BindingNavigator no longer appears in the Toolbox (and does not have a designer)

Environment

Problem identified on Visual Studio

• Version 17.4.1
• Version 16.11.19

.NET version

.NET 5 .NET 6 .NET 7

Did this work in a previous version of Visual Studio and/or previous .NET release?

Was working on .NET 4.x

Issue description

When creating a new form, you cannot choose to add a BindingNavigator : he is not available in the Toolbox. If you add it manually in the Designer file, it works correctly, but you do not benefit of the designer calling the “AddStandardItems” to automatically add the first buttons.

I don’t know if this is related, but when investigating in the source code, the BindingNavigator refers to the BindingNavigatorDesigner class (in System.Design 4.0.0.0), but there is no Type Forwarding to the new System.Windows.Forms.Design dll and anyway, the designer does not exist in that new DLL.

I also tried to create a class inheriting from BindingNavigator (see below).

[Designer(typeof(MediaBindingNavigatorDesigner))]
public class MediaBindingNavigator : BindingNavigator
{
    [EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)]
    public MediaBindingNavigator() { }
    public MediaBindingNavigator(BindingSource bindingSource) : base(bindingSource) { }
    [EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)]
    public MediaBindingNavigator(IContainer container) : base(container) { }
    public MediaBindingNavigator(bool addStandardItems) : base(addStandardItems: addStandardItems) { }
}

I tried to create my own custom designer to be able to at least call the AddStandardItems methods, but for some reason I don’t understand, this designer is not used at design time.

I have the following warning displaying (see full log in the diags below) [22:07:40.7412379] [ACQ]: warn: Microsoft.DotNet.DesignTools.TypeRouting.TypeRoutingService[0] [22:07:40.7412379] [ACQ]: Falling back to ‘Microsoft.DotNet.DesignTools.Designers.ControlDesigner’ for ‘ACQ.MediaBindingNavigatorDesigner’

Steps to reproduce

• Create a new .NET Windows Forms app
• Open the newly created Form1
• Open the Toolbox --> The BindingNavigator is not present

When going to the “Choose Items”, you can see that the BindingNavigator is correctly selected. Deselect it and open the “Choose Items” windows --> Still checked

