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

At the moment Krypton cannot be used in this situation because the Krypton design time classes are placed inside the same assembly as the relevant controls. So the Krypton Toolkit design time classes are inside the Toolkit assembly, Krypton Ribbon design time classes inside the Ribbon assembly and so forth. But the design time assembly is not included in the client profile and so the Krypton assemblies will not be loadable.

To enable this scenario I have now created a new ComponentFactory.Krypton.Design assembly and moved all the design time classes into it. This means you can write a client profile application that references the Krypton Toolkit/Ribbon/Navigator/Workspace/Docking assemblies and it will work just fine because the Krypton assemblies no longer reference the System.Design namespace.

Note that client profiles are a feature exposed in Visual Studio 2010 and so you will only be aware of them if you have downloaded and played with that version.

• AllowPageDrag
• AllowPageReorder

These are used in conjunction with the Navigator flags of the same name to decide if the page can be dragged out of the navigator control or reordered. This provides per-page control over the actions rather than having the same restriction applied to all pages.

A new Navigator event called BeforePageReorder is also added that allows you to cancel the movement of a page during reordering actions. This allows the following common scenario to be implemented.

If you have a page that you want to remain always at the start of the set of pages then you can set the AllowPageReorder flag to False for that page. This prevents the user from being able to reorder that individual page. Then you can intercept the BeforePageReorder event and Cancel the event any time a page wants to be moved before our first page. Now you have a setup where all but the first page can be reordered but none of the pages can be moved before the first one. You could also implement more complex requirements such as always keeping a particular page after another in the list of pages. Although anything that complex is likely to confuse the user.

Note that these new flags and event only relate to user dragging actions. You can still add a page anywhere you like programmatically.

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.

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.

To help me out I needed to add some new events, methods and properties to the workspace and navigator controls. I thought you might find some of these handy for y0ur own applications so here is a quick summary…

KryptonWorkspace
   Methods
      HideAllPages()
      ShowAllPages()
      FirstVisibleCell()
      NextVisibleCell(…)
      PreviousVisibleCell(…)
      LastVisibleCell()
      IsCellPresent(…)
      PageForUniqueName(…)
      CellForUniqueName(…)
   Properties
      CellVisibleCount
   Events
      CellCountChanged
      CellVisibleCountChanged

KryptonNavigator
   Methods
      HideAllPages()
      ShowAllPages()
   Properties
      AllowTabSelect
      Bar.BarLastItemInset
   Events
      TabCountChanged
      TabVisibleCountChanged
      TabMouseHoverStart
      TabMouseHoverEnd

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.

Right clicking on the Workstation tab header shows a context menu with a new Maximize option.

Selecting the option gives the following maximized layout with all but the maximized cell hidden from view.

Right click the tab header again and you will find the Maximize option has changed to become Restore instead. Keyboard users can use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + M combination to toggle between maximized and restored.

In the examples above you can see a ButtonSpec that I added with appropriate images that allows an easier method of switching without requiring the user to discover the feature by looking at the context menu. This ButtonSpec is not added by the workspace and so if you want the same ability you will need to add it manually just as I did. You can see the new Cell Maximize + Restore sample to discover the few lines of code needed to add this capability.

Double Clicking Tabs
I’ve also added a new event to the KryptonNavigator called TabDoubleClicked which is fired whenever the user double clicks with the left mouse button on the tab header. In my new sample this is used to toggle the maximzed state but you could use this as a trigger for any default action you would like to perform.

This new beta has quite a few changes based on the feedback from testers of the first version earlier in the week. Most of the changes are in the date time picker and month calendar controls. Here is a full list of changes since the first beta…

KryptonDateTimePicker

• Text property now returns the actual displayed text, used to always return an empty string.
• MouseWheel now performs the key up/down action of the active text field.
• Entering 31 for the day number would not select the correct day.
• Up/Down actions on the day would not overflow within the same month.
• Mouse down on non-day parts of calendar would dismiss the context menu.

