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Enhance WinForms UIs
by David Mack

September 13, 2004

You want each UI you create to be as versatile and easy to use as possible. The current set of WinForms components that come with VS.NET are good, but they don't offer some of the more-advanced features users might want. Xceed SmartUI for .NET is a suite of components that let you enhance your UIs with ease (see Figure 1). They include components such as MenuBars, an Office task pane, an Explorer task pane, CheckedListBoxes, and OutlookBars. You can create UIs with a Windows XP, Office 2003, Office XP, or standard Windows style.

Installation of SmartUI for .NET is straightforward. The product requires that you enter the license key in your source code. (You'll get a license exception every time you run the application if you don't enter the key.) You can see the Xceed key in your assemblies, so I recommend using an obfuscation tool to protect the key. I also recommend putting the license key in your initialization routine so that your application calls it before any of the Xceed components.

The product includes helpful examples implemented in both VB.NET and C#. You can run them quickly, see how they work, and start using the controls. A nice feature of the suite is that you can see how your application will look without needing to compile it. This saves you from going back and forth to make little adjustments and verify the results.

The SmartTabStrip component is especially impressive. If you're familiar with Office XP, you know how tabstrips can complement a UI. You can use SmartTabStrip to create an application that lets users configure settings intuitively. They can see the values they're modifying, and you can enable fields based on values they place in the component. The SmartExplorerTaskPane is easy to use and enhances an interface nicely. The pane lets you give the user a context-sensitive list based on user inputs. The least impressive component is the SmartCheckedListBox, which differs from a standard WinForms listbox only by adding a checkbox.

I was able to create an Outlook-style application in no time. I noticed a bit of a performance lag when I built my next application, which used a SmartCheckedListBox that required a lot of control updates. I checked the Xceed Web site and found a way to suspend and resume the interface's "paint" functionality, which saves you the time you'd otherwise lose repainting the control after each update.

The Xceed Web site is well laid out and easy to navigate, and it includes online forums and a knowledge base. The company appears to take customer feedback into consideration when creating new features.

Xceed's SmartUI for .NET is a nice suite of components for enhancing any GUI. The flexibility it gives you for controlling UI styles is great. You can give your applications a professional look and feel with a small amount of coding.

SmartUI for .NET
Xceed Software
Web: www.xceedsoft.com
Phone: 800-865-2626; 450-442-2626
Pricing: Contact vendor for pricing.
Quick Facts: Components for building rich UIs.
Pros: Lets you enhance any WinForms application quickly; easy to design without compiling.
Cons: Some help links don't work; key is embedded in executable.

About the Author
David Mack is a technical lead for the National Intelligence Division of Titan Systems and an independent consultant. He has more than 10 years of experience in object-oriented programming. Reach him at .