Layout Management
- 4 minutes to read
This section contains layout management solutions, capable of building application layouts of any type and complexity – from simple flow layouts to complex data entry forms and Visual Studio inspired Dock Window interfaces.
Note
Controls and components for creating Windows Modern-inspired application layouts are gathered separately in the Windows Modern UI section.
Dock Layout Manager
The Dock Layout Manager component solves two tasks at once: implementing a docking UI and building a control layout. Using this component you can instantly emulate the Visual Studio UI in its entirety. Includes the following features.
- Visual Studio style docking hints
- Tabbed containers
- Drag & Drop support
- Closed panels toolbar
- Float state settings
- Automatic splitter availability
- Auto-hide containers
- User customization options
- Built-in context menu
- Layout persistence
- Multiple monitor support.
Tip
Topic: Dock Windows
Tile and Layout
This bundle includes six separate controls for building huge, yet completely customizable and persistent control layouts.
- Layout Control - a universal solution for control arrangement requirements that allows you to generate windows and pages with a wide variety of layout scenarios. The Layout Control automatically maintains a consistent layout of child controls, so that they never overlap when the window is resized, controls are added or removed, or when the font settings of the controls are changed.
- Data Layout Control - a data-aware version of the Layout Control. Automatically generates a layout based on the given data source.
- Tile Layout Control - allows you to build a layout of tiles that support grouping and content animation.
- Dock Layout Control - hosts any UIElement object. These elements can be docked to the left, top, right or bottom edge, or occupy the control’s remaining region.
- Flow Layout Control - accepts all UIElement objects and arranges them one after another in rows or columns.
- ScrollBox - a tiny container that supports absolute positioning of child controls and enables scrolling.
Tip
Topic: Tile and Layout
Tab Control
A control that implements a tabbed layout of items. Key features include:
- Multiple Views that affect the control’s layout, behavior and style.
- Customizable header position, alignment and orientation.
- Adding and removing tabs at runtime.
- Built-in integration with the ThemedWindow.
- Extended styling capabilities.
Tip
Topic: Tab Control
Carousel
A stylish control that arranges any visual elements along the specified path and allows you to cycle through these elements, applying animation effects.
- Control how any dependency property value changes along the movement path.
- Specify additional animations for element transitions.
- Total freedom in navigation path customization.
- Fully customizable Carousel content.
- Easily build 3D-like Carousel views.
- A pre-built navigation control.
- An easy way to build advanced layouts such as a Book View or an iPod style Album Cover Flow.
- Can be used as a panel in any ItemsControl. We also provide our own CarouselItemControl to simplify typical data visualization requirements.
Tip
Topic: Carousel
Book Control
Uses a book metaphor to display information on screen. Represents data records as book pages and provides a life-like page turning UI. To navigate contents within the book, you “drag” individual pages to one side or the other. You can populate individual pages with info using content templates and bind the control to data, so that each page represents a single record.
Tip
Topic: Book Control
Workspace Manager
An auxiliary component that saves and restores an application’s control layout. You can create multiple states (or layouts) for visual controls and then use the Workspace Manager to instantly switch between them at runtime. To spice things up, there are several visual transition effects built-in. The Workspace Manager can be used with any DevExpress visual control that supports serialization (e.g., Bar Manager, DockLayoutManager, DXGrid, etc.) The target visual control may also contain other serializable DevExpress controls as children.
Tip
Topic: Workspace Manager