Tile Action Bars

• Aug 02, 2022
• 3 minutes to read

Tile action bars allow you to extend the Tile Control and Tile Bar Control with an additional context-specific functionality, similar to context menus in toolbar/menu systems. The functionality is provided via clickable items (also called action buttons) that reside within tile action bars in one row. End-users can click or tap these buttons in order to activate their functionality.

You can handle button activation events to implement the required functionality, and specify the caption and/or image of these buttons accordingly.

You can arrange related action buttons into groups to help end-users easily distinguish these buttons. To accomplish this, use an action button’s Align property to align buttons to the left or right side of the action bar.

End-users can invoke tile action bars by doing one of the following:

• Right-clicking in either the main or detail page of the Tile Control;

• Selecting tiles using right-clicks or swipe down gestures in the main page of the Tile Control.

You can choose the display position for tile action bars – the top and/or bottom of the Tile Control. A tile action bar is displayed only if it contains at least one visible action button. The top action bar invoked in a detail page always includes the Back action button, allowing end-users to return to the main page.

Tile action bars appear over the currently displayed content and are automatically hidden when an end-user clicks any action button or starts interacting with Tile Control elements using drag and drop or mouse clicks. You can programmatically control the visibility of action bars via the following Tile Control members:

• The HideActionBars and ShowActionBars methods;

• The OnActionBarsHide and OnActionBarsShow events.

In addition, you can show or hide individual action buttons based on certain conditions or a context, via an action button’s Visible property.

The TdxTileControlActionBars, TdxTileControlActionBarItem, and TdxTileControlActionBarItems classes implement action bars and their items (action buttons). The table below lists class members that affect main tile action bar characteristics.

Characteristic	Description
Visibility	A Tile Control’s IsAnyActionBarVisible, HideActionBars, ShowActionBars methods, and the OnActionBarsHide and OnActionBarsShow events. An action button’s Visible property. Note that a tile action bar is displayed only if it contains at least one visible action button.
Contents	A Tile Control’s ActionBars.Items property. An action button’s Items property and the Add method.
Appearance	A Tile Control’s ActionBars.Color and ActionBars.Font properties. An action button’s Caption, ImageIndex, Glyph, GlyphFrameCount, and GlyphType properties.
Behavior	Call an action button’s Click method to activate the button’s functionality. Handle an action button’s OnClick event to respond to button activation events.
Layout	A Tile Control’s ActionBars.IndentHorz, ActionBars.IndentVert, and ActionBars.ItemIndent properties. An action button’s Align and Position properties.