KryptonMonthCalendar

• Drawing was corrupted for many non-English culture settings.
• Can now set the background to transparent so parent background shows through.
• Changing the DayStyle could crash when using a KryptonPalette.
• When number of rows and columns were different mouse selection could crash.
• Can now enter 1 or 2 digits for the descriptive month field to change the value.

Other

• Palette upgrade tool now converts versions 12 and below to latest version 13.
• Switching Navigator between Outlook modes would cause a crash.
• KryptonComboBox would select text when you minimize/restore the form.

Download Beta 2

KryptonDateTimePicker
KryptonMonthCalendar
DateTimePicker for KryptonRibbon
MonthCalendar for KryptonContextMenu
Per-KryptonPage ButtonSpecs
Many bug fixes (consult change lists)

I will create a forum so that bugs and other feedback can be logged for the beta specific release.

Download Beta

Because the button spec collection is provided on a per-page basis you do not have to provide exactly the same button spec for every page, you can have different sets of buttons per-page. Here I have added a drop down button spec to the first page, a close button to the second and a couple of navigation buttons to the fourth.

As with all button specs you can specify tool tip information as shown in the above picture. You can also assign a KryptonContextMenu to the button spec so that clicking causes a popup menu thus…

Of course, the ability works not just for the default tab headers mode. Here you can see one of the CheckButton modes…

Even the Outlook Full mode will show buttons as specified.

Now that the KryptonMonthCalendar and KryptonDateTimePicker controls are finished I am working on a few minor enhancements like the one here before I make release a beta version. I expect it to be about a week from now when that gets released into the wild.

Download Link for 3.0.6

Major Bug Fixes
- Locking/Unlocking computer causes text to disappear.
- Text not drawing at all for some Visual Studio projects.
- ComboBox drop down not working on some computers.
- Cannot edit Image properties with KryptonContextMenu.
- Design time change of Ribbon.MinimizedMode crashes.
- Removing all Ribbon tabs still draws last tab shown.

Feature Changes
- KryptonDomainUpDown added to the Toolkit.
- KryptonBreadCrumb now has overflow button feature.

If you have a valid subscription to one of the commercial products the you should already have received an email notification with download details. You do not need new serial keys, existing 3.0 keys will work just fine. Also remember to uninstall your current version before installing the new one.

Just a quick update to show a couple of pictures with a new indicator style. If you are using Visual Studio 2008 under Vista then you will have noticed that the docking indicators are not square anymore. Under Vista it uses rounded indicators so of course we need to provide that style as well. Here we have the mouse hovering over the cell top edge indicator…

And over the middle indicator…

Intelligent Defaults

All of the built in palettes test for the operating system in order to decide on the appropriate feedback. So on Vista you get rounded and on earlier systems you get the square view as seen in the previous post. It also tests to ensure that your display has more than 8 bits per pixel color.

This is important because when running over remote desktop or terminal services the bandwidth is kept down by using only 256 colors per-pixel. In that case you cannot use the WS_EX_LAYERED setting that is required for the rounded appearance. In order to get a smooth rounded edge you need per-pixel alpha capabilities and so you must use a layered window. With only 256 colors per-pixel your not going to get proper alpha blending and so it is best to fall back to using the docking squares.

The previous post showed that you can drag pages around the KryptonWorkspace control in order to change the layout of the workspace area. We now need to extend this another level because in the real world you may want to drag pages between different control instances. As the KryptonNavigator also deals with KryptonPage instances it makes sense to allow pages to be dragged to and from Navigator as well as Workspace controls.

Drag Navigator to Workspace

The following images show a Form that has two KryptonNavigator instances at the top and a single KryptonWorkspace control at the bottom. We start by selecting page P1 from the top left Navigator…

And then drag it over to right side of the Workspace…

Dropping creates a new cell inside the Workspace with the page transferred.

