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I am wondering what is the most efficient way to create a multi-panel interface for my C# application. The application will be broken up into areas of functionality and i want each interface to appear in a panel or something. What is the best way to achieve this?

enter image description here

  • The accordion on the left is where the user will navigate the different parts of the application.

  • As you can see it has 5 buttons (just an example of what i want). Each button will change the content of the panel on the right and change the ribbon control with the relevant buttons.

I'm sorry if this is a bit vague, i tried to explain it as best as i can.

Regards

Austin T French
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    What have you tried so far? It is hard to compare performance when we do not know what you have done. – gunr2171 Jul 02 '13 at 03:59
  • Dynamic, or predefined? Is this a programming question or a UX question too> – Austin T French Jul 02 '13 at 04:06
  • So far i have just been playing around with panels. But i wanted to get some advice before i started development. My first idea was to have a panel like in the image. Then with each button click in the main navigation enumerate all controls in the panel and set to invisible then set the relevant controls to visible. But i can see this becoming tedious. @AthomSfere I'm not sure about dynamic or pre-defined, this why i wanted to ask some advice. Programming question i guess, maybe a little of both. –  Jul 02 '13 at 04:07
  • Are you using Winforms? What set of third party controls are you using? – Romano Zumbé Jul 02 '13 at 04:15
  • Yes i am using Winforms. I am using the following free controls: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/364272/Easily-Add-a-Ribbon-into-a-WinForms-Application-Cs http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/38699/A-Professional-Calendar-Agenda-View-That-You-Will http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/43181/A-Serious-Outlook-Style-Navigation-Pane-Control –  Jul 02 '13 at 04:22

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I would suggest to implement each interface as a UserControl and instantiate it dynamically. On your mainform you should provide a panel to display the control in. This way you can seperate different functionalities in different classes and have an easy way to display it.

Romano Zumbé
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  • This sounds exactly like what i am after. Thanks very much for that information. –  Jul 02 '13 at 04:42