WinForms › Power Tab Strip

Power Tab Strip

.NET Framework 4.8.NET 6 / 8 / 10v8.0.2WinForms

A tab control that draws its own headers in one of six styles, shows one page per tab, and copes with more tabs than will fit – by wrapping them onto extra rows or by listing the rest in a drop-down menu.

26public types

268public members

2namespaces

Assembly

Assembly	`Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.BinaryPowerTabStrip.dll`
Root namespace	`Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.TabControls`
Target frameworks	.NET Framework 4.8, .NET 6 / 8 / 10

Overview

Use it where a window holds several documents, records or views and the user moves between them: open files in an editor, customer accounts in a CRM screen, reports in a dashboard.

Pages and selection

Each tab is a BinaryPowerTabPage, a panel holding the tab's controls and carrying its header text, image, tooltip and colours. Add pages with AddTab() or through TabPages (not Controls). The selected page (SelectedTabPage) is docked under the headers and the others are hidden, so nothing is re-parented when the selection changes. TabPageSelectionChanged reports selection changes, and also pages being added, removed or changed.

Closing and reordering

Each header draws a close button (EnableTabPageLevelCloseButtonRendering). A click raises TabPageClosing, which can cancel, then removes the page and raises TabPageClosed. With EnableDragAndDropOfTabPages on, users drag headers into a new order.

More tabs than fit

TabsOverflowMode chooses: OverflowMode.Menu (the default) keeps one row and adds a drop-down glyph listing every tab; OverflowMode.MultiLine wraps the headers onto as many rows as they need.

Appearance

TabRenderingStyle picks the header shape and colouring, from the Visual Studio 2008 look (the default) to RenderingStyle.Custom, whose gradients come from CustomStartColor and CustomEndColor or each page's own colours. Headers run along the top or the bottom (TabPagesRenderingLocation) and can cast drop shadows (ShouldDrawTabHeaderDropShadow). Sizes are in logical pixels (1/96 inch), scaled to the display.

Getting started

A form showing open documents as tabs. Closing a tab with unsaved changes asks first, and the form's title follows the selected tab.

// In a form's constructor (using System.Windows.Forms and Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.TabControls).
var documents = new BinaryPowerTabStrip { Dock = DockStyle.Fill, TabPageHeaderWidth = 160, EnableDragAndDropOfTabPages = true };

foreach (string file in new[] { "Q3 forecast.xlsx", "Board minutes.docx", "Supplier contract.pdf" })
{
    var page = new BinaryPowerTabPage { Text = file, ToolTipText = "Finance share: " + file };
    var editor = new RichTextBox { Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
    editor.TextChanged += (sender, e) => page.TabPageContentIsDirty = true;
    page.Controls.Add(editor);
    documents.AddTab(page);
}

documents.TabPageSelectionChanged += e =>
{
    if (e.TabPageChangeType == TabPageChangeTriggerSource.SelectionChanged && e.TabPage != null)
        Text = e.TabPage.Text + " - Open documents";
};

documents.TabPageClosing += e =>
{
    e.Cancel = e.TabPage.TabPageContentIsDirty
        && MessageBox.Show(this, "Discard the changes to " + e.TabPage.Text + "?", "Close document",
                           MessageBoxButtons.YesNo) == DialogResult.No;
};

Controls.Add(documents);

API reference

`Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.TabControls`

class `BinaryExtendedPanel`	The panel `BinaryPowerTabPage` is built on: a `Panel` that draws a one-pixel border of its own in `BorderColor`.
class `BinaryPowerTabPage`	One tab of a `BinaryPowerTabStrip`: a panel for the tab's controls, together with everything its header shows - caption, image, tooltip, colours and close button.
class `BinaryPowerTabPageCollection`	The pages of a `BinaryPowerTabStrip`, in tab order, as returned by `TabPages`.
class `BinaryPowerTabPageCollectionBase`	The base of `BinaryPowerTabPageCollection`, raising an event before and after each change to the collection.
class `BinaryPowerTabStrip`	A tab control that draws its own headers in one of six styles, shows one page per tab, and copes with more tabs than will fit - by wrapping them onto extra rows or by listing the rest in a drop-down menu.
class `CurrentlyDisplayedTabPagesListReport`	One header drawn by the strip's last paint, as listed by `PagesCurrentlyDisplayedInActiveTabControlView`.
class `TabPageDoubleClickedEventArgs`	Provides data for the `TabPageDoubleClicked` event.
enum `CloseButtonPosition`	Says where a header's close button sits when the tabs run along the bottom of a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` (`TabBottomOrientationCloseButtonPosition`).
enum `HitTestArea`	Names the part of a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` at a point, as reported by `HitTest`.
interface `IPowerTabStripElementsRenderer`	Draws the overflow glyph of a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` in a design of your own. Assign an instance to `PowerTabStripElementsRenderer`.
enum `OverflowMenuGlyphVisualState`	The states a custom overflow glyph is drawn in (`IPowerTabStripElementsRenderer`).
enum `OverflowMode`	Says what a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` does when its headers are wider than it is (`TabsOverflowMode`).
enum `RenderingStyle`	The header styles a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` can draw (`TabRenderingStyle`).
enum `TabPageChangeTriggerSource`	Says what raised `TabPageSelectionChanged` (`TabPageChangeType`).
class `TabPageChangedEventArgs`	Provides data for the `TabPageSelectionChanged` event: the page concerned, and what happened to it.
delegate `TabPageChangedHandler`	Represents a method that handles `TabPageSelectionChanged`.
class `TabPageClosingEventArgs`	Provides data for the `TabPageClosing` event: the tab about to close, and a way to keep it open.
delegate `TabPageClosingHandler`	Represents a method that handles `TabPageClosing`.
delegate `TabPagesCollectionChangeHandler`	Represents a method that handles the events a tab page collection raises as a page is added or removed.
delegate `TabPagesCollectionClearHandler`	Represents a method that handles the `Clearing` and `Cleared` events.
enum `TabPagesOverflowCalculationStrategy`	How many auto-sized tabs a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` assumes fit on a row when it counts rows by tab width (`TabPagesOverflowCalculationStrategy`).
enum `TabPagesRenderingLocation`	Says which edge of a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` the tab headers run along (`TabPagesRenderingLocation`).
class `ToolTipConfiguration`	The look and timing of the tooltips a `BinaryPowerTabStrip` shows over its headers - the settings of a `ToolTip`, held where the designer can edit them.
class `ToolTipConfigurationTypeConverter`	Lets the property grid expand a `ToolTipConfiguration` into its individual settings instead of showing it as one value.

`Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.TabControls.Designers`

class `BinaryPowerTabPageDesigner`	Visual Studio designer support for a `BinaryPowerTabPage`: lets controls be dropped onto the page, keeps the page inside a tab strip, and hides the inherited properties the strip manages itself.
class `BinaryPowerTabStripDesigner`	Visual Studio designer support for a `BinaryPowerTabStrip`: a first tab for a new strip, commands to add and remove tabs, smart-tag settings, and clicking a header to select its tab on the design surface.