Drag Workspace to Navigator

Moving in the opposite direction is just as easy. Just start dragging P1 from the Workspace and move it over the client area of the Navigator instance…

Notice that the Navigator gives feedback by showing the light blue area over the entire Navigator instance. There is only one thing the Navigator can do with a page drop and that is adding it to the end of its existing set of pages. So the only feedback, no matter where you move the mouse, is to show the entire control as the feedback area. Once you drop the page you get the following result…

Drag Navigator to Navigator
Drag Workspace to Workspace

You can ignore the Workspace entirely and just transfer pages from one Navigator instance to the other. Just drag P1 and move the mouse over to the other Navigator like so…

So you have the flexibility of dragging pages from/to Navigator /Workspace instances. This is not happening by using the traditional drag and drop mechanism provided in Windows. Starting the drag operation is not using the DoDragDrop call that you might be familiar with. Instead I have created my own class that manages the process.

Targets/Notify/Manager

You need three things to perform drag and drop. First you need a set of potential targerts that can accept the drop and for that we have the IDragTargetProvider interface. Second we need to allow drag operations to be started and we have the IDragPageNotify interface for that. Finally we need an instance that manages the orchestration and so there is a class called DragManager.

IDragTargetProvider

In practice this means that the Navigator and Workspace both implement the IDragTargetProvider interface
because both are capable of being drop targets for page dragging. This public interface could be implemented by any control so you could certainly make your own controls drop targets. The samples for the next release will give a couple of examples showing how to make a simple Button control or TreeView a drop target.

IDragPageNotify

The Navigator and Workspace also expose a property called DragPageNotify that stores an instance of the IDragPageNotify interface. Whenever you start a drag operation it callw back on this provided interface with the relevant mouse events. DragManager implements this interface and so can be passed into the DragPageNotify property of any control that wants to be able to start a drag. Again, the samples will show how to implement this on a Button and TreeView.

So the real story of this post is not that you can easily drag and drop pages between Navigator and Workspace instances, but you can easily integrate your own controls into this dragging mechanism. The above three controls are linked together using the following simple code…

DragManager dm = new DragManager();  

// Add drop targets
dm.DragTargetProviders.Add(kryptonNavigator1);
dm.DragTargetProviders.Add(kryptonNavigator2);
dm.DragTargetProviders.Add(kryptonWorkspace1); 

// Add drag sources
kryptonNavigator1.DragPageNotify = dm;
kryptonNavigator2.DragPageNotify = dm;
kryptonWorkspace1.DragPageNotify = dm;
 

This release is mostly about fixing bugs, in particular the design time experience as well as the various Toolkit controls that have issues with sizing and drawing. It also contains an additional bonus in the form of three new built-in palettes. These new palettes are inspired by the Vista and Windows Media Player 11 appearance and provide an interesting alternative to the business orientated Office 2007 palettes.

Change highlights
 - New palette Sparkle Blue
 - New palette Sparkle Orange
 - New palette Sparkle Purple
 - Design time exceptions fixed
 - KryptonComboBox bug fixes
 - Plus many other bug fixes

Download 2.8.5 Now

Your favorite WinForms toolkit is now better than ever before! The free toolkit has grown to include 21 controls, 5 components and 1 form. And that does not include the 9 different elements that can be added inside the context menu component. Here is a summary of the new features…

New Controls/Components
    KryptonDropButton
    KryptonColorButton
    KryptonListBox
    KryptonCheckedListBox
    KryptonCommand
    KryptonGallery
    6 x KryptonContextMenu Elements

Download 2.8.0 Now!

Note that the KryptonGallery is a standalone version of the gallery element that has been added to the KryptonRibbon. Also note that you need a ribbon serial key to use the gallery control, it is not part of the free toolkit.

I recommend you check out the KryptonContextMenu, KryptonCommand and KryptonCheckedListBox examples to see some of the enhancements in action. If your using the Ribbon then check the out the gallery examples to see them in full glory.

P.S. Please read the change list documents contained in the Resources section of the Krypton Explorer. There is a small breaking change for some uses of the KryptonComboBox as well as a line of code the needs removing from all generated code use of the KryptonComboBox.

This is a beta release of the Toolki/Ribbon/Navigator in anticipation of the full 2.8.0 release in the very near future. The actual version number is 2.7.9 and it will work with your existing 2.7 serial keys. A summary of just some of the new controls/components includes…

KryptonDropButton
KryptonColorButton
KryptonListBox
KryptonCheckedListBox
KryptonCommand
KryptonGallery

Plus much more including many new elements for use in the KryptonContextMenu as well as new group elements for the KryptonRibbon. As ever, read the change list documents for a full list of all changes.

