Customizable Composite Control

[Jeff Yun-Nikolac]

I'm trying to create a customizable composite control that
has properties that are easily retrievable but also lets
the user decide how to retrieve and bind data.

In specific I want to make a control that will have
properties which make a phone number easily retrievable,
but I also want to let the user decide if he wants his
clients to enter phone numbers as three text boxes (area
code, first three numbers, last three numbers), or one text
box (for the phone number), or select phone numbers from a
databound dropdownlist. I'm also thinking of adding in
other features such as a drop down box specifying
international codes, or giving the user the option of using
any international code.

I've never made a customizable custom control before so I'm
a little lost on where to start here. Should I be reading
up on templates or should I be making a generic type
container that has lots of design-time support or...?

Thanks for the help,
Jeff

 

[John Saunders]

....

I've never made a customizable custom control before so I'm
a little lost on where to start here. Should I be reading
up on templates or should I be making a generic type
container that has lots of design-time support or...?

First, you need to decide what it is you want to do.

Write down all the possible scenarios you want to support. Be clear on what
concepts your control want to embody. For instance, it will have a phone
number, it will have a list of country codes, it will have a choice of user
interfaces (single box, three boxes, dropdown).

Once you know what's in your control, you can design an interface to the
users of your control in terms of properties and methods.

You can also decide what you want to allow for appearance customization -
which styles do you want to expose, do you want to support templating,
things like that.

Only once you've decided what it is you want to do should you go read up on
how to do it. Otherwise you run the risk of creating something because you
read about it, and not because it's a good idea.