Custom ToolWindows rendering

Docking/MDI for Windows Forms Forum

Posted 12 years ago by Lorenzo - Italy
Version: 2.0.0112
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Hi,

I'm working with the DockManager component in Standard MDI mode. I red the documentation about how to insert a form inside a ToolWindows. I would like to fully customize the ToolWindows aspect using my own Form (I can use a form with FormBorderStyle = none or a panel)

We need to customize the ToolWindows rendering to give our application a different look&feel. I red about DocumentRenderer, but I didn't undertand how to implement the extended class in order to control the aspect of that windows in different cases: docked, MDI standard a Floating.

I would like to be able to insert a Form (or a panel or a user control) in the ToolWindows and insert in my Form all the rules that I need to make the control usable inside the dockManager. I need to access to the built-in functionalities, but we need to access that funcionalities in a different way. (ie. very small buttons on the ToolWindows title bar instead of context menu. (It's ok put the title of ToolWindows in my Form, so I can use the designer to develop)

We absolutely need to be able to do that, this is the key for our application.

Thanks very much for your reply.
Lorenzo

Comments (1)

Posted 12 years ago by Actipro Software Support - Cleveland, OH, USA
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Hi Lorenzo,

I'm sorry but what you describe isn't possible. While you can change how all our controls render (via the use of customized renderers), you cannot replace their functionality with your nested Form.

To alter how everything renders, the DockManager exposes three properties:
DockRenderer
TabbedMdiContainerTabStripRenderer
ToolWindowContainerTabStripRenderer

By setting those properties with customized IDockRenderer and ITabStripRenderer instances, you can change anything that we ourselves draw.


Actipro Software Support

The latest build of this product (v24.1.0) was released 1 month ago, which was after the last post in this thread.

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