Creating Additional Components
Your organization can develop components as add-ons to Visual Studio 2005 so developers can build rich and compelling applications by using your component. This process involves:
Identifying the core .NET Compact Framework components that your component depends on. This determines whether your component is intended to run across the breadth of .NET Compact Framework devices or target functionality present for a specific device category.
Appropriately selecting a proper namespace name to encapsulate your components. Choosing proper and appropriate namespace names is important to give developers a consistent experience and avoiding namespace collisions with other component developers.
Exposing your component to developers at design time.
Packaging these items in either an independent setup or one that installs as an add-on to SDE.
When creating class libraries for a component, use the following namespace format:
[Company Name].[Device Type].[Technology]
For example, a hypothetical Microsoft component for interacting with the Today Screen of a Pocket PC would have the namespace:
Microsoft.PocketPC.TodayScreen
This namespace has "Microsoft" as the company providing the component, "PocketPC" as the specific device type being targeted, and "TodayScreen" as the technology being exposed by the component.
Microsoft and third parties can build optional components that extend the functionality of the .NET Compact Framework such as database, messaging, and specific user interface components.
Core Components and Extended Functionality
The following components are considered core to the .NET Compact Framework:
Common language runtime
Rich subset of .NET Framework classes
.NET Compact Framework-specific classes, including classes for using SQL Server CE.
Visual Basic 2005 language component
Visual C# language component
The following possible optional components can extend the functionality of the .NET Compact Framework:
Pocket PC extensions
Third-party databases
Third-party messaging