Component Classes

Both classes and components are units of reusable code. To author a component, you start with a class. A class becomes a component when it conforms to a standard for component interaction. This standard is provided through the IComponent interface. Any class that implements the IComponent interface is a component. For details about interfaces, see Interfaces (C# Programming Guide) and Interfaces (Visual Basic). Such standards allow developers to plug components together quickly to create larger programs. The common language specification (CLS) describes the way components authored for the common language runtime can interact. For details, see Language Independence and Language-Independent Components

The .NET Framework provides the IComponent interface and the Component base class to make it easy to author components that work well in the design environment, and UserControl and Control classes that make it easy to author visual components.

In This Section

• Component Class Characteristics
  Introduces class attributes and what they mean for a component class.

• Initialization and Termination of Components
  Explains where to write the code to initialize your component, dispose of system resources, and destroy your component.

• Component Instancing Changes in Visual Basic
  Describes differences in component creation between earlier and later versions of Visual Basic.

Related Sections

• Components and Containers
  Describes the logical relationship between components and containers.

• Component Authoring
  Lists topics about creating your own components.

• Extending Design-Time Support
  Describes how to implement design-time support for controls and components.

See Also

Reference

Component

IComponent

IDesigner