Download Now!

Please post any bug reports for this beta on the special forum I have created. Enjoy!

Instead of setting the same state into multiple controls you just assign the state to a single instance of the KryptonCommand and then assign the command object to the controls. Now when you update the command it automatically updates all the controls for you. Here are a set of Krypton Toolkit controls placed on a KryptonPanel…

I now create a KryptonCommand and set its image to be that of an angel and the text properties to something simple. Assigning the command instance to each controls KryptonCommand property updates them to the following…

Now any change to the command object is reflected in all the controls immediately. So if I change the commands Checked property to be True you get the following…

Obviously not all the controls have the ability to represent a checked state, so only the ones where it is relevant are updated. For example the label controls obviously cannot be checked and so ignore this setting.

Notice at the bottom that you can assign the command to individual ButtonSpec instances. This applies to button specs on the Ribbon, Navigator and all relevant Toolkit controls. This is a two way process, so if you click a button that understands the checked property then it alters the command to reflect this checked state change.

Relevant KryptonRibbon elements have also been updated to the use the command. Here we have a ribbon group with some standard elements being displayed…

And once the command is assigned…

With the KryptonCommand.Checked = True…

If I now clicked on the first button element so that it was no longer checked then the other checked items would automatically become unchecked as well. This is because any change is reflected back to the command instance and all other controls attached to the command are therefore updated as well.  Although not shown above, the quick access toolbar buttons also take the command object.

The KryptonCommand issues a couple of events so that you can hook into a change in any of the properties and also be notified whenever the command needs to be executed. This allows the real power of the components to be unleashed.

A typical scenario might be handling the print action within your application. You create a command that has the appropriate text and images for indicating this print option. Then you can assign this command to a ribbon quick access toolbar button, a ribbon group button, a standalone button inside the client area and even to a button spec on a header. Whenever any of these elements is clicked you get the Execute event and can perform the actual printing action. If you decide to disable printing then just set the command Enabled property to False and all are updated immediately.

Now you can easily update and retain state without having to worry about updating every relevant control in your application. Once your application starts to grow this can become a real headache unless you deliberately manage this issue. Well now you can handle it with ease!

I was hoping to avoid the need for a maintenance release this time around but it was not to be. The initial release has a nasty exception that occurs when showing a KryptonContextMenu when the OS is setup to show sub menus immediately.

Download Link
http://www.componentfactory.com/downloads/KryptonToolkit271.zip

Change Lists
http://www.componentfactory.com/…/KryptonToolkitChangeList.doc
http://www.componentfactory.com/…/KryptonRibbonChangeList.doc
http://www.componentfactory.com/…/KryptonNavigatorChangeList.doc

What better Xmas present than a release of Krypton!  Use the link below to download the Krypton Toolkit immediately. If you have paid for one of the commercial options then you will get an automatic email notification with the next day with your new serial key and source code as appropriate.

Download Link
http://www.componentfactory.com/downloads/KryptonToolkit270.zip

New Features
- KryptonTextBox
- KryptonMaskedTextBox
- KryptonRichTextBox
- KryptonComboBox
- KryptonContextMenu
- Ribbon Application Menu
- Ribbon uses KryptonTextBox et al
- Navigator/Ribbon use of KryptonContextMenu

I’ve added a new property to the KryptonPage called KryptonContextMenu. Now when you right click the client area of the page it will by default show any defined KryptonContextMenu property. If the property is not defined it will fall back to using the ContextMenuStrip, if set, as it is the existing functionality…

But the biggest change is a new event KryptonNavigator.ShowContextMenu that is fired when you right click a page header. This property allows you to specify a context menu (KryptonContextMenu or ContextMenuStrip) that you would like displayed relevant to the page. You can use this to have a menu with Save, Close, Close All or other page specific commands exposed.

