[ACCEPTED]-How do I raise an event via reflection in .NET/C#?-devexpress

Here's a demo using generics (error checks 1 omitted):

using System;
using System.Reflection;
static class Program {
  private class Sub {
    public event EventHandler<EventArgs> SomethingHappening;
  }
  internal static void Raise<TEventArgs>(this object source, string eventName, TEventArgs eventArgs) where TEventArgs : EventArgs
  {
    var eventDelegate = (MulticastDelegate)source.GetType().GetField(eventName, BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic).GetValue(source);
    if (eventDelegate != null)
    {
      foreach (var handler in eventDelegate.GetInvocationList())
      {
        handler.Method.Invoke(handler.Target, new object[] { source, eventArgs });
      }
    }
  }
  public static void Main()
  {
    var p = new Sub();
    p.Raise("SomethingHappening", EventArgs.Empty);
    p.SomethingHappening += (o, e) => Console.WriteLine("Foo!");
    p.Raise("SomethingHappening", EventArgs.Empty);
    p.SomethingHappening += (o, e) => Console.WriteLine("Bar!");
    p.Raise("SomethingHappening", EventArgs.Empty);
    Console.ReadLine();
  }
}

In general, you can't. Think of events as 11 basically pairs of AddHandler/RemoveHandler methods (as that's 10 basically what what they are). How they're 9 implemented is up to the class. Most WinForms 8 controls use EventHandlerList as their implementation, but 7 your code will be very brittle if it starts 6 fetching private fields and keys.

Does the 5 ButtonEdit control expose an OnClick method which you could 4 call?

Footnote: Actually, events can have "raise" members, hence 3 EventInfo.GetRaiseMethod. However, this is never populated by C# and 2 I don't believe it's in the framework in 1 general, either.

You can't normally raise another classes 5 events. Events are really stored as a private 4 delegate field, plus two accessors (add_event 3 and remove_event).

To do it via reflection, you 2 simply need to find the private delegate 1 field, get it, then invoke it.

I wrote an extension to classes, which implements 11 INotifyPropertyChanged to inject the RaisePropertyChange<T> method, so 10 I can use it like this:

this.RaisePropertyChanged(() => MyProperty);

without implementing 9 the method in any base class. For my usage 8 it was to slow, but maybe the source code 7 can help someone.

So here it is:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Globalization;

namespace Infrastructure
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Adds a RaisePropertyChanged method to objects implementing INotifyPropertyChanged.
    /// </summary>
    public static class NotifyPropertyChangeExtension
    {
        #region private fields

        private static readonly Dictionary<string, PropertyChangedEventArgs> eventArgCache = new Dictionary<string, PropertyChangedEventArgs>();
        private static readonly object syncLock = new object();

        #endregion

        #region the Extension's

        /// <summary>
        /// Verifies the name of the property for the specified instance.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="bindableObject">The bindable object.</param>
        /// <param name="propertyName">Name of the property.</param>
        [Conditional("DEBUG")]
        public static void VerifyPropertyName(this INotifyPropertyChanged bindableObject, string propertyName)
        {
            bool propertyExists = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(bindableObject).Find(propertyName, false) != null;
            if (!propertyExists)
                throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture,
                    "{0} is not a public property of {1}", propertyName, bindableObject.GetType().FullName));
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the property name from expression.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="notifyObject">The notify object.</param>
        /// <param name="propertyExpression">The property expression.</param>
        /// <returns>a string containing the name of the property.</returns>
        public static string GetPropertyNameFromExpression<T>(this INotifyPropertyChanged notifyObject, Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
        {
            return GetPropertyNameFromExpression(propertyExpression);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Raises a property changed event.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
        /// <param name="bindableObject">The bindable object.</param>
        /// <param name="propertyExpression">The property expression.</param>
        public static void RaisePropertyChanged<T>(this INotifyPropertyChanged bindableObject, Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
        {
            RaisePropertyChanged(bindableObject, GetPropertyNameFromExpression(propertyExpression));
        }

        #endregion

        /// <summary>
        /// Raises the property changed on the specified bindable Object.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="bindableObject">The bindable object.</param>
        /// <param name="propertyName">Name of the property.</param>
        private static void RaisePropertyChanged(INotifyPropertyChanged bindableObject, string propertyName)
        {
            bindableObject.VerifyPropertyName(propertyName);
            RaiseInternalPropertyChangedEvent(bindableObject, GetPropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Raises the internal property changed event.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="bindableObject">The bindable object.</param>
        /// <param name="eventArgs">The <see cref="System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>
        private static void RaiseInternalPropertyChangedEvent(INotifyPropertyChanged bindableObject, PropertyChangedEventArgs eventArgs)
        {
            // get the internal eventDelegate
            var bindableObjectType = bindableObject.GetType();

