Navisight ExplorerBar

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ExplorerBar is a great looking control for displaying a categorized list of tasks or presentation of information. This control was first seen in Explorer in Windows XP, where it shows a list of tasks that can be applied to the current folder view. It also displays information about the current selection and a preview too, which is a great use for such a control. Like NavigationBar, this control contains a number of categories. The main difference is, more than one category can be open at one time.

Categories all have headers, which can contain both text and imagery. A button is also drawn indicating whether the category is collapsed or expanded. Clicking on a category header results in a smooth animation where the category contents both fold up and fade out at the same time. These drawing routines are optimised for smooth drawing no matter what child controls are hosted in each category. Animation effects are also available programmatically.

Headings are designated as being either primary or secondary, which affects the way they are drawn. Usually the top category is primary and all the rest are secondary. You can assign a watermark image to any category, which is drawn in a very faded state in the corner, behind any child controls. Although only one renderer is provided with this control out of the box (WindowsXPRenderer) you are free to write your own or alter the behaviour of that one.

Automatic layout is applied by default to child controls of categories, though this can be turned off. Controls are laid out from top to bottom with a configurable amount of spacing, and most of the time this is a great timesaver for putting together a task pane, no matter what type of child controls you are using.

The perfect companion for ExplorerBar is the ImageHyperlink control, also included in the Navisight suite. This very simple control is assigned text and an image, and aligns them appropriately, allowing you to click on the text as if it were a hyperlink. The control also works with NavigationBar categories to automatically change its size when its text or image changes.

ExplorerBar and ImageHyperlink both fully support right-to-left layout for locales that need it.

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