The ESRI.ArcGIS.ADF assembly provides a number of base classes to help you create new custom components for ArcGIS. The classes are abstract classes which cannot be instantiated and frequently contain only partial or no implementation code. They can only be used by being inherited by another class. Although similar in concept as interfaces, they differ significantly from interfaces in that a class may implement any number of interfaces, but it can inherit from only one abstract class. 

 

Along with the samples and ArcGIS Item templates available in the .NET SDK, they illustrate how to implement these common ArcGIS components more efficiently.

 

The table below lists the base classes (under ESRI.ArcGIS.ADF.BaseClasses namespace) which can be inherited by their corresponding custom components, along with the available ArcGIS item templates or samples.

 

Custom Components	Base Classes	Item Templates/Samples
Commands and Tools (How To)
Command	BaseCommand	Template: ArcGIS > Base Command
Tool	BaseTool	Template: ArcGIS > Base Tool
Command Bars (How To)
Toolbar	BaseToolbar	Template: ArcGIS > Base Toolbar
Menu	BaseMenu	Template: ArcGIS > Base Menu
Context menu (Desktop)	BaseMenu	Template: ArcGIS > Desktop > Context Menu
Layers
Custom layer	BaseCustomLayer	Sample: RSS Weather Layer
Custom globe layer	BaseCustomGlobeLayer	Sample: RSS Weather 3D Layer

 

Here is a screenshot showing some of the ArcGIS item templates in Visual Studio 2005: