Restore Closed MDI Window

[Kenneth]

I have a RadDock  on my main form.  Within this RadDock I create multiple Forms that are create via the following code according to the MDI section of the RadDock documentation,

         messageGenerationForm = new MessageGenerationForm( this );
         messageGenerationForm.Text = "Message Generation";
         messageGenerationForm.MdiParent = this;
         messageGenerationForm.Show();

I set the CloseAction to be Hidden.

They are created as ToolWindows so they can be undocked from the form.  If they are closed, I want to have a menu item that will allow them to be restored.  How is this to be done?


Ken...

[Julian Benkov]

Hi Kenneth,

To support this functionality, you can create a FindWindows method and populate your menu items depending on the the result. The search criteria is based on your concrete type, in your case MessageGenerationForm. To display some ToolWindows or a collection of windows, you can use DisplayWindow / DisplayWindows API of RadDock control. Here is a simple implementation:

private void DisplayAllWindows(ToolWindow[] windows)
{
    foreach (var item in windows)
    {
        this.radDock1.DisplayWindow(item);
    }

    //or
    this.radDock1.DisplayWindows(windows);
}

private ToolWindow[] FindWindows(Type type)
{
    List<ToolWindow> windows = new List<ToolWindow>();
    foreach (ToolWindow item in this.radDock1.DockWindows)
    {
        if (item.Controls.Count > 0 && item.Controls[0].GetType() == type)
        {
            windows.Add(item);
        }
    }

    return windows.ToArray();
}

I hope this helps.

All the best,
Julian Benkov
the Telerik team

[Kenneth]

This doesn't work for me.  Let me try to provide more details to see if you can duplication my situation.  I have my radDock.MdiChildrenDockType set to ToolWindow.  AutoDetectMdiChildren is set to true.  When I try your example, the list is returning types of HostWindow, not ToolWindow.  I can see the two names below in the radDock.DockWindows.ToolWindows list by their names.  When I inspect them the window that I deleted has its MdiChild property set to null.  It appears that when I Hide the tabbed window, it is closing the Form.  So, even if I display the tab again, the contents are blank.  I'm not sure if I'm doing tings correctly.


      private void MainForm_Shown( object sender, EventArgs e )
      {
         messageGenerationForm = new MessageGenerationForm( this );
         messageGenerationForm.Text = "Message Generation";
         messageGenerationForm.MdiParent = this;
         messageGenerationForm.Show();

         eventCreationForm = new EventCreationForm( this );
         eventCreationForm.Text = "Event Creation";
         eventCreationForm.MdiParent = this;
         eventCreationForm.Show();

         // Set the EventList in the MessageGenerationForm so it has access to the events.
         messageGenerationForm.EventList = EventCreationForm.EventList;

         // This sets the active window to be the Event Creation form at startup.  Not sure why, but the
         // EventCreationForm is always at index = 0 in the ToolWindows array.
         radDock1.ActiveWindow = radDock1.DockWindows.ToolWindows[0];

         // Set the properties for the tabbed windows so they are consistent.
         foreach( DockWindow window in radDock1.DockWindows.ToolWindows ) {
            window.AllowedDockState = AllowedDockState.All;
            window.DefaultFloatingSize = new System.Drawing.Size( 1122, 913 );
            window.CloseAction = DockWindowCloseAction.Hide;
         }
      }

[Julian Benkov]

Hi Kenneth,

In this scenario the auto detected child form is handled like a document window and its Close action disposes it. You can change this behavior by handling the DockWindowAdded event. Consider the sample below: 

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Telerik.WinControls.UI;
using Telerik.WinControls.UI.Docking;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication2
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        private RadDock radDock = new RadDock();
        private RadButton radButton = new RadButton();
        private ToolWindow toolWindow = new ToolWindow("My Tool");

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            radDock.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
            this.Controls.Add(radDock);

            this.IsMdiContainer = true;
            this.radDock.AutoDetectMdiChildren = true;
            this.radDock.DockWindowAdded += new DockWindowEventHandler(radDock_DockWindowAdded);

            Form form = new Form();
            form.Text = "My Form1";
            form.MdiParent = this;
            form.Show();

            form = new Form();
            form.Text = "My Form2";
            form.MdiParent = this;
            form.Show();

            form = new Form();
            form.Text = "My Form3";
            form.MdiParent = this;
            form.Show();

            this.radDock.DockWindow(toolWindow, DockPosition.Left);

            radButton.Text = "Show all windows";
            radButton.Click += new EventHandler(radButton_Click);
            toolWindow.Controls.Add(radButton);
        }

        void radDock_DockWindowAdded(object sender, DockWindowEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.DockWindow.DockState == DockState.TabbedDocument && e.DockWindow is HostWindow)
            {
                Form form = e.DockWindow.Controls[0] as Form;
                ToolWindow toolWindow = new ToolWindow(form.Text);
                toolWindow.Controls.Add(form);
                toolWindow.AllowedDockState = AllowedDockState.TabbedDocument | AllowedDockState.Hidden;
                form.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None;
                form.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
                this.radDock.AddDocument(toolWindow);
                toolWindow.CloseAction = DockWindowCloseAction.Hide;
                e.DockWindow.CloseAction = DockWindowCloseAction.CloseAndDispose;
                e.DockWindow.Close();
            }
        }

        void radButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            IEnumerable<DockWindow> windows = this.radDock.GetWindows<DockWindow>();
            foreach (var item in windows)
            {
                if (item.DockState == DockState.Hidden && item.Controls.Count > 0 && item.Controls[0] is Form)
                {
                    this.radDock.DisplayWindow(item);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Please, feel free to contact us, if you have further questions.

Regards,
Julian Benkov
the Telerik team

[Kenneth]

Julian,

Thanks, this works exactly as I need.

The only problem is, I don't really understand what you are doing in the radDock_WindowAdded() event handler.  Would you be able to take a few minutes and include comments in the code as to what you are doing and why?

Is this solution generalizable to the case where I have a RadDock with ToolWindows within each MDI form? 

I would like to be able to restore ToolWindows within each form, as well as the form itself.


Ken...

[Julian Benkov]

Hi Kenneth,

In the DockWindowAdded I handle the situation when the new MdiChild window is registered to RadDock control and I get the child form, change its properties and insert it in a new ToolWindow and then dispose the previous parent DockWindow. The operation just changes the behavior from DocumentWindow to ToolWindow and prevents the Form from being disposed. I set the FormBorderStyle to None, because otherwise the form will appear with its titlebar in the new ToolWindow. You can use this scenario like a general solution without any issues.

Another approach is to change properties of the Form as we made in DockWindowAdded, and directly add it in a new ToolWindow. In this situation the AutoDetectMdiChildren and the default MDI Form behavior is not needed.

I hope this information is useful. Let me know if you need further assistance. 

Kind regards,
Julian Benkov
the Telerik team