CAB and Workspaces

Workspaces

You might be familiar with various kinds of layout managers that automatically arrange the windows that the manager contains. If you are a Java developer, you might be used to layout managers like the FlowLayout manager and the GridLayout manager. The layout manager works in conjunction with a container. The container holds the controls, and the layout manager positions and sizes the controls as they are added to the container.

In CAB, we have Workspaces and SmartParts. A Workspace is a container for holding SmartParts. A WorkItem contains a list of zero or more Workspaces, so you can have workspaces within workspaces.

Most CAB applications will need to create a root Workspace within the main form.

The different kinds of Workspaces in CAB are:

• WindowWorkspace
  Vanilla area for holding SmartParts
  For an MdiWorkspace, will automatically create a Form to hold a SmartPart
  
• DeckWorkspace
  Stacks SmartParts in an overlapping manner
  
• MdiWorkspace
  Regular MDI container, derives from WindowWorkspace
  
• TabWorkspace
  Tabbed Windows
  
• ZoneWorkspace
  Allows tiling of window areas, good for implementing an Outlook type layout
  

There are two ways of adding zones. One is to use the Visual Studio .Net designer, and drag a workspace from the Toolbox onto a form.




The other way is to dynamically create the workspace in the FormShellApplication’s AfterShellCreate() override.

Here is an example of creating various types of workspaces using the second method (the code is “unwound” for the sake of this article):

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using CABQuoteViewer.WorkItems;
using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.SmartParts;
using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.WinForms;

namespace CABQuoteViewer
{
    class CABQuoteViewerApplication : FormShellApplication<QuoteViewerWorkItem, MainForm>
    {
        private IWorkspace m_workspace;
        private QuoteViewerWorkItemExtension m_quoteWorkItemExt;

        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            new CABQuoteViewerApplication().Run();
        }

        protected override void BeforeShellCreated()
        {
            base.BeforeShellCreated();
            
            if (this.RootWorkItem != null)
            {
                this.m_quoteWorkItemExt = new QuoteViewerWorkItemExtension();
                this.m_quoteWorkItemExt.Initialize(this.RootWorkItem);
            }
        }
        
        protected override void AfterShellCreated()
        {
            base.AfterShellCreated();
            this.CreateWorkspace("Deck");
        }
        
        private void CreateWorkspace(string wsTypeName)
        {
            if (wsTypeName == "Mdi")
            {
                this.m_workspace = new MdiWorkspace(this.Shell);
                this.RootWorkItem.Workspaces.Add(this.m_workspace, "ClientWorkspace");
            }
            else if (wsTypeName == "Tab")
            {
                this.m_workspace = this.RootWorkItem.Workspaces.AddNew<TabWorkspace>("ClientWorkspace");

                TabWorkspace tabWorkspace = this.m_workspace as TabWorkspace;
                tabWorkspace.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
                this.Shell.Controls.Add(tabWorkspace);
            }
            else if (wsTypeName == "Deck")
            {
                this.m_workspace = this.RootWorkItem.Workspaces.AddNew<DeckWorkspace>("ClientWorkspace");

                DeckWorkspace deckWorkspace = this.m_workspace as DeckWorkspace;
                deckWorkspace.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
                this.Shell.Controls.Add(deckWorkspace);
            }
            else if (wsTypeName == "Zone")
            {
                this.m_workspace = this.RootWorkItem.Workspaces.AddNew<ZoneWorkspace>("ClientWorkspace");

                ZoneWorkspace zoneWorkspace = this.m_workspace as ZoneWorkspace;
                zoneWorkspace.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
                this.Shell.Controls.Add(zoneWorkspace);
            }
            else
            {
                throw new Exception("Cannot create workspace");
            }
        }
    }
}

When you add a SmartPart to a Workspace, you can pass along hints that tell the Workspace how to layout and decorate the SmartPart. The Workspace class has functions for

• Showing a SmartPart (which also adds the SmartPart to the Workspace as well)
• Hiding a SmartPart
• Activating a SmartPart
• Closing a SmartPart

There are events that get fired when a SmartPart is activated within a Workspace, and when a SmartPart is closing within a Workspace.

You can create new, custom workspaces in CAB, and a later article will cover this.

©2006 Marc Adler - All Rights Reserved