Binary Format for TabbedMDIManager and DockingManager

[Michael Farnum]

Is there a format for the persisted settings for the TabbedMDIManager and DockingManager that will be stable for future versions of the library?

Settings saved in the binary format for 4.1.0.62 and 4.2.0.37 are incompatible. In the attached application, slightly modified from an example, if the settings are saved in 4.1.0.62 and loaded into 4.2.0.37 version, the next loaded set of settings with result in inactive/invisible tabs.

We''ve used the binary formats saving user settings for previous versions of our application, and it looks like potentially large problems for new version.

Thanks,
Mike

TabbedMDI0.zip

[Mano J]

Hi Michael,

We regret for the inconvenience caused. We will check the serializing issue in different versions of Essential Sutdio and get back to you within a day.

I do see that the MDI tabs disappear when tab state is loaded. As a workaround, please try activating the child forms after loading the tabgroupstates. Also, I have modified certain code and added a InitializeSingleton method to completely eliminate the storage of TabGroupStates into Isolated Storage.

private void menuItem10_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
// load mdi settings.
System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(@"C:\temp\mdipersist.txt");
char[] data = sr.ReadLine().ToCharArray();
sr.Close();

System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64CharArray(data, 0, data.Length));
this.tabbedMDIManager.LoadTabGroupStates(new AppStateSerializer(SerializeMode.BinaryFmtStream, ms));

// ACTIVATE ALL THE FORMS AFTER LOADING
foreach(Form frm in this.MdiChildren)
frm.Activate();
}

Please refer to the modified sample and let me know if this helps. We will further investigate this issue and let you know.

Regards,
Mano

[Mano J]

Here is the sample link

Sample

[Michael Farnum]

Mano,

Activating the child forms didn''t seem to have any effect. If the are multiple tab groups in the 4.1 saved settings, they still result in "zombie" forms when a second file is loaded in the 4.2 version.

For us specifically, this won''t affect our deployed application yet, as the version that saves the tabbed manager settings is still is development. However, we would be in trouble is there were format incompatibilities in the future, either for the TabbedMDIManager or the DockingManager.

Thanks,
Mike