        get => _categoryManager;
        set => SetProperty(ref _categoryManager, value, () => _propertiesEditor?.SetIsExpandedCategory(_managedCategoryCategoryName, value));
    }
 
    [Display(Name = "Property", GroupName = "Management")]
    public bool PropertyManager
    {
        get => _propertyManager;
        set => SetProperty(ref _propertyManager, value, () => _propertiesEditor?.SetIsExpandedProperty(nameof(ExpandableProperty), value));
    }
 
    [Display(Name = "Expandable property", GroupName = "Custom class properties")]
    public PenSettings ExpandableProperty { get; set; } = new();
 
    [Display(Name = "Managed Property 1", GroupName = _managedCategoryCategoryName)]
    public int ManagedProperty1 { get; set; }
 
    [Display(Name = "Managed Property 2", GroupName = _managedCategoryCategoryName)]
    public int ManagetProperty2 { get; set; }
 
    #endregion
 
    #region ctor
 
    public ExpandAndCollapseCategoriesOrPropertiesIndicator() : base(true)
    {
        DenyToChangePanel = true;
        DataSeries[0].IsHidden = true;
 
        ExpandableProperty.Color = Color.Red.Convert();
    }
 
    #endregion
 
    #region Protected methods
 
    protected override void OnCalculate(int bar, decimal value)
    {
    }
 
    #endregion
 
    #region Implementation of IPropertiesEditorOwner
 
    [Browsable(false)]
    IPropertiesEditor IPropertiesEditorOwner.PropertiesEditor
    {
        get => _propertiesEditor;
        set
        {
            if (_propertiesEditor == value)
                return;
 
            _propertiesEditor = value;
            PropertiesEditorOnChanged(value);
        }
    }
 
    private void PropertiesEditorOnChanged(IPropertiesEditor? newValue)
    {
        newValue?.BeginInit();
 
        newValue?.SetIsExpandedCategory(_managedCategoryCategoryName, CategoryManager);
        newValue?.SetIsExpandedProperty(nameof(ExpandableProperty), PropertyManager);
 
        newValue?.EndInit();
    }
 
    #endregion
}