Please download using the following direct link…

Download 4.2

Please download using the following direct link…

Download 4.1.5

Major Change
   – Moved all design time classes to separate assembly

New KryptonDataGridView Columns
   – KryptonDataGridViewComboBoxColumn
   – KryptonDataGridViewNumericUpDownColumn
   – KryptonDataGridViewDomainUpDownColumn
   – KryptonDataGridViewMaskedTextBoxColumn
   – KryptonDataGridViewDateTimePickerColumn

Major Bug fixes
   – TAB key works inside Navigator
   – AutoComplete works for KryptonComboBox
   – KryptonGallery memory usage improved

Download Kryton Beta

The single functional change is to the Office 2010 palettes. As the result of a developer poll indicated that people wanted the default size of the Office 2010 palettes changed to match that of the Office 2007 palettes. This change has been made in this release. You can however revert those palettes to the smaller size, or indeed any size you like, using the following example code…

   KryptonManager.PaletteOffice2010Blue.BaseFontSize = 8.5f;
   KryptonManager.PaletteOffice2010Silver.BaseFontSize = 8.5f;
   KryptonManager.PaletteOffice2010Black.BaseFontSize = 8.5f;

This new BaseFontSize property is available on the built-in palettes except the Professional variations. There is also a BaseFontName that allows the font to be changed away from the default Segoe UI setting.
 

Download Link
Download Krypton 4.1.1

Change Lists
Toolkit Change List
Ribbon Change List
Navigator Change List
Workspace Change List
Docking Change List

The extra functionality is a property that sets the base font size…

kryptonManager.PaletteOffice2010Blue.BaseFontSize = 9.5f;

This property is only provided on the built in palettes and can be accessed via the KryptonManager as seen in the above code example. This allows those that would like a bigger font for the Office 2010 palettes to achieve it using the above example code. Please report any issues inside the post comments or via a direct email to myself.

Download 4.1.1

New for Version 4.1
- Office 2010 Blue/Silver/Black Palettes
- Office 2010 Style Ribbon
- KryptonGroupBox
- Various bug fixes

Change Lists
- KryptonToolkitChangeList.doc
- KryptonNavigatorChangeList.doc
- KryptonWorkspaceChangeList.doc
- KryptonRibbonChangeList.doc
- KryptonDockingChangeList.doc

For those interested in the new Office 2010 palettes or maybe the new KryptonGroupBox control you can download the Beta of the upcoming 4.1 release from here…

Download Beta

New for Version 4.0
   – VS2010 Style Docking system
   – KryptonWrapLabel
   – KryptonSeparator
   – Workspace persistence
   – Workspace max/restore feature
   – Various bug fixes

Change Lists
  – Toolkit
  – Navigator
  – Workspace
  – Ribbon

Reduced Product Line-up
Something like 90% of all sales are for the full Krypton Suite and so I intend to simplify the list of product offerings by selling only the full Suite. Existing customers with the Navigator, Workspace or Ribbon that are still within their 12 month subscription will get a free upgrade to the Suite + Source. So no customers will miss out because of the change in policy.

The Suite will also only be offered with the full source code included so the ability to buy just a license is being removed. Most companies want the source code anyway and so this reduces the number of purchase options making it a simpler decision. So the purchase page is going to have just the Krypton Suite + Source with the only options being the number of licenses you want to buy.

BARGAIN ALERT: Yes, that means you could buy the Navigator at $149 before next Wednesday and get a free upgrade to the full Suite including the source code. Reading my blog means you get the inside track and your reward is a truly once in a lifetime bargain. Or why not get a 4 pack and save even more!

New Pricing
Currently the Suite + Source is priced at $399 (USD) and the new price with the docking system added will be $499 (USD). Looking at other comparable products on the market I still think this is a reasonable price given the extra flexibility and features it offers.

New Licence Options
Last is a change to provide customers with an upper limit on costs. I hope this will tempt more of the larger outfits to consider buying the Suite for the entire development department. I am introducing Site and Enterprise license options.

A Site license will allow an unlimited number of developers within your organization but limited to one geographic location. An Enterprise license allows for an unlimited number of developers at an unlimited number of locations for your organization. Customers with 16 or more licenses at the moment will be offered the chance to convert to either the Site or Enterprise depending on their licenses requirements.

Changes in Beta 2
- Drag reordering for Navigator/Workspace/Docking
- Docking now has a dockable Navigator
- KryptonWrapLabel added to Toolkit

Download Beta 2

The feature works with all the Navigator modes that display elements per-page. So any of the modes that have tabs, ribbon tabs or check buttons per-page can be reordered. Even the Outlook modes have the ability as they contain a set of check buttons at the bottom of the control.

I would show some screenshots but there is no effective way of showing it working. Just wait until the docking beta 2 in a couple of week’s time and then you can play with it.

Download Beta

As a beta release I do not recommend using this in a commerical application. It should be used for experimenting only. I anticipate at least one more beta before the full Suite 4.0 release is ready. I would certainly appreciate any feedback on bugs, missing functionality or any advice on how it could be improved. If there is any area that needs more explaining in the documentation or an extra sample to demonstrate something tricky then just drop me a line. I will setup a forum just for this beta release so that would be a good place to note bugs etc.

The beta version number is 3.5.4 so it will work with all existing 3.5 serial keys. Although the docking component is the headline change there are also numerous bug fixes and updates across the other components.

