API, class, and table resources

Article
09/19/2022

This article describes where to find API documentation in Visual Studio and Microsoft Learn.

Application classes and tables

Application class and table documentation is in Visual Studio

You can find documentation for the Application classes in Microsoft Visual Studio. Search for the class name in Application Explorer and then display the code. You can find additional metadata about the class in the Properties window. You can download a list of all the tables in the Technical Reference Reports. For more information, see Find information about standard data entities.

Programming with application tables and classes

Application tables are similar to application classes, but with the following differences from classes:

Tables are persistent.
Table fields are always public.
A table almost always corresponds to a real object.
The definition of a table must sometimes be erased if you later want another table to extend it.

Design pattern of private new in application classes

All application classes are under Application Explorer > Classes. Every application class has the constructor method named new, even if the class has no new node in the Application Explorer. If the class has no explicit new node, the implicit new method is public. A design pattern that is sometimes used in the application classes is to declare the explicit new constructor method as private. Then a public static method is added to call the new method. The static method can restrict or control the call the new method based on various conditions, if necessary.

System classes and tables

System API, class, and table documentation in Microsoft Learn

Documentation for the classes and functions that are listed under System Documentation in Application Explorer is available in Microsoft Learn documentation.