Workspace Manager Control

Nearly all DevExpress controls allow end-users to change their layouts (states). For example, the DXDocking and DXBars libraries allow you to rearrange panels, toolbars, and commands within toolbars. The DXGrid control allows you to change the order of columns, sort, group data, etc.

The layouts of these controls can be saved to a data store and then restored later. With the release of v2010 vol 2, we include a new WorkspaceManager component that makes manipulating layouts of DevExpress WPF and Silverlight controls much easier. You can create multiple layouts for visual controls in advance and then use the WorkspaceManager to instantly switch between them at runtime.

The WorkspaceManager can be used with any DevExpress visual control that support serialization (e.g. BarManager, DockLayoutManager, DXGrid, etc.) The target visual control may also contain other serializable DevExpress controls as children. For instance, the BarManager may contain a DockLayoutManager child object. In this example, the WorkspaceManager will manipulate the layouts of the child controls as well.

Additionally, the WorkspaceManager supports multiple visual transition effects, applied when loading a selected layout:

To see the DXWorkspaceManager in action, please visit the Online Demo page.