Here you can see the KryptonComboBox on the left side in various different operational states, the right hand side has a couple of standard ComboBox controls. Showing with the popular Office 2007 Blue color scheme.

And now in the Professional System color palette…

The background and text colors are restricted to just solid colors in the same way as the KryptonTextBox, because of limitations in the way the underlying Win32 control can be overridden. It does have one useful addition though, an Active state that is defined as True when either the mouse is tracking over the control or the control has focus. When Active you can alter the appearance using the StateActive appearance properties. So if you want to highlight the control when it is active, so that users can easily see which control has focus, you can achieve it quickly without writing any code.

Use the following link to download
http://www.componentfactory.com/downloads/KryptonToolkit260.zip

Toolkit Change Highlights
  KryptonCheckBox control added
  KryptonRadioButton control added
  KryptonDataGridView control added
  ToolTips added for button specs

Navigator Change Highlights
  2 x Ribbon modes added
  OutlookMini mode added
  ToolTips added for button specs
  ToolTips added for page headers
  Popup pages added for tab strip style modes
  Page selection via mnemonics

Ribbon Change Highlights
  CheckBox element added
  RadioButton element added
  CustomControl element added
  ToolTips added for button specs
  ToolTips added for relevant element types

Regards
Component Factory Pty Ltd

Slow Design Time Performance
When using many Krypton controls on a Form the design time experience can slow down dramatically. Even worse it can become pretty much unusable when you have many containers with many controls inside them. This is not an uncommon scenario as many applications have a Navigator for displaying multiple pages and then each page contains many child controls.

The root of the problem was the helper glyph that is presented on container controls such as the KryptonGroup, KryptonGroupHeader, KryptonNavigator etc. This glyph appears in the bottom right hand corner of the container and allows the developer to click the glyph to select the container control. This is handy when you KryptonGroup has a border of just 1 pixel and so requires you to click exactly that 1 pixel wide area to select the group control. Unfortunately this glyph implementation at design time was causing the horrible performance hit.

So version 2.6 has removed the glyph selection feature entirely in order to remove the performance problem. As an alternative way of selecting controls at design time I recommend you use the View -> Other Windows -> Document Outline display. This window problems a TreeView that allows you to see the hierarchy of controls on the Form and selection of a control by clicking the tree node of interest.

TextBox Usage on MDI Child Forms
When placing TextBox and some other controls onto an MDI child form the controls are not always usable. In particular you might have noticed that right clicking the TextBox does not show the context menu that you would normally expect. This has been fixed so that MDI child forms working correctly.

GDI Object Leak
If you create a KryptonForm derived Form and then show and dispose of it there is a GDI object leak of two handles. Although only a small leak this can add up when you applications makes extensive use of windows and runs for a long period of time. This leak has been fixed.

There are quite a few other fixes but these three are the current highlights. Check out the release notes when the latest version is installed in order to see a definitive list of all new features and bugs fixed.

Toolkit Highlights
KryptonCheckBox added
KryptonRadioButton added
KryptonDataGridView added
ToolTips added for button specs

Navigator Highlights
2 x Ribbon modes added
OutlookMini mode added
ToolTips added for button specs
ToolTips added for page headers
Popup pages added for tab strip style modes
Page selection via mnemonics

Ribbon Highlights
CheckBox element added
RadioButton element added
CustomControl element added
ToolTips added for button specs
ToolTips added for relevant element types

Release Warnings!
All new features have been added but the bug list has not been processed yet, so many bugs reported in the past few months have not yet been investigated and fixed. Hence you might still find a bug that you have already reported in the past. Don’t worry, this will be worked on before the full release.

I wanted to get the Beta out so people can play around with the new features and provide feedback whilst I work on the bug list, this giving time for feedback to be incorporated before the full release occurs.

The palette definition file has not been tested and updated and so use of palette definitions files might not work very well at the moment. I cannot guarantee that loading a previously saved palette file will work in this version. This will be addressed in the full release of course.

Here is a tool tip for the form close button that has been defined with an exaggerated rounding.

And the Navigator with a popup page.

Here we have a KryptonHeader with a tool tip defined.

