Panel Bar

What it is for

Use the bar down the side of a main window to switch between the sections of an application. Each section is a BinaryPanelBarButton; clicking it fills the area above the buttons with the section's BinaryPanelBarContainedPanel and puts its text in the header.

Key concepts

• Buttons and pages. Give each button a BinaryPanelBarButton.ButtonText, an image and a BinaryPanelBarButton.ContainedPanel holding the section's controls, and add it with AddBinaryPanelBarButton. One button is selected at a time.
• Shown and hidden buttons. HowManyPanelButtonsToShow large buttons are stacked at the bottom; the rest appear as small icons in the strip under them. The user moves buttons between the two by dragging the gripper above the stack or with the chevron menu's "Show More Buttons" and "Show Fewer Buttons".
• Available buttons. A button whose BinaryPanelBarButton.NotAvailableForUse is set is hidden altogether. The user chooses which are available from the chevron menu's "Add or Remove Buttons", or the "Navigation Pane Options" dialog (AddShowNavigationOptionsMenuItem).
• Collapsing. With RenderInOutlookStyleExpandCollapseMode on, an arrow in the header collapses the bar to a narrow rail; clicking the rail opens the selected page in a flyout beside it.

Appearance

XPThemeToEmulate picks a Windows XP palette (olive by default), or XPTheme.None for StartColor and EndColor. ItemColorRenderingStyle chooses a plain gradient, an Office-style finish or the system colours, and the Button...Color properties colour the hovered and selected buttons. Metrics are in logical pixels (1/96 inch) and are scaled with the display.

using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.NavigationControls;

public class MailForm : Form
{
    private readonly BinaryPanelBar navigation = new BinaryPanelBar();
    private readonly StatusStrip status = new StatusStrip();

    public MailForm()
    {
        Text = "Mail";
        Size = new Size(960, 640);
        status.Items.Add("Mail");

        navigation.Dock = DockStyle.Left;
        navigation.Width = 240;
        navigation.XPThemeToEmulate = XPTheme.Blue;
        navigation.ItemColorRenderingStyle = PanelBarItemColorRenderingStyle.OfficeStyleRenderer;
        navigation.RenderInOutlookStyleExpandCollapseMode = true;   // collapse arrow in the header
        navigation.AddShowNavigationOptionsMenuItem = true;

        var folders = new TreeView();
        folders.Nodes.Add("Inbox");
        folders.Nodes.Add("Sent Items");
        AddSection("Mail", "Images\\mail", folders);
        AddSection("Calendar", "Images\\calendar", new MonthCalendar());
        AddSection("Contacts", "Images\\contacts", new ListBox { Items = { "Accounts team", "Suppliers" } });
        navigation.HowManyPanelButtonsToShow = 2;                   // the third shows as a small icon

        navigation.BinaryPanelBarButtonClicked += (sender, e) =>
            status.Items[0].Text = ((BinaryPanelBarButton)sender).ButtonText;

        Controls.Add(navigation);
        Controls.Add(status);
    }

    private void AddSection(string title, string imagePath, Control content)
    {
        var page = new BinaryPanelBarContainedPanel();
        content.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
        page.Controls.Add(content);

        var button = new BinaryPanelBarButton(navigation)   // the bar, for drawing on the collapsed rail
        {
            ButtonText = title,
            ButtonImage = new Bitmap(imagePath + "-24.png"),
            ButtonSmallImage = new Bitmap(imagePath + "-16.png"),
            ContainedPanel = page,                         // set before the button is added
        };

        navigation.AddBinaryPanelBarButton(button);
    }
}