It’s been a long time since my last post so I want to give you a quick update on progress.
After adding many new Toolkit controls/components it was time to do those tasks that all programmers hate, samples and documentation. Essential work, but not the kind you can really blog about! In the tradition of always showing lots of pictures, here is my pic about the samples work…
With all the recent additions the free Toolkit now has 26 controls/components that are available from the toolbox at design time. And this does not include the list of various items that can be added to the KryptonContextMenu which would expand it even more! Amazing how small changes add up over time.
Feedback on the KryptonContextMenu has been that adding/removing items is not as easy as people would like. Adding a full design time experience like the ToolStrip functionality would take far too long to implement so I compromised with the following collection editor instead…
This appears when you use the edit button of the KryptonContextMenu items collection. It shows a TreeView on the left with the hierarchy of context items. In the middle are buttons making it quick and easy to add new items and on the right, not visible above, is a property grid showing properties of the selected item. I hope this makes life a little easier in future.
Now onto something far more exciting. The KryptonRibbon needs a gallery feature in order to fully mimic the functionality available in the Office 2007 version. Rather than restricting this to the ribbon I think it would be quite useful as a standalone control as well. After all, the gallery control is really just a way to select from a list of multiple images. Something that is required outside the ribbon scenario. So here is what i have so far…
I have only just begun the control but you can see that it is coming along nicely. We have the three buttons on the right hand side for scrolling the view and dropping down a context menu. I will post about the gallery control in more detail once I have something closer to the finished product.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Welcome back to your blog :D
Finally we got a menu designer – I embrace that!
Just like adding the gallery to the toolkit/ribbon. Looks great by now (even in this early state)!
March 5th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
We love seeing pictures ;-)
The KryptonContextMenu Editor seems useful!
… and your idea about making a standard gallery control is simply fantastic. Will it be part of the free toolkit ?
Thanks!
Mike.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Splendiferous. I had checked this blog almost daily looking forward to the next CTP of course.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
The menu designer looks great. A real improvement in usability. Awesome! Thanks!
Since you’re working on the parts we all help does this mean a release is just around the corner?
Hope so. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on all the controls for my own apps and trying to sell my colleagues at my workplace on Navigator and Ribbon…
March 5th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Ha ha .. I think the KryptonContextMenu designer was supplied just for me!!
Great work. Looking forward to the update. I too check the blog on a daily basis for updates..
March 6th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Me too, at least once a day (was a real pain from february 7th to march 5th)
March 6th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
The KrytonGallery is part of the Ribbon assembly and so not part of the free Toolkit. Required bits of infrastructure code for the control are in the Ribbon assembly and so it make sense to put it there. Once the gallery control is done I will be fixing bugs and then creating a CTP. When? I guess a few weeks.