This also works for the KryptonHeaderGroup.

The min/max/close buttons on a KryptonForm are just internally defined button specs. Note that the tooltip text for these standard button types is defined in the palette. So if you need to change the displayed text for them you just need to drop a KryptonPalette on your form, alter the tool tip text and then use that new palette instance instead of the built in palette.

And now to the KryptonNavigator control.

Although I do not have an example image the KryptonRibbon will also show tool tips for the user defined button specs that appear on the tabs line of the ribbon control. Later on I will be adding further tool tip support specific to the ribbon and so will post about that in the future.

Here you can see the mouse hovering over a page header and the resulting tooltip popup.

There are a set of properties that allow you to define the mapping of values from the page to the tooltip. This time I have specified that the KryptonPage.ImageLarge, KryptonPage.Text and KryptonPage.TextTooltip properties be used.

There are other properties for turning the use of tooltips on and off as well as defining the delay before the tooltip is shown.

At the moment the actual close/context/next and previous buttons do not themselves have any tooltip. Do you think I should add that as well? Also the headers do not show tooltips. So if you are using the HeaderGroup mode and hover the mouse over the primary header there is no tooltip. Do you think that ability would be useful?

BarMultiline = Singleline
All items are placed on a single line that extends beyond the edge of the display area. So some of the items might not be visible until you scroll them into view.

BarMultiline = Multiline
Multiple lines of items are created in order to ensure that all the items are visible. When using tab style headers the line with the selected item is always moved to join onto the group area.

BarMultiline = Exactline
Items are placed on a single line, but all items are resized to ensure the entire line area is used up. So items are expanded if they do not naturally fill up the line and items are shrunk if they naturally would overflow the line.

BarMultiline = Shrinkline
Items are only resized if they naturally overflow the single line, in which case they are shrunk down so they no longer overflow the display area.

BarMultiline = Expandline
If the items do not fill up the entire line then they are expanded to ensure the line is fully used. If the items naturally extend over the line then they are unchanged.

For each of these ‘tab strip’ modes you can now press the page header (tab, check button or ribbon tab) and have the associated page show inside a popup. This is best explained using a possible usage scenario.

HeaderBar – CheckButton – Group
We begin with a mode that shows the contents of the selected page. There is also an arrow button defined via a button spec on the right of the navigator. At runtime you can imagine a user wanting to conserve window real estate by pressing the up arrow to shrink down the size of the control.

HeaderBar – CheckButton – Only
Once the arrow is pressed we switch to this new mode where the client area has been hidden. This frees up client area for other more important controls.

But the user might still need to access the pages from time to time. Rather than force the user to expand the control back to the original setting they can just press the header of the page they need. So if they press the First button they now get this popup…

This is a really nice feature because if the user needs just occasional quick access they can single click and get the popup. If they want to access the pages all the time they can use the down arrow button and have the pages displayed all the time. So with only a few lines of code used to switch modes we have provided some great flexibility to the user.

To prove the popup page is fully functionality let’s try a silly example. We can place another navigator instance inside one of the pages. Here we click page Three which contains within itself a Outlook – Mini mode navigator.

Clicking the Outlook – Mini button will correctly show its own page as another popup.

Using the TAB key works correctly and rotates the focus around the controls inside the popup. You can use the ESCAPE key at any time to dismiss the top most popup page.

Navigator.PopupPages Properties
There are several properties inside Navigator.PopupPages that can be used to customize how the popup is displayed. By default you will see that the popup has a border area of 3 pixels around the actual page contents. For the next picture we will change that to be 9.

You can also change the location of the popup. By default you will have noticed it shows the popup below the header item and aligned to the left edge. Now let’s choose the option that shows it below the navigator but changed in size to match the width of the navigator.

DisplayPopupPage Event
To provide maximum flexibility there is an event called DisplayPopupPage fired just before the popup is shown. It allows you to modify the screen rectangle that is used for display. This gives you complete control over the size and location in order to match whatever unique needs your application has.

By the way, all the images above should have a nice shadow border around the pop ups but my Paint Shop Pro would not capture them. So the real appearance looks much better.

