The Visual Component Manager Publish Wizard takes you step by step through the process of publishing a component for reuse.
By filling in the requested information, you let Visual Component Manager know where and how to store the component, how to manage its interaction with the Visual Studio and other development environments, and how to identify it with keywords and search attributes so it can be easily located by other developers who wish to reuse it.
The wizard includes a standard set of buttons along the bottom. These buttons control the following actions.
| Button | Description |
| Help | Displays Help for the Publish Wizard. |
| Cancel | Closes the wizard; nothing is published. |
| < Back | Moves back one step in the process. |
| Next > | Moves forward one step in the process. |
| Finish | Publishes the item and closes the wizard. |
This step asks you to name the folder to which you want the item published, and to provide a name for the item. You may choose a folder on either a local or a shared repository database, or create a new folder. If you started the Publish Wizard from within Microsoft® Visual Basic®, Microsoft® Visual J++™, or Microsoft® Visual InterDev™, the name of the selected component is automatically filled in for you, but you can change it if you wish. If you started Publish Wizard from within a folder in Visual Component Manager, or by dragging an existing component into a Visual Component Manager folder, this step is skipped.
This step asks you to identify the component so that it can easily be located, and so Visual Component Manager will know how to "handle" it when you want to reuse it in a project or solution.
The name that will appear in the contents pane to identify the component.
The name of the primary component file. For example, if you are publishing an ActiveX® control, the primary file name will be the .ocx file that encapsulates the control.
Identifies the type of component you are publishing. This determines the handler assigned to the component for purposes of interacting with the tools environment and operating system, as well as providing a useful search criterion. For a list of supported component types, see Repositories, Folders, and Items.
The person who wrote or republished the component being published.
Select the check box next to each kind of additional support file you want to publish along with the component. The available options include:
This step gives you the opportunity to add a verbal description and search keywords to the component you are publishing. A clear description and well-chosen keywords will make your component easier to find by others, and therefore more likely to be reused.
A textual description of the component. The more detail you enter here, the better. A description of the component's suggested use, interfaces, inputs and outputs, and similar information will help other developers reuse the component more easily.
Keywords are a primary search mechanism in Visual Component Manager, so they should be chosen with care. Click Add to insert keywords from a list of available keywords that have previously been used in your database. If you need to insert new keywords, click on the plus (+) sign in the Add a Keyword dialog box.
In this step you name 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.
Specify which files, if any, Visual Component Manager must register for COM on the user's computer when this component is reused.
Once you click Finish, the wizard publishes the component to Visual Component Manager, and it appears in the folder you specified in step one.