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How do I Start a Ribbon Project?

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Stoic Joker:
My primary objective is to get started with the newer, slicker (looking) IU for the project
-Stoic Joker (December 30, 2011, 02:52 PM)
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Then Ribbon UI should be a part of your WPF based interface stuff :D-Ath (December 30, 2011, 03:06 PM)
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Should be, yes. But is it in 2010 ... It isn't in 2008.

Yes VS2010 is the only route if you are going to do WPF/XAML, all previous version suck at that.-Ath (December 30, 2011, 03:06 PM)
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Had a feeling about that ... Thanks for the confirmation.

Maybe WPF is what you should start at, and drop in a Ribbon as the Menu replacement, as is often done, the semi-official guide to WPF is Josh Smith, with Sacha Barber as a good complement ;)-Ath (December 30, 2011, 03:06 PM)
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Okay... Me go start reading. :)

wraith808:
Sorry for jumping in late- I've not been following the boards closely while I've been on vacation.

The preceding is incorrect.  You can do wpf with VS2008 (I started learning with VS2008).  

A good article on getting started with WPF in VS008 can be found here.

You can also do Ribbon with WinForms. A project on codeplex wraps this up here.

Stoic Joker:
Sorry for jumping in late- I've not been following the boards closely while I've been on vacation.

The preceding is incorrect.  You can do wpf with VS2008 (I started learning with VS2008). 

A good article on getting started with WPF in VS008 can be found here.

You can also do Ribbon with WinForms. A project on codeplex wraps this up here.
-wraith808 (January 01, 2012, 01:46 PM)
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Hay, better late than never they say... :)

I think the point made above was in regard to XAML handling being better in 2010 *Shrug* I've never used it so I'm really just looking at/for the best entry point. I'm actually a bit on the fence about the Ribbon UI...still toying with it...but (after playing with some sample code/projects) more focused on a side issue at this point. That being, it seems that the WPF doesn't support (and rather shuns) the MDI interface. Which is a rather important sticking point for what I'm planning on trying. It's a business management application ... So it really kinda has to be a MDI so users don't have to contend with lose windows scattered all over the desktop while looking up multiple clients/products/contracts/etc.


So far two things have occured to me:
1. This probably a stupid idea.
2. It has to be done.

Eóin:
Going WPF means going C# or C++ CLI I believe. However you don't need to go managed .NET for the ribbon, it is exposed as a native Win 32 API.

I would suspect the easiest way to start a ribbon project is through C++ WTL and this tutorial - Relook your Old and New Native Applications with a Ribbon UI under Vista or Windows 7 (WTL)

I admit my soft spot for WTL does bias me in that suggestion. But being a header only library which wraps the WIN32 APIs, it means you acquire zero external dependencies.

wraith808:
It's a business management application ... So it really kinda has to be a MDI so users don't have to contend with lose windows scattered all over the desktop while looking up multiple clients/products/contracts/etc.
-Stoic Joker (January 01, 2012, 02:17 PM)
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I've done something like this in SDI with WPF, and it actually turned out better once I got rid of my preconceptions. 

Two things I did to make window management simple:
1. The windows are aware of the other windows and there is a menu that allows you to select the other windows from that window
2. There is a launch application that everything is launched from, which also has an icon in the tray notification area.

How this helped and became a help rather than a hindrance:
1. They each run in their own process
2. All of the client machines have two monitors, so the MDI interface that they were used to actually limited their ability to position windows; they used to run two instances of the application.
3. They all are upgrading to windows 7; the positioning abilities of windows 7 actually made the layout more versatile.

So I'd say don't limit yourself by the classic UI, but look at the options and find out what actually works best for the client.

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