Change Summary
- Docking component
- Workspace persistence
- Workspace cell maximize/restore
- KryptonSeparator added to Toolkit

Known Issues
- Drag reordering of tabs not implemented
- Occasional crash with floating windows

SaveConfigToXml/LoadConfigFromXml
SaveConfigToArray/LoadConfigFromArray
SaveConfigToStream/LoadConfigFromStream
To allow maximum flexibility you can also persist configurations to xml streams, bytes arrays and arbitrary streams. Using byte arrays is really useful if you want to store configs inside a database. You can easily convert a byte array to and from base64 and so have it stored as a string.

GlobalSaving/GlobalLoading
Extensibility is provided via a set of events. Use these two events to add your own custom data into the configuration data. Adding your own custom arbritary information into the docking config might serve as the only persistence mechanism needed for your entire application.

PageSaving/PageLoading
Store per-page custom information using this pair of events. For example, your page might represent a file and so you could use the PageSaving event to store the name of the file the page is displaying. On loading you use the PageLoading to associate the file with a page and  initialize the page contents.

When a docking configuration is being loaded the process begins by creating a list of all the current pages inside the docking hierarchy. Then the entire contents of the hierarchy are reset. So all floating windows are killed, auto hidden groups wiped and docked windows removed. Now the config is loaded to create new floating window, auto hidden groups and so forth as defined in the config.

Each time a page definition is found in the config it attempts to reuse any existing page with that same unique name. So if the page existed at the time of the load operation and the config refers to that page it will simply be reused. The PageLoading event is fired so the existing page can be modified if required by event handlers based on any custom data that is stored with the page config.

RecreateLoadingPage
If the configuration contains details of a page that does not exist in the current hierarchy at load time then this event is fired so that an appropriate page can be created. If you want the config page ignored then you can cancel the event.

OrphanedPages
Once the config has been reloaded there might be pages that were in the hierarchy before the load but were not inside the config itself. These are orphan pages in that they are no longer part of the docking system as they were removed but never added back again. This event is fired at the end of the load process and gives a list of all these orphan pages. This event is useful if you need to perform extra processing for a page that is no longer needed, such as closing file handles or releasing other resources.

The above set of events allows two common scenarios to be handled. Applications that have a constant set of docking pages can easily be saved and reloaded without needing to handle any events. As the loading config will always refer to every docking page it means that all the pages are preserved after loads. Applications that have a dynamic set of pages are handled easily by using the RecreateLoadingPage and OrphanedPages events.

In this example I am dragging the floating window by using the caption bar and then hovering over the top drop indicator for the target docking control. The light blue rectangle at the top of the docking control shows the relative position of the content when it is added using this indicator. On releasing the mouse we get the following result.

Because each docking control is actually a KryptonWorkspace it means we can organize the content pages in any way we wish. To show this I then dragged Page 1 and Page 2 in order to create a more complicated layout that might not be very useful in practice.

The user can create whatever arrangement they like. This also applies to floating windows as the client area of the floating window is also derived from KryptonWorkspace. If you have multiple monitors then this allows you to make the best use of the screen real estate. Create a floating window per extra monitor, maximize each floating window and then use drag and drop to organize content as needed. This would allow your application to be used on 2, 3 or more monitors and really get the best use of that space.

The Close and Auto Hide options are just alternate ways of performing the same actions as the pin and close buttons  that were already described in the last post. Float and Dock options are fairly obvious and switch the individual page between being a floating window and docked back again against a control edge. Tabbed Document is used to move the page into the filler control that occupies the client area of the control. Under VS2010 this means the page is moved to the editing area so you can see that page alongside code editing or design surface windows. If we select the above Float option we get the following modeless windows appear…

You probably think the window looks a little odd. Under VS2010 the appearance and operation of the window has changed to make it easier to use docking windows on multi-monitor machines. If you double click the window caption in VS2008 it would restore the contents back to be docked windows. With VS2010 and Krypton Docking it maximizes the window. This allows you to place several pages inside the floating window and then maximize it on a different monitor in order to make use of multiple monitors effectively.

When pressed you get the expected group on the left edge of the form.

Move the mouse over the auto hidden tab and after a short delay it will slide out so it overlaps the client area. It operates like the Visual Studio environment where moving the mouse away from the area causes it to slide back again.

Now onto floating pages and the ability to restore back to where they came from.

I have added HeaderBarTabGroup as a new navigator mode that displays two headers around the edge of the tab headers area. As with all the header modes the buttons are placed inside the primary header instead of inside the tab bar. Switching to the new mode we get the following…

To replicate the Visual Studio 2008 docking windows we need to remove the secondary header and change the tabs orientation so they appear at the bottom. We can do that by changing a couple of existing properties. For this example I have removed the display of the context button so we have just a close button showing…

Now we have the correct layout we need to add some new palette styles so the appearance can be customized for just the docking scenario. Two new header styles called HeaderDockActive and HeaderDockInactive allow the header to indicate the active state of the navigator. The next two images show the header in each of the two styles.

Also added are a new TabBorderStyle called Dock and a tab style of Dock that allow the shape and appearance of the tabs to be defined specifically for the docking scenario. These changes give the final look and feel as follows for the Office 2007 – Blue palette…

Once I get to write the docking code there will be an event that is fired whenever a navigator is created. Just before the event is fired the navigator will be customized so it looks as seen above. But you will be able to hook into that event and alter the appearance to whatever you prefer instead. For example, you might decide to have a stacking buttons style instead. Allowing easy customization of appearance and operation are a key goal of the docking windows system.