ATF Control Groups

Table of Contents Control Groups Tab Icons on Centered Controls Topics in this section

Control Groups

The control group is the initial position for a top-level control within the application's main form or dock. All the control group identifiers are listed in the StandardControlGroup enumeration.

You can specify a control's group when:

• You create a ControlInfo or ControlDef object, as described in ControlInfo and ControlDef Classes.
• You register a control. For more information, see Registering Controls.

Controls that are registered with a control group on the perimeter of the application window (Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Floating) are displayed as docked (pinned) windows that can be unpinned, floated, or hidden. Multiple controls in the same positions are overlapped and tabbed. Palettes, item listers, and property editing controls are most often registered as perimeter controls.

Centered controls (Center and CenterPermanent) are displayed in the middle of the application as overlapping tabbed windows. Even single center controls are displayed with a tab.

All controls except for those registered as CenterPermanent can be undocked, unpinned, or hidden by the user at run time. Controls registered as CenterPermanent are anchored in place and cannot be moved, hidden, or closed.

This example creates a ControlInfo object for a control in the left position (StandardControlGroup.Left):

ControlInfo controlInfo = new ControlInfo("Items", "Property Editing Sample List", StandardControlGroup.Left);

Controls are given tabs if they are centered (Center or CenterPermanent) or if there are multiple controls docked in the same perimeter position. By default, the tab is given a text label (the Name property for the control, if specified, or "(Untitled)").

Tab Icons on Centered Controls

You can also define an image icon for a control, which is displayed on the control's tab. The icon appears on the tab, in addition to the name.

Use the optional image argument in ControlInfo, ControlDef, or RegisterControl() to add an icon to a tab. The icon is a System.Drawing.Image object.

You can use your own image or get a standard image with one of the ResourceUtil.GetImage() methods.

Topics in this section