A continuum structure function(CSF) is a non-decreasing mapping from the unit hypercube to the unit interval. A Barlow-Wu type CSF is a CSF whose behaviour is modeled by its underlying binary structure, which is based on the multistate structure functions suggested by Barlow and Wu(1978). As the measures of importance of a system component for a Barlow-Wu type CSF, the structural and reliability importance of a component at system level ${alpha}$ (0< ${alpha}$ <1) are defined and their properties are deduced. Computational results are discussed as well for illustrative purpose.