SandDock for WPF

What's New in SandDock for WPF V1.4.5:

• NEW: The size of a SplitContainerSplitter can now be changed.
• NEW: Designer support for Visual Studio 2010 added.
• REMOVED: Designer support for Visual Studio 2008 removed.
• FIX: An exception could be thrown if the size available to a DockSite was less than its internal Padding.
• FIX: A window could remain in memory when closed, even when its CloseMethod was set to Detach.
• FIX: When re-docking a window by double-clicking in its titlebar, its contents could fail to become focused afterwards.
• FIX: When serializing and immediately deserializing a layout with many unpinned windows, some windows could become inaccessible once subsequently pinned.

What's New in V1.4.4:

• IMPROVED: UI Automation has been reworked comprehensively.
• FIX: The popup size of a window is now persisted correctly in layout serialization.
• FIX: The ShowOptionsButton property did not work correctly in the Orcas theme.
• FIX: Pressing Alt could focus the DocumentContainer overflow button when no menu was present in the window.
• FIX: Clicking the tab of an unpinned window with AllowPopupUnpinnedWindows set to false would not always select the window.
• FIX: Double-clicking on any part of a floating window's nonclient area would dock it; now only the titlebar has this effect.
• FIX: Windows with underscores in their titles would have the underscores hidden in the document access menu.

What's New in V1.4.3:

This maintenance release adds only a design time feature; the ability to resize root split containers. We have however significantly improved rendering of window frames, in particular running under the Windows Aero theme. Window memory has also been improved.

Some bugs have also been addressed in this build, including incorrect positioning or appearance of docking hints while performing an interactive docking operation.

What's New in V1.4.1:

• NEW: FromWindow method added to DocumentWindow
• NEW: TabToolTip property added to all windows
• NEW: WindowOpenPosition property added to DocumentContainer; use it to specify whether new windows are opened at the first or last position in a group
• FIX: When initially floating a dockable window with a DockSite at the top of the screen, the floating window could have its titlebar placed offscreen
• FIX: For window that can neither be docked nor tabbed, the middle docking hint is no longer shown during an interactive docking operation
• FIX: The dropdown editor for the DockingRules property was not appearing for all customers

What's New in V1.4:

• NEW: Visual Studio 2008 theme added (is now the default).
• NEW: OpenWindowsOnDrag property added to DockSite, to enable automatic opening of windows when dragging over their tabs.
• NEW: Clicking on an item during window switching activates that window (including 3D mode).
• FIX: The 3D window switcher camera is better placed when the viewport has an unusual aspect ratio.

What's New in V1.3:

• NEW: Partial trust support added so the library can now be used in XBAPs - even floating windows are supported
• NEW: Expression Blend sample skin included in demo application
• NEW: Floating windows displayed within the main application window automatically begin to fade out when not used
• NEW: Window memory for dockable windows improved
• NEW: Images are now supported in the tabs of document windows
• NEW: Static FromWindow method on DockableWindow allows creation of a SandDock window from a normal WPF window
• NEW: It is now possible to style the docking hints shown during an interactive docking operation
• NEW: Build machine activation is supported
• FIX: Bindings to elements based on ElementName, set up within a DockableWindow, would fail

What's New in V1.2:

• NEW: Full design time support enabled in the Visual Studio 2008 WPF designer
• NEW: UseDockableWindowTemplate method added to DocumentContainer for users who wish all documents to appear as dockable windows
• NEW: Embedding a DockSite within a window within a DockSite is now supported
• NEW: The MdiPanel.ResizeMode attached property can be applied to windows to control how they can be resized while appearing as MDI children
• NEW: AllowCollapse property on windows allows you to specify that a window cannot be unpinned by the user
• NEW: AllowMerge property on DockingRules allows you to specify that a window cannot be merged with any others in a group
• FIX: An ArgumentNullException could be thrown when using the product under VS2008
• FIX: The FloatingLocation and FloatingSize properties of a window are now correctly persisted in the serialized layout information
• FIX: Using ApplyTabbedLayout in a blank layout would create an empty, unclosable WindowGroup

What's New in V1.0.2:

• NEW: Additional Dock method overload allows specifying of the side on which to dock the window
• NEW: A warning is shown in debug output when layout serialization is performed on a window without an explicitly set Guid property
• NEW: A CloseMethod property on windows allows specifying whether a window is hidden or detached when closed
• NEW: TabForeground property added to DockableWindow

SandDock is window management software that enables dockable window and tabbed document functionality in applications that use it. The version for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is able to leverage new technology to provide more visual features than its Windows Forms counterpart, such as smoothly animated transitions and 3D window switching - like the Flip-3D feature from Microsoft Windows Vista.

