What’s New in AutomatedDocking Library 1.2

Native and VS2005 docking styles. Now you can select one of two docking styles: Native and VS2005. A docking style unifies settings that specify the manner in which the docking works. The Native docking style was provided by the previous versions of the Library. The VS2005 style is new. Using this style, your applications will look very much like Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 in terms of appearance and behavior. Note that this docking style is supported under Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 only.

More predefined display styles for docking controls. The new version of the AutomatedDocking Library increases the number of user interface styles to five: in addition to the Default and Themed styles you can use the Standard, Flat and Enhanced styles.

More customization. In previous versions, you can dock panels using the left mouse button. Now you can select any combination of the mouse buttons, Ctrl, and Shift keys that will be used for docking. For instance, your applications may use the right mouse button for docking while the left mouse button will do nothing.

Version 1.2 of the AutomatedDocking Library supports VCL. The CLX version is not available at the moment.

The base style class, TaqDockingUIStyle, has been re-engineered and improved. Now the class includes lots of new methods, events and properties that provide more possibilities for style customization. If you created your custom styles on the base of the TaqDockingUIStyle class, you will have to update your code.

Version 1.2 introduces several new style classes: TaqFlatUIStyle, TaqStandardUIStyle, TaqEnhancedUIStyle, TaqCustomDefaultUIStyle.

The docking manager now can save the docking controls layout to and load it from an XML file. The docking manager includes two new methods for this: SaveLayout and LoadLayout. There are also several new classes that provide storing to and reading from binary and XML files: TaqBinaryDockingReader, TaqBinaryDockingWriter, TaqXMLDockingReader and TaqXMLDockingWriter.

A new docking manager’s property, DockingStyle, lets you specify which docking style you will use in your application: Native or VS2005.

Two new classes - TaqNativeDockingStyle and TaqVS2005DockingStyle - are used for working with the docking styles. Both these classes are inherited from another new class, TaqDockingStyle.

A new AutoDockKey property of the TaqCustomDockingManager class lets you specify a combination of keys and mouse buttons that will be used for docking. A new AutoDragKey property of the same class lets you specify a combination that will prevent docking.

The TaqDockingManager object contains a new method - Dock - that lets you easily dock one docking control to another.

The TaqCustomDockingControl object contains the following new methods and properties:

• ArrangeChildren - Lets you arrange child controls within the given docking control.
• Index - Indicates the control’s position in the list of child controls of the parent control.
• UpdateDocking - Use this method to redraw the docking controls after you changed their size or position.
• ScreenLeft, ScreenTop, ScreenRight, ScreenBottom and ScreenRect - Specify the docking control's position on screen.

A new event of the TaqDockingControl object, OnResize, lets you control the resizing of docking controls.

The TaqDockingManager contains several new events:

• OnFloatingFormCreate - This event occurs when a docking control is floating. You can use the event to perform specific actions with the form that hosts the floating control. For instance, you can change the form's AlphaBlendValue property to make that form transparent.
• OnFloatingFormClose - Use this event to perform specific action when a docking control becomes docked.
• OnDragDock - This event occurs when a user is dragging a docking control. You can use it to process dragging in the desired manner. For instance, using the OnDragDock event handler you can forbid the docking of a panel to another panel.

The docking manager’s Cursor property has been moved to the TaqDockingStyle class.

The TaqDockingControl class has new OnKeyDown, OnKeyPress, OnKeyUp, OnMouseDown and OnMouseUp events, which the class inherits from its ancestor classes.

A new Anchors property of the TaqDockingSite object lets you easily maintain the docking site position relative to the edges of its parent control.

The splitter support has been extended:

• A new property of the TaqCustomDockingManager object, SplitterMoving, lets you determine when a user is resizing any docking controls.
• Two other new docking manager’s properties, FirstSplitControl and SecondSplitControl, let you determine what docking controls the user is resizing.
• Using the new OnSplitterPopup event, you can perform specific actions when a user calls the context menu for a splitter that separates two docking controls.
• A new SplitterPopupMenu property lets you specify the menu that will be used as a context menu for splitters.
• New SplitterHCursor and SplitterVCursor let you specify the cursors that will be used when a user is moving the mouse over the horizontal and vertical splitters.

A new TaqSplitContainer class provides functionality common for horizontal and vertical containers. The TaqHorizontalContainer and TaqVerticalContainer classes are now inherited from this class. TaqSplitContainer includes two specific properties for working with splitters:

• HasSplitters - Lets you show or hide splitters that separate docking controls in a container,
• SplitterCursor - Lets you specify the cursors that will be used when a user is moving the mouse over splitters within a container.

The docking manager’s FloatingFormsOnTop property has been renamed to FloatingFormOnTop.

The dbAllButtons constant has been renamed to dbiDefault.

More, more…