How can I get System.Type from the string "System.Drawing.Color"

Question

I have an xml stored property of some control

<Prop Name="ForeColor" Type="System.Drawing.Color" Value="-16777216" /> 

I want to convert it back like others

 System.Type type = System.Type.GetType(propertyTypeString); object propertyObj = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(type).ConvertFromString(propertyValueString); 

System.Type.GetType ("System.Drawing.Color") returns null.

The question is how to get the color type from the string correctly.

(it’s better not to make a special case only for color properties)

Update

from time to time this xml will be edited manually

Answer 1

You need to specify the assembly as well as the type name when using Type.GetType() , unless the type is in mscorlib or the assembly currently in mscorlib .

If you know this in the System.Drawing assembly, you can use Assembly.GetType() instead - or perhaps look at the whole list of possible assemblies:

 Type type = candidateAssemblies.Select(assembly => assembly.GetType(typeName)) .Where(type => type != null) .FirstOrDefault(); if (type != null) { // Use it } else { // Couldn't find the right type } 

Answer 2

Do you have the System.Drawing assembly loaded? Do you have a link to it?

Answer 3

Do you store these properties in XML? If so, just create an AssemblyQualifiedName object instead of FullName when creating the node. This gives the assembly context information needed to load a type from a string using Type.GetType()

Answer 4

Perhaps this does not entirely apply to your problem, but I had a similar one. I needed to serialize / deserialize the color using XmlSerializer . After searching the Internet and combining the wisdom of several authors, I came up with a wrapper class:

 /// <summary> /// Color that can be xml-serialized /// </summary> public class SerializableColor { public int A { get; set; } public int R { get; set; } public int G { get; set; } public int B { get; set; } public int KnownColor { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Intended for xml serialization purposes only /// </summary> private SerializableColor() { } public SerializableColor(Color color) { this.A = color.A; this.R = color.R; this.G = color.G; this.B = color.B; this.KnownColor = (int)color.ToKnownColor(); } public static SerializableColor FromColor(Color color) { return new SerializableColor(color); } public Color ToColor() { if (KnownColor != 0) { return Color.FromKnownColor((KnownColor)KnownColor); } else { return Color.FromArgb(A, R, G, B); } } } 

Perhaps this can be applied to your situation. You see, the color class is sometimes stored not as a combination of ARGB values, but as a value of the KnownColor enumeration ... which must be preserved during serialization.