GroupBar

GroupBar, as the name implies, is a UI for grouping a collection of commands in categories and displaying it to the end-user within collapsible panels. The GroupBar lets you recreate the popular Microsoft OutlookBar interface in your applications. Each panel in a GroupBar can host a bunch of commands or any other control like a Calendar.

Popularly used in the Vertical Orientation mode, the GroupBar is also usable in Horizontal Orientation.

GroupBar has the ability to switch the orientation dynamically.

GroupView Orientation

Items of the GroupView can also be laid out in vertical or horizontal mode.

Each item text can inturn be aligned horizontally or vertically, depending on the orientation. This is elaborated in the next topic.

The text in each item can be aligned Left, Right, Center or Stretch.

GroupBar supports both LeftToRight and RightToLeft FlowDirection.

Just like other controls in Tools, the GroupBar is capable of being used in cultures requiring RTL support.

GroupBar supports three VisualModes like Normal mode, Stack mode and MultiExpansion mode. In the Normal mode, more than one bar cannot expand and the groupbars expand to show it's children, in place.

In the Stack mode, the bars are displayed in a navigation pane at the bottom and when the user selects one, their children are shown in the view on top. This mode is very similar to the Microsoft OutlookBar behavior.

In MultiExpansion mode, more than one bar can be expanded and the bars are rendered more like a tree with the expand/collapse buttons.

Different VisualStyles are supported by GroupBar to add good look and feel to application. GroupBar has built in themes like Office 2003, Office 2007 Blue / Silver / Black and Blend Theme. Gradients and brushes can also be applied to GroupBar.