Diagnostics

[22:07:40.7372505] Sending request: Controls/GetAncestors
[22:07:40.7382394] Controls/GetAncestors took 00:00:00.0013195.
[22:07:40.7392394] Sending request: Transactions/Open
[22:07:40.7402385] Transactions/Open took 00:00:00.0010285.
[22:07:40.7402385] Notifying 1 'Undo/UndoUnitCreated' handlers
[22:07:40.7402385] 'Undo/UndoUnitCreated' notification received: Creating components in tool 'MediaBindingNavigator'.62aa060d-3693-42d5-9986-819f26c5b264
[22:07:40.7402385] Notifying 1 'Transactions/Opening' handlers
[22:07:40.7402385] Notifying 1 'Transactions/Opened' handlers
[22:07:40.7402385] Sending request: DesignerHosts/CreateComponent
[22:07:40.7412379] [ACQ]: warn: Microsoft.DotNet.DesignTools.TypeRouting.TypeRoutingService[0]
[22:07:40.7412379] [ACQ]:       Falling back to 'Microsoft.DotNet.DesignTools.Designers.ControlDesigner' for 'ACQ.MediaBindingNavigatorDesigner'
[22:07:40.7538628] DesignerHosts/CreateComponent took 00:00:00.0136782.
[22:07:40.7538628] Notifying 1 'Components/Added' handlers
[22:07:40.7548765] Sending request: Objects/GetAttributes [137]
[22:07:40.7579094] Objects/GetAttributes took 00:00:00.0027005.
[22:07:40.7579094] Added designer component: 'mediaBindingNavigator2'
[22:07:40.7579094] Notifying 1 'Components/Changing' handlers
[22:07:40.7579094] 'Components/Changing' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Text
[22:07:40.7579094] Sending request: Objects/GetProperties
[22:07:40.7913385] Objects/GetProperties took 00:00:00.0329720.
[22:07:40.7923383] Notifying 1 'Components/Changed' handlers
[22:07:40.7923383] 'Components/Changed' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Text
[22:07:40.7923383] Notifying 1 'Components/Changing' handlers
[22:07:40.7923383] 'Components/Changing' notification received: Form1.Controls
[22:07:40.7933519] Notifying 1 'Components/Changing' handlers
[22:07:40.7933519] 'Components/Changing' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Size
[22:07:40.7933519] Notifying 1 'Components/Changed' handlers
[22:07:40.7933519] 'Components/Changed' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Size
[22:07:40.7943368] Notifying 1 'Components/Changing' handlers
[22:07:40.7943368] 'Components/Changing' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Location
[22:07:40.7943368] Notifying 1 'Components/Changed' handlers
[22:07:40.7943368] 'Components/Changed' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Location
[22:07:40.7943368] Notifying 1 'Components/Changed' handlers
[22:07:40.7943368] 'Components/Changed' notification received: Form1.Controls
[22:07:40.7953366] Notifying 1 'Components/Changing' handlers
[22:07:40.7953366] 'Components/Changing' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Text
[22:07:40.7953366] Notifying 1 'Components/Changed' handlers
[22:07:40.7953366] 'Components/Changed' notification received: mediaBindingNavigator2.Text
[22:07:40.7963361] Sending request: Transactions/Close: Cancel = False
[22:07:40.7973221] Transactions/Close took 00:00:00.0009933.
[22:07:40.7973221] Notifying 1 'Transactions/Closing' handlers
[22:07:40.7973221] Notifying 1 'Undo/UndoUnitAdded' handlers
[22:07:40.7973221] 'Undo/UndoUnitAdded' notification received: 62aa060d-3693-42d5-9986-819f26c5b264
[22:07:40.7973221] Notifying 1 'Transactions/Closed' handlers
[22:07:40.8003341] Updating selection in server process.
[22:07:40.8003341] Sending request: Selection/UpdateSelection
[22:07:40.8003341] [ACQ]: info: Microsoft.DotNet.DesignTools.Host.RemoteSelectionService[0]
[22:07:40.8003341] [ACQ]:       Attempting to update selection: 1 components, Replace
[22:07:40.8043510] [ACQ]: info: Microsoft.DotNet.DesignTools.Host.RemoteSelectionService[0]
[22:07:40.8043510] [ACQ]:       Made change: True
[22:07:40.8043510] Selection/UpdateSelection took 00:00:00.0046853.
[22:07:40.8043510] Notifying 1 'Selection/Changed' handlers
[22:07:40.8053509] Sending request: Properties/GetValue
[22:07:40.8103481] Properties/GetValue took 00:00:00.0046069.
[22:07:40.8113492] Sending request: Controls/GetParent
[22:07:40.8123471] Controls/GetParent took 00:00:00.0007074.
[22:07:40.8123471] Sending request: Controls/GetParent
[22:07:40.8123471] Controls/GetParent took 00:00:00.0006207.
[22:07:40.8123471] Sending request: Controls/GetParent
[22:07:40.8133471] Controls/GetParent took 00:00:00.0005641.
[22:07:40.8143548] Sending request: Commands/HasLockedControl
[22:07:40.8153551] Commands/HasLockedControl took 00:00:00.0005484.
[22:07:41.1534121] Sending request: Designers/GetDesignerVerbs
[22:07:41.1554152] Designers/GetDesignerVerbs took 00:00:00.0014788.
[22:07:41.1554152] Sending request: Designers/GetDesignerActionLists
[22:07:41.1564145] Designers/GetDesignerActionLists took 00:00:00.0011682.
[22:07:41.8184104] [ACQ]: Sending request to remove roots:
[22:07:41.8184104] [ACQ]:   - f1: 2 root(s).
[22:07:41.8184104] Sending request: Objects/RemoveObjectRoots
[22:07:41.8194139] Objects/RemoveObjectRoots took 00:00:00.0007642.

[despiojo]

@merriemcgaw @deinok Hi there, we also need this issue resolved ASAP, we have junior developers unable to create controls, code-behind (one in particular), it’s tremendously frustrating.

[pedautreppe]

Thanks @merriemcgaw for the feedback ! Yes indeed, bringing back the designer would be great. It helps a lot when dealing with BindingNavigator. By the way, it would also help to expose the different designers as public classes and not internal ones. Much easier when we need to extend one behavior ! 😉

When the blog post is ready, can you also publish a link here ?