The One With

For the v2010 vol 2 release, we have tremendously improved how the Rich Edit Control interacts with our Toolbar-Menu System.

Watch how to create a Ribbon based text editor in just under one minute in WinForms.

These improvements carried over to the new WPF Rich Edit control as well.

To associate Ribbon items with the Rich Edit Control, all you have to do is bind them to the corresponding editor commands and they will automatically behave correctly. Even the UI attributes such as Icons and Captions will be generated for you automatically.

Sample XAML:

 <dx:DXWindow.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <dxre:RichEditUICommand x:Key="commands" />
        </ResourceDictionary>
 </dx:DXWindow.Resources>

 <Grid>
        <dxb:BarManager Name="barManager1" ToolbarGlyphSize="Small">
            <dxb:BarManager.Items>
                <dxb:BarButtonItem
                    Command="{Binding Path=FileNew, Mode=OneTime, Source={StaticResource commands}}"
                    CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=richEdit}"
                    Name="biFileNew"/>
                <dxb:BarButtonItem
                    Command="{Binding Path=FileOpen, Mode=OneTime, Source={StaticResource commands}}"
                    CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=richEdit}"
                    Name="biFileOpen"/>
                <dxb:BarButtonItem
                    Command="{Binding Path=FileSaveAs, Mode=OneTime, Source={StaticResource commands}}"
                    CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=richEdit}"
                    Name="biFileSaveAs"/>
            </dxb:BarManager.Items>
            <dx:DXDockPanel>
                <dxr:RibbonControl dx:DXDockPanel.Dock="Top" x:Name="ribbonControl">
                    <dxr:RibbonDefaultPageCategory>
                        <dxr:RibbonPage Caption="File" Name="pageFile">
                            <dxr:RibbonPageGroup Caption="Common" Name="grpCommon">
                                <dxb:BarButtonItemLink BarItemName="biFileNew" />
                                <dxb:BarButtonItemLink BarItemName="biFileOpen" /> <dxb:BarButtonItemLink BarItemName="biFileSaveAs" />
                            </dxr:RibbonPageGroup>
                        </dxr:RibbonPage>
                    </dxr:RibbonDefaultPageCategory>
                </dxr:RibbonControl>
                <dxre:RichEditControl
                    x:Name="richEdit"
                    BarManager="{Binding ElementName=barManager1, Mode=OneTime}"></dxre:RichEditControl>
            </dx:DXDockPanel>
        </dxb:BarManager>
    </Grid>

Notice that I did not have to assign icons and handle the item click events myself. All I had to do was bind my Ribbon items to a specific Rich Editor command and that’s it.

<dxb:BarButtonItem 
    Command="{Binding Path=FileNew, Mode=OneTime, Source={StaticResource commands}}" 
    CommandParameter="{Binding ElementName=richEdit}" 
    Name="biFileNew"/>

Pretty cool ah?

Cheers

Azret