Provider API

At the bottom of Desktop APIs is the Provider Application Programming Interface (PAPI), a foundation that contains the interfaces, base classes, provider context, and exception classes.

As a developer, use the PAPI and extend the base classes to create new providers. See chapters 2 through 4 for more information.

The PAPI defines the interface for implementing the provider. A provider is the programmatic entity responsible for generating channels on the Desktop at runtime. The channel properties are read from the display profile by the provider code to dynamically generate the channel content.

There is not necessarily a one-to-one mapping between providers and channels; a single provider can generate one or more channels depending on how you configure it.