How to enable copy paste on disabled TextBox

Nil Pun Published at Dev

Nil Pun

I've a two way data binding set up for Title Text box on win form as below:

txtTitle.DataBindings.Add("Enabled", Person, "Editable", true, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged);

Unfortunately, when text is Disabled users can't copy the text. Is there any workaround to enabling the COPY/PASTE preserving two way data bind?

Measuring

A textbox control has a ReadOnly property which you can set to true. Binding should still be updated.

Option 1: Create a class with NotifyPropertyChanged

Create a class holding the data that will be bound:

public class Book : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    private string name;
    [Bindable(true)]
    public string Name
    {
        get { return name; }
        set
        {
            name = value; 
            if (PropertyChanged != null) 
                PropertyChanged(this, 
                                new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name"));
        }
    }

    public Book(string name)
    {
        Name = name;
    }
}

Create an instance of this class and bind it:

public Book TheBook { get; set; }

public Form1()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    TheBook = new Book("");
    textBox1.DataBindings.Add(new Binding("Text", 
                                          TheBook,
                                          "Name",
                                          true,
                                          DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged, 
                                          ""));
}

Change the property and it will update:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    TheBook.Name = "Different";
}

Option 2: Create a custom control to mask Enabled as ReadOnly

Create the following custom control and use that for binding to Enabled:

public partial class DBTextBox : TextBox
{
    private bool enabled;
    public new bool Enabled
    {
        get { return enabled; }
        set
        {
            enabled = value;
            base.Enabled = true;
            ReadOnly = !enabled;
        }
    }

    public DBTextBox()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
}

Whenever that DBTextBox is set to Enabled = false it will make it ReadOnly instead.

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