Help with Custom Format & Clipboard

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bern11 - 22 Jan 2008 02:56 GMT

I have an data structure with a bitmap as a member. I want to be able
to copy the object to the clipboard and paste it back into my app as a
new object, or into another app as a bitmap. It looks like the
dataobject class does this, but I'm not exactly sure how to set it up.

1) Should I just make a DataObject and call SetData twice, once with a
Bitmap object and once with a custom object, or 2) should I inherit from
dataobject and overload? 1st one sounds easier.

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Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP] - 22 Jan 2008 03:21 GMT

I believe if your structure/class is serializable, the DataObject class
will support placing it on the clipboard. The Bitmap class is serilizable,
so if your struct/class is serializable, then you can just add it as one
item.

Signature

- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mvp@spam.guard.caspershouse.com

>I have an data structure with a bitmap as a member. I want to be able to
>copy the object to the clipboard and paste it back into my app as a new
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Bitmap object and once with a custom object, or 2) should I inherit from
> dataobject and overload? 1st one sounds easier.

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bern11 - 22 Jan 2008 05:26 GMT

That is where I get confused. Do I declare it [Serializeable] and
implement the interfaces or inherit from DataObject and override?

The only example I've seen creates a DataObject and uses SetData
implicitly through the constructor.

> I believe if your structure/class is serializable, the DataObject
> class will support placing it on the clipboard. The Bitmap class is
> serilizable, so if your struct/class is serializable, then you can just
> add it as one item.

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Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP] - 22 Jan 2008 15:06 GMT

You want to add the Serializable attribute to your type, and then pass
that type to SetData on a DataObject. You don't want to have to implement
IDataObject (or extend DataObject), you want to make the calls to
DataObject, passing your object.

Signature

- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mvp@spam.guard.caspershouse.com

> That is where I get confused. Do I declare it [Serializeable] and
> implement the interfaces or inherit from DataObject and override?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>> serilizable, so if your struct/class is serializable, then you can just
>> add it as one item.

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bern11 - 23 Jan 2008 03:49 GMT

I'm 1/2-way there. I can put the object on the clipboard and detect it
with, I just can't get it back. I can paste the bitmap, just not the
object:

DataObject copyObject = new DataObject();
DataFormats.Format myFormat = DataFormats.GetFormat("myCustomType");

copyObject.SetData(DataFormats.Bitmap, myClassObject.bitmap);
copyObject.SetData("myCustomType", myClassObject);
Clipboard.SetDataObject(copyObject);

...
if (Clipboard.ContainsData("myCustomType")) {
??? = Clipboard.GetData("myCustomType");

...
// Class declared like this...
[Serializable]
public class myClassObject
{
Bitmap bitmap;
... other fields
}

> You want to add the Serializable attribute to your type, and then pass
> that type to SetData on a DataObject. You don't want to have to implement
> IDataObject (or extend DataObject), you want to make the calls to
> DataObject, passing your object.

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bern11 - 24 Jan 2008 00:40 GMT

I figured out the problem: One of my fields was an ImageAttributes data
type, and it didn't like being serialized. I set it to NonSerialzed and
everything worked. It was kindof annoying that my program compiled &
ran wihtout throwing an error, but it just didn't work... Whats up with
that?

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