Component Programming Walkthroughs

Walkthroughs give step-by-step instructions for common scenarios, which makes them a good place to start learning about the product or a particular feature area.

The following walkthroughs will help orient you to the use of components, user controls, and threading in your Visual Basic and Visual C# applications:

Extending Design-Time Support How-to and Walkthrough Topics

Lists links to How-to topics contained in this section.

How to: Access Design-Time Support in Windows Forms

Describes the assemblies and namespaces you can use to extend design-time support for Windows Forms controls.

Walkthrough: Authoring a Simple Multithreaded Component with Visual Basic

Demonstrates the development of a simple multithreaded component in Visual Basic, explaining how threads work and how to coordinate multiple threads in your component.

Walkthrough: Authoring a Simple Multithreaded Component with Visual C#

Demonstrates the development of a simple multithreaded component in Visual, explaining how threads work and how to coordinate multiple threads in your component.

How to: Serialize Collections of Standard Types with the DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute

Shows how to serialize collections with the DesignerSerializationVisibilityAttribute.

How to: Implement a Type Converter

Shows how to create a TypeConverter for a custom component.

Walkthrough: Adding Smart Tags to a Windows Forms Component

Shows how to create a DesignerActionList to show smart tags for your custom component.

How to: Access Design-Time Services

Demonstrates how to acquire and use design-time services.

How to: Implement a Designer for a Control

Demonstrates how to implement a designer for an extender provider control.

How to: Extend the Appearance and Behavior of Controls in Design Mode

Demonstrates how to create a custom designer that changes the appearance and behavior of a control at design time.

How to: Perform Custom Initialization for Controls in Design Mode

Demonstrates how to initialize components and controls as they are created by the design environment.

How to: Create and Configure Components in Design Mode

Demonstrates how to create components in the design environment programmatically.

How to: Adjust the Attributes, Events, and Properties of a Component in Design Mode

Demonstrates how to modify a component's API at design time.

How to: Create a Windows Forms Control That Takes Advantage of Design-Time Features

Demonstrates how to create a custom control and an associated custom designer.

How to: Implement an Extender Provider

Provides a detailed procedure with code to explain how to implement an extender provider class with code.

How to: Implement a HelpLabel Extender Provider

Demonstrates the full implementation of a HelpLabel extender provider class.

Walkthrough: Implementing a UI Type Editor

Provides a detailed procedure with code to explain how to implement an extender provider class.