In Spread for Windows Forms, namespaces are organized to contain objects according to how they are used in the component and the features they provide. The objects in the Spread for Windows Forms component fall into three categories:
- objects that represent parts of the spreadsheet, like column, rows, and cells
- objects that represent cell types and the formatting of data in those cells
- objects that are conceptual representations of underlying aspects of the spreadsheet
For each of these there is a specific namespace. The namespaces are organized as follows:
| Namespace | Description |
|---|---|
| FarPoint.Win.Spread | Provides the base classes, interfaces, enumerations, and delegates for the parts of the spreadsheet in Spread. |
| FarPoint.Win.Spread.CellType | Provides the base classes, interfaces, and enumerations for the cell types. |
| FarPoint.Win.Spread.DrawingSpace | Provides the base classes, interfaces, and enumerations for the various shapes and objects that can be drawn in the drawing space. |
| FarPoint.Win.Spread.Model | Provides the base classes, interfaces, and enumerations for the models in Spread. |
The spreadsheet and cell type objects call the model objects. If you are new to working with Spread, or are new to developing in an object-oriented environment, you might want to use the spreadsheet and cell type objects at first, as you become familiar with features of Spread. However, intensive use of these objects can degrade your application’s performance.
If you are an experienced programmer, you might want to use the model objects directly, instead of accessing them through the shortcut objects. If you want to extend Spread for Windows Forms, you must use the model objects to do so.
You can see an illustration of the difference in performance between using model objects and using shortcut objects by running the Aged Receivables sample provided with the samples.
The spreadsheet objects and event arguments are in classes in the main FarPoint Spread namespace. For a discussion of how to work with these objects, refer to Shortcut Objects.
The cell type objects provide ways for you to set up different types of cells to help the user or limit the types of input. They are separated into their own namespace, the CellType namespace mainly to allow you to see all the cell type information in one place, separate from the spreadsheet objects. For details on the different cell types, refer to Customizing Interaction with Cell Types.
The conceptual objects, the more abstract objects, are referred to as "models." These models are responsible for managing the style information, formatting, and data in the component. These are found in the Model namespace. In Spread, you can use the default models or extend them through inheritance. Refer to Underlying Models for more information on models.
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