About User Component controls

User Component controls are specialized user control components designed to work as user interface (UI) controls in web clients only. These user controls can be added as components to the standard Design Mode Toolbox. They are capable of leveraging attributes and behaviors specified as component properties, which makes them look and act much like native form components.

You can add User Component controls to forms and manipulate them in Windows client Design Mode; however, they are functional only in the web client. In the Windows (smart) client, they display a placeholder in Design Mode, but in Runtime Mode, they are not visible and display as blank spaces.

User Component controls are created and edited using the Web User Control Assets dialog box. User Component assets use the file extension ".component" and contain the User Component metadata necessary for Windows client to render them.