<componentType> Element

The <componentType> element is a child of the <component> element and is used to declare a component type backed by the containing component. The <componentType> element may not be used with the <systemService> element. When the <componentType> element used in a <component> element, a component is loaded and a component type that is backed by that component is created. The name of the component type is prefixed with the plug-in name when the component type is created in the system.

Component types are grouped by plug-in, and ordered by the component type order within these groupings. Groupings are ordered according to the plug-in order. Within a particular plug-in, the component types are indented under distinct group names as defined by the component types.

The <componentType> element has five attributes:

• name – The name of the component type.

  A name has a maximum of 64 characters. The name must start with a letter or underscore, followed by any number of letters, digits, or special characters, such as underscore (_), period (.), plus (+), minus (-), and space ( ). Unicode letters and digits are permitted.

• description (optional) – The description of the component type.

• group – The group name of the component type, if this component type is part of a hierarchy of component types.

  Group names follow the same requirements as the component type name. In addition, a group can be declared as hidden, which prevents the type from displaying in the component type drop down list on the component list page.

• order – A number that identifies where to put this component type in the drop-down list of component types in the browser interface.

  The order is a maximum of 18 characters. In addition to Unicode letters and digits, any character that you can type on an ASCII keyboard is permitted. The order should be sufficient to sequence all of the types that are defined within a particular plug-in.

• indentlevel – A number between 0 and 10 that identifies the level to which to indent this component type in a hierarchy of component types in the browser interface.