The reason the Type property was omitted is that the KryptonNavigator itself internally creates Close, Next, Previous and Content type buttons in order to provide out of the box functionality for the button type. So if you had the ability to create extra buttons with the same Type value then the user would be very confused about what is happening when your own buttons do not operate as the internally defined ones.

So instead of adding the Type property I have now added a TypeRestricted property that allows you to specify any type except the Close, Next, Previous and Close. Here is a picture of the navigator but two user defined buttons, the left of which is using the ArrowLeft restricted type and the right the FormClose restricted type.

Outlook – Full
This is the new name for the existing Outlook mode. You will of course already been familiar with the following image.

Outlook – Mini
Now we switch to using the Outlook Mini mode and you can see that it has removed the page display area and put a vertical button in its place. It also removes the drawing of the stack item text in order to reduce the width required to the minimum possible.

When you click on the vertical button it then pops up the appropriate page to the side.

There are properties for controlling the position and size of the popup in order to override the default but the default should be applicable to the majority of developers.

Open a command prompt with administrator privileges
- Click the Start Button
- Type ‘cmd’ in the search box
- Right click ‘cmd’ entry and use ‘Run as administrator’

Navigate to the ‘\Help\Help2Install’ subdirectory
- cd ‘c:\Program Files\Component Factory Pty Ltd\Krypton Toolkit 2.5.1\Help\Help2Install’

Run ‘RegisterHelp2.bat .’
- Yes that is a dot as the batch file parameter

View the installed help collection
- Run Krypton Explorer
- Select the ‘Resources’ option
- Select the ‘Documentation’ hyperlink

To manually add the templates you can use the following steps…

Find the installation directory of Visual Studio
- Open up the registry using ‘regedit’
- Open up ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0’
- Note the directory of the ‘InstallDir’ value

Copy template zip files to correct subdirectory
- Copy *ProjectCS.zip files to ‘[InstallDir]\ProjectTemplates\CSharp\Windows’
- Copy the other .zip files to ‘[InstallDir]\ItemTemplates\CSharp’

Ask Visual Studio to install the templates
- Click the Start Button
- Type ‘cmd’ in the search box
- Right click ‘cmd’ entry and use ‘Run as administrator’
- Change directory to [InstallDir]
- Run ‘devenv.exe /installvstemplates’

Bar – RibbonTab – Group
In this mode the ribbon tabs are placed on a bar in the same way that the check button and traditional tab headers are also placed on a bar. So here is the appearance for the default Office 2007 – Blue palette.

The mode responds to all the usual bar properties and so you can place the tabs on any edge. Here we have the ribbon tabs on the bottom edge with the Office 2007 – Silver palette.

And now on the left edge with the Office 2007 – Black palette.

Next we have the Professional – 2003 palette with the tabs on the right edge but with an additional string at the bottom of the tab. We also orientated the tab contents to be vertical inside of rotated around and pointing towards the center of the control.

Also take note that when the tab itself has the focus it is drawn in the same dark yellow/orange style as it is inside the KryptonRibbon. Unlike the ribbon we also show a focus rectangle to be consistent with the check button and traditional tabs appearance. You could of course customize a single setting to remove the focus rectangle if you prefer it not to be present.

Bar – RibbonTab – Only
Our second mode is just a small variation. Here we are using the tabs like a tab strip so that the center does not have the selected page displayed.

kryptonPage1.Text = "Exa&mple"

At runtime you just press the ‘m’ character and that page will become selected. The use of mnemonics only applies to those modes that show per-page selection. So the Panel, Group and HeaderGroup modes do not have mnemonic support simply because it does not make sense for those modes.

Navigator Shortcuts
Also due to a forum request I have added shortcut definitions for each of the four action buttons. Here are the default shortcut key combinations for each of the buttons:-

Close Button = Ctrl +F4
Context Button = Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow
Next Button = Ctrl + F6
Previous Button = Ctrl + Shift + F6

Note that these shortcuts only work when the corresponding action button is visible and enabled. The default combinations match those you find in Visual Studio for the document editing area. So pressing Ctrl + F4 in Visual Studio closes the current document and so is used to invoke the close button.

