Beginning Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2008

Chapter 14. Creating Windows Forms User Controls

In this book, you have used many of the controls that come with the .NET Framework, from the Button and the TextBox controls to the ListBox control. You may even have tried to use some of the more advanced controls such as the DataGrid and the TreeView controls. Although at first some of them may be hard to use, they offer a lot of functionality. These controls make it easy to create a user interface in your applications. Once you get to know how to use all their features, you will find that creating user interfaces also becomes a faster experience. Another important aspect that makes controls so useful is that they are reusable. You can drag and drop a Button control onto any form in any new Windows project and it works as a button should. The reuse factor is an important reason why Visual Basic, in general, became one of the most popular and is one of the most powerful development languages in use today. Did you know that you owe much of what you experience today in Visual Studio 2008, like Windows Forms Controls, to Visual Basic? The history of Windows Forms Controls has roots in something known as controls Visual Basic Extension (VBX). This later became more widely known as ActiveX, and today, revitalized and reborn into the .NET Framework, it is known as Windows Forms Controls.

In this chapter, you will:

• Learn what a Windows Forms Control is and how it works

• Create and use a Windows Forms Control

• Learn to add methods and events to ...