Dockable autohiding panel control for Windows Forms

Question

I'm creating a Windows Forms application and I'd like to have a similar look and feel to SQL Server's Management Studio, i.e. a nice autohiding and dockable panel on the left.

A similar control is Visual Studio's "Toolbox".

What sort of control is Management Studio's Object Explorer? And where can I get one? I'm using .NET 3.5 on the Windows Forms project.

Thanks

-Matt

Answer 1

The Base Class Library doesn't provide this type of control. You can do some things to make windows that looking like those (changing the borderstyle) or having docking panels, but the autohide/movable docking/etc capabilities are beyond those of the BCL.

Many third party solutions are available for purchase, though.

Here are five fairly common ones:

Devexpress XtraBars

Telerik RadDock

Actipro UIStudio Docking

Infragistics WinDockManager

Janus UIPanelManager

Answer 2

Here's an open source version I've found to be really good. http://sourceforge.net/projects/dockpanelsuite/