On March 19th we have passed our 15th year in business. I did not realize that 15 years has passed, it does not feel like it, but indeed it did.
I don’t have much to say, but I want to express my gratitude and sincere thanks to all our customers. You are reason we are here 15 years later. You always come first. Thank you. And here is to another 15 years.
Today we are releasing DotNetBar for WPF 7.5 with brand new Toggle Switch control. DotNetBar toggle switch control is a touch and mouse friendly switch designed to be used anywhere you need to represent the two state setting in your application. For example a service running, auto-save option in your application etc. Here is how control looks like in such an usage case:
Control is fully customizable and it includes built-in header/label.
Please make sure to check out Toggle Switch Knowledge Base article for more details. There is also new sample project you should review which can be found at: My Documents\DotNetBar for WPF Samples\ToggleSwitch
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 and 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.
Today we are releasing DotNetBar for WPF 7.4 with brand new Radial Menu control. Radial Menu is a touch and mouse friendly context menu control to provide visually pleasing and fast access to your application commands.
Here is screen-shot from included sample:
Radial Menu include 7 built-in color themes and support for our Office 2013 and 2010 like styling.
Other features include:
Please make sure to check out RadialMenu Knowledge Base article for more details.
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 and 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.
Hi Everyone,
Today we are releasing 11.7 version of DotNetBar with Cell Merging functionality for SuperGrid control. Cell merging has been long requested feature and we’ve been working on it for a while now and have implemented really flexible and expansive functionality for you. Here are couple of images to illustrate that. First image shows column header merging:
Here is an example of cell merge, notice how cells are merged vertically and horizontally:
Here are some of the features of SuperGrid Merge:
There are over 20 other new features and fixes in this release. If you have current DotNetBar license download latest release on Customer Only web site. Fully functional trial version is also available. Thank you so much for using our controls. As always, we are already working on adding even more useful functionality to help you create professional apps with ease.
Happy New Year Good People!
Today we are releasing 11.6 version of DotNetBar with brand new Progress Steps control. Progress Steps control allows you to present progress of a process which consists of multiple steps. Here is screen-shot of control in action:
Each step in process is represented by separate item (StepItem) and each item provides you with Minimum, Maximum and Value properties so you can show current step progress, if needed.
ProgressSteps control supports text-markup, allows you to set images or symbols for each item as well as control whether items are tracking mouse using HotTracking property. Color schemes for all styles we provide Office 2007, 2010, 2013 etc. is included.
There are over 40 new features and fixes in this release. If you have current DotNetBar license download latest release on Customer Only web site. Fully functional trial version is also available. Thank you so much for using our controls. Stay tuned for more 
Visual Studio.NET templates are canned bits and pieces of code that you can choose for example when adding new item like form to your VS.NET project. The templates are stored in your My Documents folder like so:
In each of these folders there are sub-folders to target specific language like Visual C#, Visual Basic etc.
Project templates are templates for complete VS.NET project. Templates are a set of zip files that get expanded into the template by VS.NET. Once you copy your .zip files into the templates directory, you need to instruct the VS.NET to rebuild its cache of templates or otherwise they will not show up:
devenv /installvstemplatesYou can find in-depth overview of how to work with templates on MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6db0hwky.aspx
Hello Good People!
Today we are releasing 11.5.1 version of DotNetBar with grouping support for our new layout control. Groups are like nested layout controls inside each other and allow you to create layouts that otherwise would not be possible. Here is an example of layout that cannot be created unless you use new LayoutGroup item:
Notice two groups that have Width=50% are displayed side by side with left group containing 3 text-boxes and right group containing the text-box and RichTextBox controls. Notice how group on the right has customized background and border through LayoutGroup.Style properties.
Each LayoutGroup can also display captions/headers. Here is caption displayed on left with customized appearance through CaptionStyle property:
Using Appearance property you can specify that LayoutGroup should be drawn using one of our predefined system appearances so group is rendered like PanelEx or GroupPanel:
To learn more about Layout Control and new grouping support please read following Knowledge Base article.
If you have current DotNetBar license download latest release on Customer Only web site. Fully functional trial version is also available. Thank you so much for using our controls. Stay tuned for more 🙂
Today we are releasing 11.5 version of DotNetBar with brand new Layout Control. LayoutControl helps you create resolution and DPI independent user interface data entry forms. Its built-in layout logic will re-flow its content to fit available bounds and size constraints. Following screen-shot shows the layout control in action with two different sizes of host form and without any code necessary on your part:
LayoutControl allows for fixed and relative sizing of controls added to it and you can create both flow and table like layouts easily. Additionally it provides built-in text labels with symbols and images as well as text-markup support. Layout Control is something that we will grow over coming weeks so expect many new features to be added.
To learn more about Layout Control please read following Knowledge Base article.
There are over 50 new features and fixes in this release. 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. Thank you so much for using our controls.
Often I am asked how to do something in code that is done using VS.NET designer. And answer is actually very simply since in most cases everything that you do using VS.NET designer, ends up being serialized into code. InitializeComponent() method in Visual Studio.NET C# or VB.NET is method that is automatically created and managed by Windows Forms designer and it defines everything you see on the form. Everything done on the form in VS.NET using designers generates code. Every single control added and property set will generate code and that code goes into InitializeComponent() method. So when you create anything using VS.NET designer, it will end up in this method. This means you can use this to your advantage to learn how to create any UI element using code.
When you run the app (or open the form in VS.NET), code from InitializeComponent() method creates and configures controls just as you did in the designer. So every single change you make gets reflected in InitializeComponent() method. This means that doing things at design-time and run-time is essentially the same. Note that you should not modify this method manually since it might confuse the VS.NET designer. However you should use it to learn how to do things from code and how to setup controls and components correctly.
In C# access to this method is always visible through form constructor. Simply position the cursor in InitializeComponent method call and press F12 in VS.NET and Form .designer file will open to show the implementation of the InitializeComponent method.
In VB.NET the Visual Studio hides the access to InitializeComponent method. Actual method implementation is in Form.designer.vb file for that form. File is accessible via Solution Explorer once you have clicked on the Show All Files toolbar button which you can find on top of the Solution Explorer window. Following video shows how to do this:
So if you want to find out how to create controls or setup things from code you can easily discover how to do that by doing what you want to do from code in VS.NET designer, say adding controls to the form and changing their properties, then you go to InitializeComponent() method and look through code that is generated and which shows how to create everything you see on the form. The easiest is to start with new form and simply add the controls to it and change their properties then go to InitializeComponent method to see how its done from code.
Today we are releasing DotNetBar for WPF 7.3 with shiny new DataForm control which makes it easy for you to create editable forms. DataForm control can create editable form without any input on your parts by examining properties on your object and creating appropriate editors for each editable property. Of course, you can specify which properties will be displayed and which editors will be used by either marking your properties with our custom attributes or by providing 100% XAML based definitions as well as using code only.
Here is screen-shot from included sample which also shows the sub-fields functionality implemented in address group:
Validation can be performed at both property level and form level. On form level you define validation rules on DataForm control, while on property level you use standard WPF validation. Please make sure to check out DataFrom Knowledge Base article for more details.
New release of DotNetBar for WPF 7.3 also includes our new samples explorer which is by default started after you complete the install. You can find complete source code for this app as well in My Documents\DotNetBar for WPF Samples.
Here are detailed Release Notes. If you have current DotNetBar license download latest release onCustomer Only web site. Fully functional trial version is also available. We are working on even more major new exciting features and 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.
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