Adding a Footer to the DataGridView component

I have been searching for sites and forums that would give me a any hint on having a footer on the .net DataGridView control. It was frustrating. I found some, but not what I was looking for. I use windows forms. It would have been easier if I was into web. I decided to create one for myself. It's not complete, but it works with me. It needs improvement and I hope that some programmers who might pass through this blog will help me with it :D.

Limitations:

1. Cannot set Footer values during design time.
2. Can sometimes hide a row when scrolled to the last item in the grid.
   

What I did was just create a user control that inherits the DataGridView control and add a StatusStrip to act as the footer.


public partial class MyDataGridView : DataGridView
{

public StatusStrip Footer
{
get { return (StatusStrip)this.Controls["Footer"]; }
}

private bool _footerVisible;
[Browsable(false)]
///

/// Sets or Gets the value specifying if a footer bar is shown or not
///

public bool FooterVisible
{
get { return _footerVisible; }
set
{
_footerVisible = value;
this.Controls["Footer"].Visible = _footerVisible;
}
}

public MyDataGridView()
{
InitializeComponent();
StatusStrip footer = new StatusStrip();
footer.Name = "Footer";
footer.ForeColor = Color.Black;

this.Controls.Add(footer);
((StatusStrip)this.Controls["Footer"]).Visible = _footerVisible;
((StatusStrip)this.Controls["Footer"]).VisibleChanged += new EventHandler(RDataGridView_VisibleChanged);
this.Scroll += new ScrollEventHandler(RDataGridView_Scroll);
_footerItems = ((StatusStrip)this.Controls["Footer"]).Items;
}
}


The next thing to do is to compile the user control then get on to using it. We can then specify the footer's properties programmatically at the form that uses it (like add a progress bar or label to the footer).

Well, I hope someone will be able to read this blog and enhance the control.