Would you consider allowing the UI controls like Menubar and Toolbar to be owned by forms other than "Main Form". I am aware of the Windows GUI "etiquette", and I am not sure why do you have to enforce is strictly.
I like to construct UI which is not always conformant, so I am forced in such cases to combine your software with MagicLibrary, resulting with mix and match I would rather avoid.
I believe that the similar issue is with the Docking, although seemingly to a lesser extent.
Can you please explain to me whether I can "cheat" around this requirement and what are the reasons for your decision as it is now.
Thanks in advance
Nik
PS
Prakash S
Syncfusion Team
December 24, 2003 02:19 PM UTC
Hi Nik,
Starting with the latest Essential Suite 2.0 release, docking windows are not necessarily tied to Forms and can be hosted in just about any ContainerControl type. You should not have any trouble designing dockable layouts within Forms/Controls other than your application''s ''Main Form''. In other words, no ''cheating'' is required here ;-).
As for the XPMenus/Toolbars, the current implementation only supports hosting within Form types. While you cannot host the XP menus & toolbars in ContainerControls/UserControls, it should be possible to set up distinct layouts in any number of TopLevel Forms in your application. If you run into specific issues with the implementation, please update us and our support engineers should be able to guide you.
Thanks,
Prakash
NI
Nikolaj Ivancic
December 27, 2003 08:54 PM UTC
Thank you Prakash for the explanation - the "docking part" of it is certainly helping a lot, since I now know that it should officially work as I need it to. However, I do not understand your hint on Toolbars, so I will ask more precise question:
Assume that one of my panels contains a user control, which in turn contains Syncfusion''s Diagram component together with few others, resulting with a Workflow Editor being embedded in that "top level" panel that hosts all these pieces.
In this situation, I would like to have a set of toolbars being hosted by a header-panel, which is a "child" of my "top-level" panel. In short, I would like Workflow Editor implemented as UserControl with it''s own toolbar, which does not have any interactions with the main form''s toolbar.
Is this possible to do? If yes, how?
Thanks and regards
Nik
AD
Administrator
Syncfusion Team
January 5, 2004 04:04 PM UTC
Hi Nik,
You can host instances of the XPToolBar type inside any Control. These toolbars will, however, be standalone instances and will not partake in the customization behavior that is offered by the MainFrameBarManager/ChildFrameBarManager nor can they be merged/unmerged with the main frame''s toolbars.
Full customization/merging support for XP toolbars/menus hosted inside ContainerControls will be supported in a future version of Essential Tools.
Prakash
Syncfusion
NI
Nikolaj Ivancic
January 5, 2004 05:11 PM UTC
Great, thanks Prakash! Tried and succeeded.
Of course, I would like to have the same facility for Menus, as I am not a big fan of the menu merging idea, on a complex app, as it takes more time, to find where the menus came up upon the app context switch.
NI
Nikolaj Ivancic
January 5, 2004 05:11 PM UTC
Great, thanks Prakash! Tried and succeeded.
Of course, I would like to have the same facility for Menus, as I am not a big fan of the menu merging idea, on a complex app, as it takes more time, to find where the menus came up upon the app context switch.
AD
Administrator
Syncfusion Team
January 8, 2004 02:01 PM UTC
Nik,
Stand-alone menu-ing support similar to the XPToolBar implementation for use in Control instances is also in the works. While we cannot provide a concrete release date for this feature, we hope to have this ready in a short timeframe.
Prakash
