.NET Windows® Forms Custom Controls

Attributes

New to the .NET framework is the concept of attribute-based development. Attributes provide an extensibility mechanism for classes, properties, methods, parameters, and return values. By applying attributes to a particular entity, the default behavior can be altered to produce a new desired result. For a complete description of attributes, refer to the MSDN help.

The .NET designer architecture makes heavy use of attributes to simplify common development tasks. Examples include defining the default value for a property, assigning a category and description to properties, and indicating the default event for a control, to name a few. No discussion of the designer architecture would be complete without a list of attributes commonly used ...