docking menu & docking toolbar

[Enrique]

hi all,

i'd like to know how i could do a docking menu and docking toolbar.

i know it's not so easy y VS .NET 2002 and 2003.

anything will help me: links, code, articles.....


thanks a lot for your responses and i wish you a merry christmas

 

[Joergen Bech]

I recommend the Infragistics Suite. It will set you back $800,
but if you are a professional developer and time is money,
this is one thing you will want to buy your way out of rather
than develop yourself.

Comes with full source code, so if you are really interested in
how it can be done, there is plenty of source to study.

http://www.infragistics.com/products/NetAdvantage/WinForms/DockableWindows.aspx

Hm ... I see that they added the VS2005-style docking indicators.
Must be a recent addition. Don't recall seeing them in the version
I was using a few months ago. The Divelements system has had
those indicators for a long time.

Be prepared for a steep learning curve as well as some pain
implementing it - especially if you are using the less-than-stable
VS2005 forms designer.

Regards,

/JB (who is not affiliated with Infragistics - just uses their suite)

 

[Ken Tucker [MVP]]

Hi,

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/magicdocking.asp

Ken

 

[Enrique]

obtain the code to study it can be something realmente interesting but i am
not programming for my job, so i wouldn't like to have to spend 800$.

i would just like to have a little piece of code to help about a simple
docking menu and toolbar.

i think it shouldn't be so difficult to implement

 

[Joergen Bech]

In that case I suggest you have a look at the
Divelements controls (SandDock and SandBar):
http://www.divelements.com/net/

Very easy to work with and a very affordable license.
I seem to recall that it was free for non-commercial use, but
this no longer seems to be the case. Oh well...

You can download a trial here:
http://www.divelements.com/net/download.aspx?product=4&license=5

Previously the controls were not obfuscated, so it was possible
to study the code in .Net Reflector. Sadly, this is no longer the
case. I suppose the product has reached a level where the author
thought he needed better compensation

The Infragistics controls are not obfuscated (last time I looked),
so you might be able to download a trial version and have a look
at them with .Net Reflector. Not sure it is going to help you any,
though. It is a big framework. Playing around with a trial version
might give you some ideas of what features need to be implemented
for a usable system.

....

A couple of quick Google links to vb.net/c# code providing a
simple implementation:
http://www.knowdotnet.com/articles/dockingtoolbar.html
http://www.codeproject.com/cs/menu/ToolBarDock.asp (C#)

....

Yes, it is a non-trivial task to implement a proper docking
framework, which is why a number of companies are making
good money selling ready-made components for the task.

Regards,

Joergen Bech