Broadly designed to mimic the user interface capabilities of Visual Studio 2005, by plugging SandDock into your application you can forget about the intricacies of window layout - instead, provide your windows to SandDock and let it present them with all the tools your users need for customization of the working area. Tool windows become dockable, sticking to the sides of your window in hierarchies chosen visually by the user, or they can be floated above your main window. Documents are presented in a tabbed fashion, with split views for easy comparison between content, or in a traditional multiple document interface (MDI) layout.

An advanced window layout engine would not be complete without a persistence mechanism, and SandDock makes this easy. Storage of window layout from one application session to the next is exposed by simple APIs that can also be used to split your application into multiple view states. Hooks are available for more control over the window docking process, and rules can be set by the developer to determine what the user can do with any given window. The API is extremely easy to use.

The extensibility support built into the library ensures that certain behaviors, such as the interface for switching between active windows using the keyboard, are fully configurable by the developer. In fact, by using the extensive theme and styling support built into WPF, the complete look and feel of SandDock components can be changed. This extensibility allows you to tailor the SandDock tools to your specific needs.

SandDock supports virtually all the window management capabilities of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, plus many more. It presents these features in a developer-friendly package which means these advanced capabilities can be integrated into your application in minutes.

Feature Summary

• Dockable Windows
• Floating Windows
• Collapsed Groups
• Tabbed Documents
• Multiple Document Interface
• Layout Serialization
• Window Switching

Dockable Windows
Windows are dockable within the main container. The user can drag them to any side of the container to create complex groupings of windows, arranged in the most logical fashion for the task at hand. Hierarchies of arbitrary complexity can be created, and once windows are docked together they can be resized independently with the splitters between them. As a developer you can control which sides of the container the window can be docked to - or whether the window can be docked at all.

When multiple windows are docked into the same group, tabs appear for navigation between them. Dragging by the title bar moves the whole group, dragging by the tab moves the individual window. Standard keyboard shortcuts work to allow keyboard navigation between tabs.

Floating Windows
When a window is dragged from its location to a space on the desktop not recognized at another dock location, the window can be floated. Intuitive docking hints guide the user while a docking operation is in progress, making it easy to see where their window will end up. Multiple windows can be housed together in the same floating group. The developer has full control over whether a window is allowed to be floated.

Floatable windows are a great way to allow your users to take advantage of multiple monitors, by moving selected tool windows to a secondary monitor.

Collapsed Groups
When a window is docked inside a container, it can be "unpinned", where it collapses down to a small tab representation of itself at the side of your container. The user can still access the window by clicking its tab or using a keyboard shortcut, but the window is not always present on screen. When accessed, the window pops up using smooth animation and is present until the user is done with it, whereupon it collapses down again.

The transition effects when a collapsed window pops up and subsequently disappears can be set by the developer.

Tabbed Documents
If your application is document-oriented you will likely want to take advantage of the tabbed document interface (TDI) support in SandDock. As with any SandDock windows, you can simply let the software take care of the layout, leaving your application to implement its core logic. Tabbed document navigation is more than just tabs - the layout engine allows users to split documents into multiple panes with proportional resizing for easy comparisons between documents.

Of course, if you wish to allow it, your documents can also be "torn off" to become floating windows and docked to the sides of your container. Such potential functionality is shared between all SandDock windows.

Multiple Document Interface
Windows Presentation Foundation does not provide an MDI implementation in the platform. SandDock addresses this with its own MDI implementation, virtually identical in behavior to traditional Win32 MDI with some changes and advantages brought by the capabilities of the WPF platform. You can even allow your users to switch between MDI and TDI on the fly if you wish.

Layout Serialization
A complete SandDock layout can be a complex thing. A combination of tool windows, some docked, some floating, some collapsed, and tabbed documents, all potentially arranged into hierarchies. This is great for the user, but they will expect their layout to be persisted from one application session to the next. This is very easy to achieve. SandDock provides a method that serializes the entire layout as a string containing XML, that can be persisted to the storage medium of your choice and restored upon the next application load.

Window Switching
Switching between windows using the keyboard is something users do constantly, and only recently has the user experience for this task started improving. SandDock offers the standard switching behavior from Visual Studio 2005, where all tool windows and documents are listed for easy Ctrl-Tab selection and activation. It also leverages the power of WPF to provide a 3D document switching experience very similar to the Flip-3D feature seen in Microsoft Windows Vista. Called Tab-3D, it works on any version of Windows supported by WPF.

All license purchases include unlimited free email support and one year of product updates and hotfixes.