            // search the base type, which contains the PropertyChanged event field.
            FieldInfo propChangedFieldInfo = null;
            while (bindableObjectType != null)
            {
                propChangedFieldInfo = bindableObjectType.GetField("PropertyChanged", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                if (propChangedFieldInfo != null)
                    break;

                bindableObjectType = bindableObjectType.BaseType;
            }
            if (propChangedFieldInfo == null)
                return;

            // get prop changed event field value
            var fieldValue = propChangedFieldInfo.GetValue(bindableObject);
            if (fieldValue == null)
                return;

            MulticastDelegate eventDelegate = fieldValue as MulticastDelegate;
            if (eventDelegate == null)
                return;

            // get invocation list
            Delegate[] delegates = eventDelegate.GetInvocationList();

            // invoke each delegate
            foreach (Delegate propertyChangedDelegate in delegates)
                propertyChangedDelegate.Method.Invoke(propertyChangedDelegate.Target, new object[] { bindableObject, eventArgs });
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the property name from an expression.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="propertyExpression">The property expression.</param>
        /// <returns>The property name as string.</returns>
        private static string GetPropertyNameFromExpression<T>(Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
        {
            var lambda = (LambdaExpression)propertyExpression;

            MemberExpression memberExpression;

            if (lambda.Body is UnaryExpression)
            {
                var unaryExpression = (UnaryExpression)lambda.Body;
                memberExpression = (MemberExpression)unaryExpression.Operand;
            }
            else memberExpression = (MemberExpression)lambda.Body;

            return memberExpression.Member.Name;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an instance of PropertyChangedEventArgs for the specified property name.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="propertyName">
        /// The name of the property to create event args for.
        /// </param>
        private static PropertyChangedEventArgs GetPropertyChangedEventArgs(string propertyName)
        {
            PropertyChangedEventArgs args;

            lock (NotifyPropertyChangeExtension.syncLock)
            {
                if (!eventArgCache.TryGetValue(propertyName, out args))
                    eventArgCache.Add(propertyName, args = new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
            }

            return args;
        }
    }
}

I removed 6 some parts of the original code, so the 5 extension should work as is, without references 4 to other parts of my library. But it's not 3 really tested.

P.S. Some parts of the code 2 was borrowed from someone else. Shame on 1 me, that I forgot from where I got it. :(

From Raising an event via reflection, although I think the answer in VB.NET, that 4 is, two posts ahead of this one will provide 3 you with the generic approach (for example, I'd 2 look to the VB.NET one for inspiration on 1 referencing a type not in the same class):

 public event EventHandler<EventArgs> MyEventToBeFired;

    public void FireEvent(Guid instanceId, string handler)
    {

        // Note: this is being fired from a method with in the same
        //       class that defined the event (that is, "this").

        EventArgs e = new EventArgs(instanceId);

        MulticastDelegate eventDelagate =
              (MulticastDelegate)this.GetType().GetField(handler,
               System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance |
               System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic).GetValue(this);

        Delegate[] delegates = eventDelagate.GetInvocationList();

        foreach (Delegate dlg in delegates)
        {
            dlg.Method.Invoke(dlg.Target, new object[] { this, e });
        }
    }

    FireEvent(new Guid(),  "MyEventToBeFired");

As it turns out, I could do this and didn't 4 realize it:

buttonEdit1.Properties.Buttons[0].Shortcut = new DevExpress.Utils.KeyShortcut(Keys.Alt | Keys.Down);

But if I couldn't I would've 3 have to delve into the source code and find 2 the method that raises the event.

Thanks 1 for the help, all.

It seems that the code from the accepted answer by Wiebe 1 Cnossen could be simplified to this:

private void RaiseEventViaReflection(object source, string eventName)
{
    ((Delegate)source
        .GetType()
        .GetField(eventName, BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
        .GetValue(source))
        .DynamicInvoke(source, EventArgs.Empty);
}

If you know that the control is a button 4 you can call its PerformClick() method. I have similar 3 problem for other events like OnEnter, OnExit. I can't 2 raise those events if I don't want to derive 1 a new type for each control type.