The Properties element can include a list of Property elements that define miscellaneous values for a component, such as default text related to a component that will appear in the UI design. Property element definitions are represented in the editable properties that appear in the UI Designer. For example, the following definitions in a .properties file will appear in the Properties tab of the UI Designer when declared in the component definition file. For the VerticalLabel example, the friendlyName definition is declared in the <component> element to display the component name in the palette and outline view.
Definitions in .properties file:
text=label text lineWidth=line width
Declarations in component definition file:
<properties> <property name="text" type="localizedString" default="Vertigo"/> <property name="lineWidth" type="integer" default="1" minValue="0" maxValue="5"/> </properties>
Represented in UI Designer as shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1. Component Properties
Components also inherit the properties of their base components, and can have properties added dynamically at runtime by using the <extensionProperties> element.