DevComponents Knowledge Base

Sample application attached below for both C# and VB demonstrate one approach for menu merging with DotNetBar. It is just one way to approach the issue and you should modify it to best fit your needs. menumerge-cs menumerge-vb

Applies to DotNetBar 5.9 or older. With DotNetBar 6.0 and later use DotNetBarManager.SaveLayout, LoadLayout and LayoutDefinition methods and properties. If you want to preserve any user made changes to the DotNetBar user interface elements we recommend using DotNetBarManager.LoadDefinition and DotNetBarManager.SaveDefinition methods. When using DotNetBar designer to create default definition for your menus and toolbars actual [...]

See following code for sample implementation. Also review the BarFromCode sample shipped with DotNetBar for working sample and full source code. VB: Imports DevComponents.DotNetBar . . . ‘ Create a new Bar Dim bar As Bar = New Bar("Standard") bar.GrabHandleStyle = eGrabHandleStyle.StripeFlat m_DotNetBar.Bars.Add(bar) bar.DockSide = eDockSide.Top   ‘ Add Items to it Dim item, subItem [...]

Creating and manipulating dockable windows using DotNetBar is very easy and does not require writing any code. Follow these steps to create dockable windows: Add DotNetBarManager to the the form Right-click DotNetBarManager icon and choose one of the Create Dock Bar context menu commands Add your controls to the newly created dock window Optionally, right-click [...]

Adding any .NET control to DotNetBar is very easy with the help of ControlContainerItem object. Please note that this process is completely automatic using DotNetBar Windows Forms designer and you do not have to write any code if you do not have special requirements. To add the any control at design-time to toolbar, ribbonbar or [...]

AutoHidePanel is the control that internally DotNetBar creates when it needs to display the bars in auto-hide state (AutoHide=true). The AutoHidePanel is responsible for the appearance of the bars while they are in auto-hide state. It displays them as tabs and it is responsible for the fly-out behaviour when user hovers the mouse over the tabs [...]

Introduction to Global Items Instead of global items we now recommend using new Commands feature in DotNetBar. Certain properties on DotNetBar items are replicated to all the items with the same name or with the same GlobalName. This concept in DotNetBar is called Global Items. For instance, setting the Enabled property on Global Item will be [...]

In Docking Concepts docking on all 4 sides of the form were covered. This topic covers Fill docking or Document Docking capabilities of DotNetBar Suite. To quickly get started with Document Docking please watch the Document Docking Tutorial on our web site. Document Docking is enabled by right-clicking DotNetBarManager component on your form and choosing [...]

DotNetBar includes very flexible docking engine for dockable windows and toolbars. Docking windows and toolbars are added to the Dock Sites (DockSite) controls which are automatically created for you when you add DotNetBarManager to the form. Dockable Windows Docking Dock Sites There are total of 8 dock sites created. 4 for each side of the [...]

If you are setting Bar.Text property on dockable bar (LayoutType=DockContainer) and your values do not appear on screen or appear that they are not serialized check the setting of the Bar.AutoSyncBarCaption property. AutoSyncBarCaption property is by default set to true which indicates to the dockable bar that its caption should be automatically set to the [...]