Visual Studio 2005+ style interfaces

Question

4.20/5 (2 votes)

See more:

Hi, is it possible in .NET to write applications with Visual Studio style components such as tabbed MDI windows and the interface for docking toolbars etc.?

I've seen some 3rd party libraries for this sort of thing but are 3rd party libraries the only way to do this? It's not something I'm willing to pay for so if need be I'd have to do similar from scratch.

I've not really done much with Windows Forms but I used to use Win32 API and MFC a little so apologies if this is something .NET supports easily straight out the box but if it is I'm not sure where!

Are there any examples on this sort of thing to get me started? I've not managed to find anything by searching.

Thanks!

Posted 1-Dec-08 0:30am

Ian Winter

Add a Solution

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

Simon P Stevens · Answer 1 · 2008-12-01T00:55:00

Yes it's possible.

You basically have 2 choices.

1) Write it yourself.
2) Find 3rd party controls.

If you choose to write it yourself, the best way to go about it will probably be creating some kind of custom control. You'll have to write all the docking and drawing logic your self. This would be quite complex, and probably fairly tricky.

If you choose to find 3rd party controls you can either find free/open source ones, or you can pay for them. There are open source controls around, which you could either just use, or use as base for your own. There's several on CP: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/magicdocking.aspx[^]

Mark Churchill · Answer 2 · 2008-12-01T13:42:00

Solution 2

Theres a third choice, which is to actually use the Visual Studio shell, which MS makes available for free.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb685612.aspx

Posted 1-Dec-08 13:42pm

Mark Churchill