Chapter 11. Design-Time Integration: The Properties Window

11. Design-Time Integration: The Properties Window

Windows Forms applications are designed and built primarily for a user-driven mode of execution commonly known as the run time. A subset of Windows Forms classes, including components, controls, and user controls, is designed and built to support an additional developer-driven mode of execution known as the design time. The design time comprises VS05, the Windows Forms Designer, and the .NET Framework, and it supports the creation and management of design-time components as developers drag them onto forms and user controls, configure them, arrange them, and delete them.

Because components support two modes of execution, component developers should ensure that their implementations provide an adequate experience for both users and developers. Although the rest of this book focuses on what developers must do to target the run time, both this chapter and the next one show how developers can take full advantage of design-time integration support, which includes Properties window augmentation, code serialization, extender provider properties, rich property-editing support with UI type editors, custom designers, and smart tags.