About User Component controls
User Component controls are specialized components designed to work as user interface controls in web clients only. These user controls can be added as components to the standard designer Toolbox. They are capable of leveraging attributes and behaviors specified as component properties, which makes them look and act similar to native form components.
You can add User Component controls to forms and manipulate them in the Windows client Design Mode; however, they are functional only in the web client. In the Windows 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 .component file extension and contain the User Component metadata necessary for the framework to render them.