Recommendations for Outlook style interface

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Aspinall
  • Start date Start date
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Paul Aspinall

I am designing a Winforms app, using the NetAdvantage (Infragistics)
controls - which are very good.

How can I make multiple different contents in my content pane?? ie. In
Outlook, there is a content pane, which displays multiple different formats
(one for Calendar, one for Notes, one for Mail etc etc)

What is the best way to implement this using C# (possibly in the context of
the NetAdvantage controls)?

Should I code several panel controls, with different formats?
Or should this be coded to be constructed via code??

Is there any examples of doing this??

Thanks
 
Paul,
I have not used NetAdvantage, however when I have needed to display
different formats (such as Calendar, Notes, Mail) I've created a user
control for each format, then either dynamically loaded each format or had
all the formats on the form & simply show or hide each format as needed.

Hope this helps
Jay
 
Although I've not use the NetAdvantage controls I've been creating
applications like these for a little while.

The way I do it is like this:
* Create Form that will be used to display my controls in ( usually by
creating a Windows Application Project )
* Create a Panel on that form ( this will host the custom controls ),
and set-up the dock style or the align to properties.
* Create the custom control as either a UserControl, or a Form:
* To add these to the main app I do this in code:

This is only a very basic explanation, would need to be tidyed up.


public class Form1
{

public void ShowCustomUserControl_1()
{
MyCustomControl_1 myCC1 = new MyCustomControl_1();
myCC1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill; // This might be better in the My
CustomControl_1 contructor

this.myPanel.Controls.Clear();
this.myPanel.Controls.Add( myCC1 );
}


public void ShowCustomForm_1()
{
MyCustomForm_1 myCF1 = new MyCustomForm_1();
myCF1.TopLevel = false; // ESSENTIAL FOR FORMS!!!!!!!!!!
myCF1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;

Although I've not use the NetAdvantage controls I've been creating
applications like these for a little while.

The way I do it is like this:
* Create Form that will be used to display my controls in ( usually by
creating a Windows Application Project )
* Create a Panel on that form ( this will host the custom controls ),
and set-up the dock style or the align to properties.
* Create the custom control as either a UserControl, or a Form:
* To add these to the main app I do this in code:

This is only a very basic explanation, would need to be tidyed up.


public class Form1
{

public void ShowCustomUserControl_1()
{
MyCustomControl_1 myCC1 = new MyCustomControl_1();
myCC1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill; // This might be better in the My
CustomControl_1 contructor

this.myPanel.Controls.Clear(); // May or may not be needed - not
sure on your implementation
this.myPanel.Controls.Add( myCC1 );
}


public void ShowCustomForm_1()
{
MyCustomForm_1 myCF1 = new MyCustomForm_1();
myCF1.TopLevel = false; // ESSENTIAL FOR FORMS!!!!!!!!!!
myCF1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;

this.myPanel.Controls.Clear(); // May or may not be needed - not
sure on your implementation
this.myPanel.Controls.Add( myCF1 );
}


this.myPanel.Controls.Add( myCF1 );
}
 
You might want to post a message on the Infragistics' newsgroups. You can
also look at some of the samples, one in particular - the WinSchedule
Printing sample - recreates an Outlook style user interface that you might
want to look at. The contents are mdi child forms; the UltraTabbedMdiManager
is used to manage the form layout (in this case without showing any tabs so
that only 1 mdi child fills the available area) and this also takes
advantage of the automatic toolbar/menu merging of the UltraToolbarsManager
component.
 
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