Q: Is there a Winforms "accordion" already?

[Matt]

Hi everyone. I'd like to have a "accordion" type effect in one of my
applications. You can see what I'm talking about here:

http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/Accordion/Accordion.aspx

Just like that, except for Winforms desktop applications.

Googling doesn't show anything (one commerical product?), but maybe this
concept is called something different in the desktop world?

I'm guessing it won't be too hard to write a simple version myself, but no
point in reinventing the accordion if it's already out there under a
different name. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Matt

 

[Morten Wennevik [C# MVP]]

Hi Matt,

There is nothing in the basic framework that will do this. The closest
thing for WinForms is probably the ExplorerBar functionality seen in the left
menu in "My Computer". This is available commercially from third party
companies like Infragistics and Innovasys.

There are also free collapsible GroupBox implementations around that may
work, or you can create your own by drawing and handling the non client area
events in a UserControl.

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Hi everyone. I'd like to have a "accordion" type effect in one of my
applications. You can see what I'm talking about here:

http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/Accordion/Accordion.aspx

Just like that, except for Winforms desktop applications.

Googling doesn't show anything (one commerical product?), but maybe this
concept is called something different in the desktop world?

I'm guessing it won't be too hard to write a simple version myself, but no
point in reinventing the accordion if it's already out there under a
different name. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Since this type of animation (I dislike the term Accordion for this, but oh
well) was quite common the Outlook Bar, and there are a gazillion
implementations of that out there, I recommend searching for one of them.

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Hi everyone. I'd like to have a "accordion" type effect in one of my
applications. You can see what I'm talking about here:

http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/Accordion/Accordion.aspx

Just like that, except for Winforms desktop applications.

Googling doesn't show anything (one commerical product?), but maybe this
concept is called something different in the desktop world?

I'm guessing it won't be too hard to write a simple version myself, but no
point in reinventing the accordion if it's already out there under a
different name. Any suggestions are appreciated.

There's animation in this:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/toolbox.aspx and in a derivative
project: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/yatoolbox.aspx

 

[Ravi Bhavnani]

I've always liked this one:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/XPTaskBar.aspx

/ravi

 

[Matt]

Since this type of animation (I dislike the term Accordion for this,
but oh well) was quite common the Outlook Bar, and there are a
gazillion implementations of that out there, I recommend searching for
one of them.

Thanks Jeff, Ravi, and Morten. This gives me some options to explore.

Matt

 

[Sunil Rao]

Hi Matt,


Did you find one? I too am searching for WINFORMS "Accordion". I have a requirement to show all the usercontols in a single form and only expand a specific user control when selected. I tried googling, but really didn't find anything useful. Please let me know if you found any useful leads.

Thanks,
Sunil.

 

[Matt]

Sunil Rao wrote in

Did you find one? I too am searching for WINFORMS "Accordion". I have
a requirement to show all the usercontols in a single form and only
expand a specific user control when selected. I tried googling, but
really didn't find anything useful. Please let me know if you found
any useful leads.

Hi Sunil.

Like the other guy in the thread noted, you'll get some hits if you search
on "Outlook Bar". None of the ones I looked at were quite what I wanted
and I am leaning toward writing my own. Since this is really UI candy it
can wait. A set of radio buttons are serving for now.

Matt