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DevComponents DotNetBar Suite for WPF

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DevComponents recently released their DotNetBar Suite for WPF and it is loaded with design time features.  Using Cider Extensibility, DevComponents really has put together one of the richest design times I've seen to date.

Denis talks about the features on this blog post.

The DotNetBar suite provides a set of controls that make it easy to build an application with an Office Ribbon, Window Management and an Outlook style Navigation Pane control. 

The first thing to notice is that for the elements you care to move to other positions -- the buttons in the Ribbon (including on the application menu), and the windows in the application -- can be moved by simply clicking and dragging.  Very cool use of setting up a ParentAdapter correctly.

Here's a sequence where I moved a button from the Recent Documents list to the Command Button area to the Application Menu main buttons to a location on the ribbon -- all using drag drop.

For redocking the windows at design time, the user gets the Visual Studio-esque docking targets and highlighting:

Much better than having to find the right set of XAML to modify right?

Each selectable element also has a popup menu associated with it that allows the user to edit the controls in place.

The application Menu:

Drop down buttons (these can be dragged dropped around the whole UI to multiple drop targets):

The Ribbon Tab:

 

And Windows:

 

DevComponents have made use of the following Cider Extensibility features to make this happen: Adorners, DefaultInitializers (to setup the XAML for their controls when they are created from the toolbox), and ParentAdapter (for drag/drop move/repositioning of theirr controls).

Really is a great example of how powerful the Adorner Extensibility features are in Cider.

Again -- I am looking for more design time examples to feature on this blog so please contact me with your examples!

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