tabbed document interface in WPF using only on-board means?

Question

I've seen two threads here about TDI & C#. Both of them didn't really answer the questions I have ...

Since TDIs are pretty much like a standard nowadays, I can hardly imagine, that I have to buy a special control (like AvalonDock or SandDock). This must be possible with built in the tab-control(?) somehow! I don't need special features like dock- and draggable tabitems. Just open every form in a new tab. Thats it.

Like putting every forms content controls into user controls and by request (button, menu click ...) add a new tab and put the corresponding user control on it ... something like this.

How would you do it? This can't be THAT complicated (even for me) or am I missing something?!

thanks a lot!

Answer 1

It's not that hard. It seems hard because there are a lot of different ways to do it.

Try this:

<TabControl x:Name="documentArea"/>

Handler for AddForm button:

private void AddFormClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    object form = GetNewForm();

    documentArea.Items.Add(form);
}

That's it. You have to implement GetNewForm() in one of two ways. Have it return a user control that displays the form.

OR better yet, have it return your document that you want to display. Use a DataTemplate to select the controls to use for displaying this document. This method is going to be more complex to set up.