Version History
v2010 vol 2
WPF Docking Control - Design-time Support
To create and customize a dock UI, you no longer need to manually write XAML code. You can now create a docked UI at design time.
The DXDocking library for WPF supports full design-time customization via drag and drop.
Start by dragging a DockLayoutManager component onto the design surface. Two panels will be auto-generated.
You can then use a context menu to add more panels.
Using drag and drop, you can rearrange panels as needed, creating split and tab containers. To add content to a panel, drag and drop controls onto the panel:
With the help of our new Customization Window, you can easily rename, focus and add panels, save and load layouts, and see the hierarchical structure of your current layout:
All your design-time customization actions are automatically reflected in XAML code.
WPF Docking Control - MDI Menu Merging
By using DXDocking, you can easily create an MDI UI for your application - where a parent container displays child windows.
Both the parent and child windows can contain their own menus and toolbars. With v2010 vol 2, we’ve added support for menu and toolbar merging.
When a child window is maximized, its main menu is merged into the parent's main menu. You can also merge toolbars when necessary:
WPF Docking Control - Miscellaneous Enhancements
Here is a list of other improvements:
-
Built-in splitters can now be used when creating layouts of controls within panels.
-
Ability to hide and disable dock hints via a dedicated event.
-
Choose whether to display auto-hidden panels on mouse click or mouse hover events.
-
Added properties to directly control the appearance of panels and layout items, without the need to override corresponding templates.
DXProject Wizard for WPF - Visual Basic Support
In v2010 vol 1, DXperience introduced a new WPF Project Wizard for C# which allows developers to quickly generate basic project settings and provide a starting point to customize our WPF controls. For this release, we’ve extended the Project Wizard and now offer VB.NET support.
The Project Wizard is listed as a project template when selecting the Visual Basic –> Windows application category:
Once the project template is selected, the Wizard executes and looks like this:
Using this wizard, you can replace the standard Window with a theme-supported DXWindow, choose a paint theme and customize the components to be added to the generated application.
Related Blog Post: WPF Project Wizard for VB.NET
WPF and Silverlight Workspace Manager
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:
Related Blog Post: New WorkspaceManager Component for WPF and Silverlight