Friday, May 18, 2007

Types of Application Classes

The CAB provides a set of application classes that encapsulate the start-up process for different styles of application. These classes are:

  • FormShellApplication
  • ApplicationContextApplication
  • WindowsFormsApplication
  • CabShellApplication
  • CabApplication
FormShellApplication contains code to support Windows Forms applications that show a specific form at startup. Calling Application.Run to show that Form.

ApplicationContextApplication
class is used in Windows Forms applications that do not show a main window as part of the start-up process.
Examples are:
  • Applications that need to load as plug-ins into other systems.
  • Applications that need to start up without a visual window, show a "splash screen" window, or run as an icon in the Windows toolbar notification area.

WindowsFormsApplication class is used in any shell built on Windows Forms. This application type is based on the CABShellApplication class, and does not change or extend the start-up sequence.

CabShellApplication class is used in applications that require a shell (which may or may not be a window) to be shown at start-up.

CabApplication class manages the fundamental steps of initializing a Composite UI Application Block application.

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