Developing Components

This section defines what a component is and provides an overview of .NET Framework programming concepts that are especially relevant to component programming. While the term component has many meanings, in the .NET Framework a component is a class that implements the System.ComponentModel.IComponent interface or one that derives directly or indirectly from a class that implements this interface.

If you want your components and controls to be usable from other programming languages, you must author them in a Common Language Specification (CLS)-compliant language and ensure that all public and protected members are CLS-compliant. The .NET Framework SDK provides compilers for four CLS-compliant languages — Visual Basic .NET, C#, the Managed Extensions for C++, and JScript .NET. For more information about the CLS, see What is the Common Language Specification?.

In This Section

• Class vs. Component vs. Control
  Provides definitions for the terms component and control.
• Properties Overview
  Provides an overview of properties in the .NET Framework.
• Raising Events from a Component
  Provides links to topics that describe how to raise events.
• Design-Time Attributes for Components
  Describes design-time metadata attributes for components.
• Licensing Components and Controls
  Describes how to implement licensing for components.

Related Sections

• Developing Windows Forms Controls
  Describes how to author custom controls for Windows Forms.
• Developing ASP.NET Server Controls
  Describes how to author custom ASP.NET server controls.
• Enhancing Design-Time Support
  Describes how to implement design-time support for controls and components.
• Building XML Web Services Using ASP.NET
  Describes how to implement and use ASP.NET components in XML Web services.