you did great work on the new VSB!!!
Last year we created our own Themes depending on the 3 Office-Themes with our own style.
At the moment i try to upgrade our Themes to the latest Version (2010 Q1)...
I would be glad to know if i should spend my time on doing something else and install the 2010 Q1 SP(n) because you develop some sort of converter for the customized themes and/or add some more Element States for different controls.
In 2009 Q2, i was able to add customized states (like RadTextBoxElement.BorderPrimitive.IsMouseOver) to every control. Is it possible to do something like this in the new VSB?
Or will it be possible in the SP1 release?
I read in an onther thread, that the other missing controls, will be added soon. Therefore i ask if the missing Element States are also added soon ;-)
Some brilliant new States are now implemented, like RadTextBox.TextBoxBorder.RadTextBoxElement.ContainsFocus! Great Job!
Works fine...
Best regards
1 Answer, 1 is accepted
Thanks for writing and for the nice feedback regarding the new Visual Style Builder.
The new Visual Style Builder aims to simplify and drastically speed up the process of creating a theme for a control by introducing some new concepts like the Visual States and Theme Repository (you can read more about these concepts here http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/vsb_concepts.html). All these new features imply major changes in the way XML themes are serialized and therefore the old themes are not compatible with the new Visual Style Builder when it comes to loading and editing them. However, we have provided a small tool that allows for extracting a Theme Repository from an old theme. This extracted repository can be used as a base for recreating your theme from an old theme instead of completely designing it from scratch (further information on this topic: http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/vsb_loadingoldthemes.html). We will also make sure that we migrate all our predefined themes that ship within our suite to the new theming mechanism so that you can open them in the new VSB and simply modify their repository to create a different theme (as you did with the Office themes).
Indeed, in Q1 2010 not all available controls are visible in the VSB but for Q1 2010 SP1 we will change this. The concept of Element States, as I already said, is a bit different. Now Visual States are used and they are defined on RadItem level which means that primitives (BorderPrimitive, FillPrimitive etc.) do not expose states. To explain this I will give you an example with the RadButton control. As you already know, our controls define an element tree build of visual elements that represent the separate parts of a control. For example the button is build of border, fill, text and image primitives which are put in a tree. The main element, of which you can think as a main button element, is called RadButtonElement and it defines the possible Visual States of a button: Default, MouseOver, MouseDown etc. When you select the RadButtonElement in the Visual Style Builder you will see its main parts: border, fill and text in the Elements grid below the preview pane. These elements do not define Visual States, however different style can be associated with them for the different states of the RadButtonElement. That said, if you want to set a style to the border of the button when the button is hovered, you simply have to choose the Border element from the grid, select the MouseOver state and apply the style according to your requirements.
Indeed, it is possible that some useful Visual States are missing for a given control. We will appreciate you feedback on this since it will help us eliminate all similar handicaps that might prevent you from styling a RadControl.
In conclusion, I would like to say that if you want, you can begin migrating your custom theme to the new theming mechanism (we will be happy to assist you) or wait for us to release the new version of our predefined themes and recreate your theme from an existing one by modifying its theme repository.
I hope this answers your questions.
Do not hesitate to write back anytime you need further assistance or have any feedback regarding the new VSB.
Regards,
the Telerik team
Do you want to have your say when we set our development plans? Do you want to know when a feature you care about is added or when a bug fixed? Explore the Telerik Public Issue Tracking system and vote to affect the priority of the items.