LidorSystems.Collector for .NET WinForms

* Roll-over the hyperlinks to see examples

General

• Design-time support with WYSIWYG functionality
• Built-in context menu (watch the video) for easy manipulation with controls
• Supports complex nested hierarchical structure of Collector controls
• User interface created with Table Layout Engine for accurate position of WinForms
• Headers with optional display of move, close, context-menu, auto-hide and expand/collapse button
• Windows can be expanded/collapsed to maximize screen real-estate
• Animated expand/collapse of windows for a great visual appeal, with controlled speed of animation
• Ability to cancel the closing of tool and document windows
• Detailed, highly flexible object and event model
• Integrated help documentation
• Illustrative sample projects and tutorials

Rendering and Style (watch the video)

• Rendering interface with five Visual Styles (Default, Classic, Office 2003, Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005)
• Support for WindowsXP Themes and color schemes (Blue, Olive Green, Silver and Windows Classic Styles)
• Choose from 21 integrated color schemes or set your own color for every single part of the user interface
• Gradient fill with 6 pre-build fill styles plus flat style (no gradient fill)
• Support for Transparency (Alpha Blending)
• Style inheritance
• Automatically resize the controls based on the current font size
• Add images to headers and tabs from a file or an ImageList
• Watermark effect with a container image in Page control
• AutoHide bar can resize to accommodate the size of tab's image

Docking Features (watch the video)

• True WYSIWYG docking functionality
• Manage advanced layouts on a form, like the one in Visual Studio .NET
• Group several tool windows in one container, displayed with tabs
• Tabs of tool windows can be aligned on any side of docked container
• Tear off tabs from tool or document windows to create floating windows
• Collapse tool windows in AutoHide Mode on any side of client area
• Multiple Dock-Hint Styles for exact dock location and size when a window is dragged over a potential dock target (RubberBand, TranslucentClone and TranslucentFill)
• Reposition docked windows quick and easy with drag/drop
• Each window can be in Static, Docked, Floating and Framed control state
• Tool windows can be programmatically docked anywhere in the layout
• Dynamically create new tool windows and document windows
• Docking permissions and drag/drop operations for additional control over your application
• Resize docked container controls with integrated ResizeBand
• Resize floating tool windows at run-time

Tab and Tabbed MDI Features (watch the video)

• Tab Control and Tabbed MDI functionality in one place
• Tabbed MDI layout mode with optional display of close, select and scrolling buttons
• Smooth scrolling of tabs with scrolling buttons
• Standard MDI with tiled and cascaded windows
• Groups or Pages can be displayed with tabs in container control
• Drag tabbed MDI tabs to create new horizontal or vertical tab groups
• Tabbed MDI documents can be converted in and from tool windows simply with drag/drop
• Reorder tabs with drag/drop
• Move tabs between containers at design-time or run-time simply by dragging and dropping on the exact location and position you want
• Align tabs on any side of container control
• Render tabs and tabbed MDI in five Visual Styles; OneNote look is easy to achieve
• Three size modes of tabs for great control over their appearance (AutoSized, Compressed and Justified)
• Tabs can be displayed with a disabled style
• Control the tab size with spacing and padding properties
• Access to the standard Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab methods for switching windows
• Group and Page control can be set to be hidden

Visual Appearance

• ToolWindow – emulates the docking functionality of Visual Studio .NET
• Vertical - the look of Outlook 2003 Navigation Pane
• Horizontal - multiple layouts of tabs with all combinations of top, left, right and bottom orientation
• Selection - rotate through your panels with scrolling buttons, similar to Task Pane in Office products; each panel can contain multiple page tabs

Table Based Layout Engine (watch the video)

• Align controls in nine positions
• Choose from three different size types of rows and columns (Autosized, Fixed and Free) to easily arrange your controls
• Work with nested tables
• Merge and split cells
• Select, insert and delete rows, columns and table
• Operate with each cell, row or column in order to form, align and arrange the controls in the cells to achieve the best look for your application
• Right-click context menu for easy manipulation with table
• Table properties dialog box

* Roll-over the hyperlinks to see each screenshot

• Advanced layouts with Dockable and Tabbed Windows
• Tab Control and Tabbed MDI
• Rendering interfaces (Windows XP, Classic, Office 2003, VS.NET 2003 and VS 2005)
• Appearance of tool and document windows
• Table for arrangement of Windows Forms controls

To demonstrate the possibilites and features implemented in LidorSystems components, you can download and test the following sample applications. Each sample is provided as a stand alone executable so it can be easily downloaded and tested. All samples are included with our products and are provided with complete source code.

Built Using

• Visual C# .NET 2003

Compatible Containers

• Visual Studio 2008
• Visual Studio 2005
• Visual Studio .NET 2003
• .NET Framework v3.5
• .NET Framework v3.0
• .NET Framework v2.0
• .NET Framework V1.1

System Requirements

• Disk Space: 12MB
• Memory: 32MB
• Software: .NET Framework 1.1 or higher
• Operating System: Windows 2000 or higher

Can be deployed on

• Windows 98
• Windows 2000
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows ME
• Windows XP
• Windows Vista

Below is a complete history of this product releases.

Review by Larkware's Mike Gunderloy

"There are a batch of controls out there that will give you docking and tabs for your .NET applications. Here's a relatively new entrant to the market, which combines a full-featured implementation of those UI features with an excellent design-time experience. If you're looking to cram more controls into limited user interface space, and still allow some runtime user flexibility, tabs and moveable windows are essential tools; Collector will give you a solidly useable implementation at a reasonable price."

Mike Gunderloy is the lead developer for Larkware and author of numerous books and articles on programming topics

Read the complete Review

* Annual Subscription for the product allows free updates, upgrades, new components and priority support for one year.
NOTE: You must also buy developer licenses.

Additional Licensing Options

Read more about payment options and other licensing information

The product is delivered electronically, by downloading the software from a server. You can make your own backup copy of the downloaded software, which we highly recommend. After purchasing you will receive an email with your serial numbers and registration information.

License Type