Question

I created this User Control:

I added that User Control to the main Form and now I want to customize it.
So I will have to add text to those 3 Buttons, text in Label, populate ListBox and setting Click Events for the buttons.

What is the proper way to do that?

I looked around on the web and apparently the way to do it is to add public properties in user control that would expose individual property of control that I need.

Something like:

    public string Button1Text
    {
        get
        {
            return btn1.Text;
        }
        set
        {
            btn1.Text = value;
        }
    }

If I go this route, I would have to add quite a few public properties to this simple user control.

But isnt it easier just to expose whole control in user control like this?

    public Button MyButton1
    {
        get { return this.btn1; }
        set { this.btn1 = value; }
    }

That way the Main Form can simply access control and its properties as they are needed.

Answer 1

First method is better from the perspective of encapsulation. Second method causes users (forms) of your control to depend on the view of your control, and this prevents changes to the view in the future.