Navigator Methods
If you need to invoke one of the action buttons from code then you can use one of the four new methods:-

PerformCloseAction()
PerformContextAction()
PerformNextAction()
PerformPreviousAction()

So now you have the full range of options. The user can click the close button using the mouse, use a keyboard combination to invoke the close button or the developer can use code to invoke the action.

Release Highlights
Krypton Ribbon added to suite.
Vista glass support added to custom chrome.
Performance improvements with custom chrome.
Now installs Krypton Visual Studio templates (except on Vista)
Now auto adds Krypton components to Toolbox (except on W2k)
Bug fixes.

Converted from Aussie dollars to US that would make it around the $68 mark, which is a bargain. Remember the listed price for the single developer and source code of Krypton Navigator is $149. There were a total of 22 bids spread pretty evenly over the entire 7 day period.

So have we learnt something from the experiment? It proves that at least a few people are reading my blog otherwise there would have been no bids at all. I would guess that most of the bidders are acting as individuals rather than corporations as most companies would not consider an eBay auction as an appropriate method of purchasing software!

Given that individuals are more price sensitive than corporations I am pleased with the winning bid. I don’t expect to be using eBay in the future as a regular mechanism for selling licenses. But I would definitely consider it again for a special offer or other marketing event.

Every now and again I have a crazy idea and because I am the boss I can actually try them out. So I wondered if you could actually sell a developer license for the Navigator via an eBay auction. Even more interesting will be the price that it achieves.

The only people that will be interested are those that read this blog and fancy a cheap as chips copy. The starting bid is just $1 and the deadline is 7 days.

If only five people are reading this blog then maybe someone will pick it up for just a fistful of dollars. On the other hand if there are several hundred readers of the blog, and some of those are thinking of buying a copy anyway, then it could go for a few dollars more. Maybe even near the full retail price.

Here is the eBay link.

Let the contest begin.

Toolkit Changes
KryptonForm buttons now repaint when you hover
over them. Changing the Text, ExtraText and Icon for
the form also cause an immediate repaint. Plus the
crash that occures on closing down is fixed.

KryptonSplitContainer correctly remembers the
splitter distance between design time and runtime.

KryptonHeader and KryptonHeaderGroup will repaint
correctly when you add them manually and not using
the designer. Most obvious when you had a button spec.

Navigator Changes
Outlook mode separator movement improved, when
moving separator up and down to add/remove items
from stack to the overflow area.

Regards
Component Factory Pty Ltd

[b]Toolkit Changes[/b]
Improved custom chrome performance
Improved design time support for ButtonSpecs
Green and Red palettes deprecated
Office 2007 – Auto palette deprecated
Three new predefined button specs added
Several bug fixes

[b]Navigator Changes[/b]
Improved design time support
Multiline and Shrinkline feature added
First tab/checkbutton offset property added

Regards
Component Factory Pty Ltd

If you Copy and Paste an KryptonNavigator instance it does not copy the KryptonPage objects it contains. Instead it would move the pages from the original instance to the new navigator instance. Obviously this is not the expected behaviour and it has now been fixed.

The second issue is less apparent to most developers. The Document Outline docking window shows the hierarchy of controls and components in your Form. At the moment it never shows any children for the navigator even when it has pages. This makes it impossible to use the Document Outline to visualise the hierarchy and change selection. This is now fixed as you can see here…

There is a third design time issue that I have not yet been able to resolve. If you place a navigator on a Form and then inherit another Form from it then you cannot edit the navigator pages collection in the derived class.

Actually it is a little more complex than that. If the base form has no pages in the navigator then the derived form can edit the colllection. If the base form has 1 or more pages then the derived form shows the pages collection as read only. Why this should be the case I cannot yet work out.

The base navigator control and pages are marked as public in the base form. But for some reason the designer will not let you edit the pages collection if it has contents declared in a base form. Any ideas people?

The default value of BarFirstItemInset is zero to maintain backward compatibility. Here are two pictures with the left picture using the default value and the right picture a value of 10 pixels.