Design-Time Experience in MS Expression Blend

Design-Time Support in MS Expression Blend

While XAML can be edited manually to create and customize the application, DXLayoutControl introduces design-time support for Microsoft Expression Blend to simplify the design and layout process.

Assets Pane with DevExpress WPF Layout Controls

Properties Pane

When you drag & drop controls from the Assets pane to the design surface, properties are initialized in order to simplify the setup process. The following layout was created simply by dropping 3 LayoutGroups and 6 LayoutItems on a LayoutControl:

We provide customized context menus in order to make it easier to change control properties and those of their children:

Perhaps the most important design-time feature is the ability to change the layout of the LayoutControl using drag & drop operations:

You can select and drag any control inside LayoutControl, including complex controls with their own children. For example, you can select the entire area of a FlowLayoutControl inside a LayoutControl and all of the child controls would also be selected.

By pressing Escape, the control's parent is selected allowing you to move up in the layout's hierarchy. The 0..9 keys can be used to change the ItemSpace property of the selected LayoutGroup and the arrow keys can be used to change its Padding property.

All this functionality is available because, by default, LayoutControl is in customization mode at design-time. You can turn off this mode via the LayoutControl's context menu shown at the "Objects and Timeline" pane or within Blend’s design surface.

We've made certain that you can restyle any element of any control in the DXLayoutControl Suite. Review the styling properties available for each control in the Properties pane (Miscellaneous category) or the Object submenu of Blend's main menu (Edit Additional Styles/Edit Additional Templates submenus).

Design-Time Support in Visual Studio 2010

The DXLayoutControl additionally implements full support for MS Visual Studio 2010 design-time.