Docking and PropertyGrid general questions

WPF Studio, Themes, and Shared Library for WPF Forum

Posted 13 years ago by Jb RIGUET
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Hi,

We are currently in the process of making a game editor, and we are evaluating Actipro WPF Studio as the main interface framework, the Docking and PropertyGrid features being particularly interesting. However, during our evaluation, we encountered some hiccups.
And i didn't find any related threads on this forums regarding this (but maybe i missed them).

First, the Docking solution you provide is very efficient, however, I didn't saw any support of the Windows 7 Snap feature for tool windows : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Maximize-windows-on-the-desktop-using-Snap
It is a very convenient feature of Windows 7, and the Visual Studio 2010 Docking Windows supports this feature (not the components, the Visual Studio interface itself). Maybe it's already implemented in the coming 2011.1 version, but any information regarding this specific feature (or any way to achieve this functionality, by bypassing some standard behavior) would be great.

Second thing that was a bit annoying, as we used the PropertyGrid in a tool window, setting big objects (as the PropertyGrid itsefl) as SelectedObject on the PropertyGrid was making the ToolWindow containing it to lag when docking, maximizing or restoring.

I can of course provide a simple sample of the application i made to try all the features we wanted to have at the beginning if it can help you to see and understand the problem. Or maybe you will tell me the next version will fix all theses small problems.

Regards,

JB

[Modified at 01/12/2011 05:21 AM]

Comments (5)

Posted 13 years ago by Actipro Software Support - Cleveland, OH, USA
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Hi JB,

We've marked down a TODO item to see about adding Aero snapping in the future. The problem right now is that the actual window isn't moving, instead we show the blue preview rectangle. You can enable the windows key shortcuts, like WinKey+LeftArrow using a custom DockSite like below:
public class MyDockSite : DockSite {

    protected internal override IRaftingWindow CreateRaftingWindow(RaftingHost raftingHost) {
        IRaftingWindow raftingWindow = base.CreateRaftingWindow(raftingHost);

        Window window = raftingWindow as Window;
        if (window != null) {
            window.ResizeMode = ResizeMode.CanResize;
            window.AllowsTransparency = true;
        }

        return raftingWindow;
    }
}
But you may have issues with Interop content in the rafting windows due to AllowsTransparency setting to true. Additionally, you may need to show the rafting windows in the task bar, because WinKey+DownArrow will minimize the window. Alternatively, you can manually restore the window, as needed.

For the PropertyGrid, the more properties you have the more performance will be impacted. I'd recommend you read the Optional Optimizations topic in our help file, specifically the virtualization section as that has the biggest performance gain.


Actipro Software Support

Posted 13 years ago by Jb RIGUET
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Ok, so maybe the blue preview rectangle should snap, or expand to the full monitor when moved to the top or bottom of the screen. That would be a snap effect without too much changes to the existing.

And for the propertygrid, i'll check the topic.

Thanks.
Posted 13 years ago by Actipro Software Support - Cleveland, OH, USA
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Hi JB,

Yeah, that might be what we'd end up doing.


Actipro Software Support

Posted 13 years ago by Jb RIGUET
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Hi, just a quick post to know if it is a bug that AeroSnap (when maximizing by touching the top screen border) on Windows 7 is not working with RibbonWindow when IsGlassEnabled set to false ? (Easily reproducible in the Ribbon -> Document Editor (Like Word) sample).
Posted 13 years ago by Actipro Software Support - Cleveland, OH, USA
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Hi JB,

That is a known issue. Since in that case the Win32 window doesn't have a border, Aero thinks it shouldn't snap. I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it since it's a system thing.

In the future, please make new threads for new questions and put them in the forum for the related product. That makes things easier to track for everyone. Thanks!


Actipro Software Support

The latest build of this product (v24.1.1) was released 1 month ago, which was after the last post in this thread.

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