Layouts

A NavigationBar layout is defined as the selected pane, buttons visible, pane order, and pane visibility for a NavigationBar control.

Sometimes it is useful to save the layout state of a NavigationBar and restore it later. This allows for end users to retain their customizations across multiple application executions. The way to do this is to persist the NavigationBar layout data.

Saving Layout Data

NavigationBar layout data can be persisted in XML format and loaded at a later time. Probably the two most common ways to store layouts are in files and in a database.

The SaveLayoutToFile method is used to save NavigationBar layout data to a file. This method saves the layout data of all panes being managed by the NavigationBar control. The method accepts the full path to the data file as a parameter.

Saving to other storage formats can also be accomplished. The LayoutData property returns the NavigationBar layout data expressed in an XmlDocument. The XmlDocument can be written to a database or persisted in some other form.

Loading Layout Data

When loaded, NavigationBar layout data restores the order and visibility states of the panes being managed by the NavigationBar control. It also determines the number of large buttons to display and selects the pane that was selected when the layout was saved.

The layout data loading code attempts to match the keys of panes that were stored in the layout to the keys of panes contained in the Panes collection. If there is pane layout data for a pane that cannot be found in the panes collection, that layout data is ignored.

The LoadLayoutFromFile method is used to load NavigationBar layout data from a file. The method accepts the full path to the data file as a parameter.

Loading from other storage formats can also be accomplished. For instance, if the XML layout data was stored in a database, the layout data should be loaded into an XmlDocument class and then set to the LayoutData property. The setting of this property loads the specified layout data.