Controls affect the display or behavior of the map. They allow everything from panning and zooming to displaying a scale indicator. Controls by default are added to the map they are contained within however it is possible to add a control to an external div by passing the div in the options parameter.
The following example shows how to add many of the common controls to a map.
var map = new OpenLayers.Map('map', { controls: [] });
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.PanZoomBar());
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.LayerSwitcher({'ascending':false}));
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.Permalink());
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.Permalink('permalink'));
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.MousePosition());
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.OverviewMap());
map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.KeyboardDefaults());The next code fragment is a quick example of how to intercept shift-mouse click to display the extent of the bounding box dragged out by the user. Usually controls are not created in exactly this manner. See the source for a more complete example:
var control = new OpenLayers.Control();
OpenLayers.Util.extend(control, {
    draw: function () {
        // this Handler.Box will intercept the shift-mousedown
        // before Control.MouseDefault gets to see it
        this.box = new OpenLayers.Handler.Box( control,
            {"done": this.notice},
            {keyMask: OpenLayers.Handler.MOD_SHIFT});
        this.box.activate();
    },
    notice: function (bounds) {
        OpenLayers.Console.userError(bounds);
    }
});
map.addControl(control);| OpenLayers. | Controls affect the display or behavior of the map. | 
| Properties | |
| div | {DOMElement} The element that contains the control, if not present the control is placed inside the map. | 
| type | {Number} Controls can have a ‘type’. | 
| title | {string} This property is used for showing a tooltip over the Control. | 
| autoActivate | {Boolean} Activate the control when it is added to a map. | 
| active | {Boolean} The control is active (read-only). | 
| eventListeners | {Object} If set as an option at construction, the eventListeners object will be registered with OpenLayers.Events.on. | 
| events | {OpenLayers.Events} Events instance for listeners and triggering control specific events. | 
| Constructor | |
| OpenLayers. | Create an OpenLayers Control. | 
| Functions | |
| activate | Explicitly activates a control and it’s associated handler if one has been set. | 
| deactivate | Deactivates a control and it’s associated handler if any. | 
| Constants | |
| OpenLayers. | |
| OpenLayers. | |
| OpenLayers. | 
{Number} Controls can have a ‘type’. The type determines the type of interactions which are possible with them when they are placed in an OpenLayers.Control.Panel.
{Boolean} The control is active (read-only). Use activate and deactivate to change control state.
{Object} If set as an option at construction, the eventListeners object will be registered with OpenLayers.Events.on. Object structure must be a listeners object as shown in the example for the events.on method.
{OpenLayers.Events} Events instance for listeners and triggering control specific events.
control.events.register(type, obj, listener);
Listeners will be called with a reference to an event object. The properties of this event depends on exactly what happened.
| object | {Object} A reference to control.events.object (a reference to the control). | 
| element | {DOMElement} A reference to control.events.element (which will be null unless documented otherwise). | 
| activate | Triggered when activated. | 
| deactivate | Triggered when deactivated. | 
Convenience method for registering listeners with a common scope.
on: function( object ) 
Explicitly activates a control and it’s associated handler if one has been set.
activate: function () 
Deactivates a control and it’s associated handler if any.
deactivate: function ()