Composite UI Application Block

Benefits
Building an application with the Composite UI Application Block provides the following benefits:

• It allows you to build clients composed of independent yet cooperating modules.
• It separates the concerns of module builders from the concerns of the shell developer, allowing business units to concentrate on development of domain-specific modules instead of the client architecture.
• It provides an architectural framework for producing a consistent and high quality integrated desktop development.
• It increases productivity and reduces overall development time through consolidating architect and developer efforts.

To use the Composite UI Application Block in your development environment, you need the following:

Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or Windows Server 2003 operating system Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (recommended, but not required)
NUnit 2.2.0 (available from the NUnit Web site http://www.nunit.org/)


In a Composite UI Application Block application, a WorkItem is a container.

Flow of Components
The Composite UI Application Block supports a containment model.
A container determines the visibility and life cycle of its components.
A component can access any other component that is in the same container. Components flow from a parent container to a child container. This means that the components in a child container can access components in its parent container.
The root of a Composite UI Application Block application is the shell. The shell typically contains workspaces, UI Extension Sites, commands, and services.