Toolbox (Visual Studio SDK)
The Visual Studio Toolbox provides a collection of .NET Framework objects, derived from Component, or ActiveX controls, derived from IDataObject, providing functionality to editors and designers through the IDE's drag-and-drop mechanism.
There are two basic ways in which a VSPackage works with the Visual Studio Toolbox:
A VSPackage can add new data items and ActiveX controls to the Toolbox.
A VSPackage can be a target or consumer of existing Toolbox functionality, supporting the drag-and-drop operations and configuring the Toolbox's appearance.
By default, controls provided by a VSPackage must support one or more of the following Clipboard formats:
Clipboard format | Description |
|---|---|
CF_Text | Specifies the standard American National Standards Institute (ANSI) text format. |
CF_HTML | Specifies text that consists of HTML data. |
CF_NDP_TYPENAME | Specifies .NET Framework-based controls. Under the Managed Package Framework, Toolbox controls provided as ToolboxItem automatically support this format. |
For information about providing items to the Visual Studio Toolbox, including items of non-standard format, see Advanced Toolbox Control Development and How to: Provide Custom Toolbox Items By Using Interop Assemblies.