Hi everyone. Today we are releasing DotNetBar for WPF 7.0 with world’s first METRO User Interface controls.

Metro is design language that is cornerstone of Windows 8, Windows Phone 7 and very likely at least parts of future Office 15 will have Metro based design, so I am very happy that you can start building Metro style applications with our controls today.

Here is screen-shot of start-page of our new MetroBill sample which is included with DotNetBar 7.0:

Screen-shot above shows our new component, Metro Tile, which provides access to most commonly used functions in this sample app.

Here is screen-shot of actual app:

As you might have noticed, two screen-shots above uses completely different color schemes. Specifically for Metro we’ve designed proprietary color scheme generation algorithms that use as input two colors you specify and then generate complete color scheme for all our controls. Here is screen-shot with just couple of different pre-defined color themes we include:

Following Metro specific controls are included:

• Metro Application Window (MetroAppWindow) – an chrome-less Metro form with support for modal panels.
• Metro Shell (MetroShell) – top-level Metro control which provides app menu, Quick Access Toolbar, app tabs and minimum window chrome.
• Metro Toolbar (MetroToolbar) – a expandable toolbar in Metro style.
• Metro Status Bar (MetroStatusBar) – Metro style status bar control.
• Metro Form (MetroDialog) – Metro style dialog form.
• Metro Tile (MetroTile) – a Metro-Tile for use on our ItemPanel control.

Please review MetroBillSample and MetroSample projects for demo of new controls. You can find samples at My Documents\DotNetBar for WPF Samples folder. Both C# and VB samples are included to illustrate styling and customization options.

Getting started with Metro UI Knowledge Base article is great resource to help you start using new controls. Please use it.

Here are detailed Release Notes. If you have current DotNetBar license download latest release on Customer Only web site. Fully functional trial version is also available. We are working on even more major new exciting features, but please do not hesitate to send me your feedback and wishes. Thank you for using our controls and please let me know how you like them.