The JadeDotNetVisualComponent class is the superclass for classes that are proxies for GUI .NET classes; that is, .NET controls. This enables you to use existing third-party functions such as highly specialized controls within your JADE applications.
The corresponding .NET object is created in one of three ways, as follows.
When the control is dropped onto a form in the JADE Painter
When a form (with the .NET control) is loaded at run time
When the addControl method of the Form class is used to add a dynamically created control
Some controls include a designer, which is usually a form that enables you to set the properties of the control. These are particularly useful when the control is made up of a number of sub-controls or when properties have dependencies on other properties. The first time a control with a designer is dropped onto a form in the JADE Painter, the designer form is displayed. When the designer form is closed, the control modified by the designer is shown on the form being painted.
When a control with a designer has been displayed in the JADE Painter, the designer can usually be reactivated by using the context menu. The context menu in the JADE Painter can include up to 10 extra entries corresponding to the first 10 available designer verbs when it is activated over a .NET control. These are options defined in the designer that perform various designer options, including re-activating the designer, or altering the control in some way.
Transparent sibling controls are always painted before a JadeDotNetVisualComponent control, regardless of their zOrder settings. It is not possible to handle the painting of transparent controls in the correct zOrder when some controls are directly painted by JADE and others are painted by Windows separately.
When you import a .NET assembly that contains controls into JADE, an abstract class of the specified assembly name is created as a subclass of the JadeDotNetVisualComponent class. This abstract class becomes the superclass for all of the control classes that are subsequently generated, corresponding to controls in the imported .NET assembly, as shown in the following image.
JadeDotNetVisualComponent subclasses inherit all of the standard properties and methods of the Window and Control classes, although not all of these inherited properties and methods have meaning to the control. (For a caveat on SVG files when printing JadeDotNetVisualComponent controls, see "
To refresh a .NET control that has changed but is already imported into JADE, simply import the .NET assembly again and give it the same name that it had previously.
An imported .NET control is added to the Control palette of the JADE Painter and cannot be distinguished from standard JADE-supplied controls.
The JadeDotNetVisualComponent class is supported on forms defined as Web pages only when running on a Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.
In JADE thin client mode, .NET controls run only on the presentation client.
For a summary of the JADE method defined in the JadeDotNetVisualComponent class, see "JadeDotNetVisualComponent Class Method", in the following subsection. (Refer to your .NET documentation for details about properties, methods, or constants provided by imported .NET assembly.)
