One of the major uses of the Visual Component Manager is the ability to publish reusable components on a shared repository database, where they can be located and used by other developers.
Visual Component Manager provides three ways to publish items to the repository database:
Selecting a component in the Windows Explorer and dragging it to a selected folder in the Visual Component Manager.
Selecting a project in your development environment and choosing Publish from the proJectÆs shortcut menu. Clicking Source Files publishes the projectÆs source code files, and Build Outputs compiles and publishes its outputs.
Selecting New from the Visual Component ManagerÆs shortcut menu.
Each of these methods opens the Publish Wizard, which walks you through a series of steps that allow you to publish a project for reuse. Depending on how you open the Publish Wizard, every step listed below may not apply.
To publish a component using the Publish Wizard
Select a Repository Folder. Specify the folder to which you want the project published. You may choose a folder on either a local or a shared repository database.
Title and Properties. Identify the component with a Component Name, Primary File Name, Type, and Author. You can also specify the kinds of additional files included with the published component: Sample Code, Source Code, Documentation and/or Help Files.
More Properties. Enter a Description of the component and use the Add or Remove buttons to supply Keywords that will allow others to search for it.
Select Additional File(s). Specify all the files that will be published as a part of the component in addition to the primary file already listed.. If the publish wizard has been launched from a project, the project files will be automatically included in the list, and you may add other files as well.
COM Registration. Specify which components must be registered for COM on the userÆs computer when this component is reused.
Click Finish to publish your component to Visual Component Manager.