DockPanel Initialization

[mwillia1]

What is the best way to initialize a DockPanel's control before a selection is made?  The selection changed event doesn't seem to fire if a login occurs and no selection is active.

Vault 2026 - C#

[Markus.Koechl]

I suggest initializing the dock panel controls that require login on startup. You can review a coding sample here: Autodesk.TS.PlmDesktopExtensions/Autodesk.TS.VltPlmAddIn/VaultExplorerExtension.cs at master · koech...

I hope this helps.

[mwillia1]

I meant Vault login.  Not an external login.  I would like to populate a DockPanel control with user information after the user logs into Vault possibly even before a selection is made to fire the SelectionChanged event.  This would require having access to an instance of the control in the OnLogon method.  So far the only way I have found to get the control passed in a DockPanel constructor is to scan Application.OpenForms for all controls until I find the one added to the DockPanel.  I just thought there might be a more official way to initialize a DockPanel's control w/o needing the context from the SelectionChanged event.

[Markus.Koechl]

@mwillia1: I am sorry, I misunderstood, and hope that the following proven approach matches your objective: Let's say, your dockpanel has a grid control, which should be initialized with Vault UI theme support, context menu, and cached information retrieved from Vault server one time instead of on selection changed events.
I implemented this likewise:

- The dock panel is registered during startup (<UserControl> = myPanelGrid in later code snippets):

IEnumerable<DockPanel> IExplorerExtension.DockPanels()
        {
            List<DockPanel> dockPanels = new List<DockPanel>();

            DockPanel myPanel = new DockPanel(
                Guid.Parse("<GUID>"),
                "My Panel's DisplayName",
                typeof(<UserControl>));

            myPanel.SelectionChanged += myPanel_SelectionChanged;
            dockPanels.Add(myPanel);

            return dockPanels;
        }

 - The UserControl's constructor adds the theme support, context menu, and variables to preload data:

        #region Constructor

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="myPanelGrid"/> class.
        /// </summary>
        public myPanelGrid()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            _dataGrid = gridControl1;

            _currentTheme = VaultmyPanel.mCurrentTheme.ToString();
            ApplyTheme(_currentTheme);
            UpdateTheme(_currentTheme);
        }

        #endregion

        #region Overrides

        /// <summary>
        /// Raises the <see cref="Control.Load"/> event.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="e">An <see cref="EventArgs"/> that contains the event data.</param>
        protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnLoad(e);

            InitializeBarManager();
            InitializeContextMenu();
            SetupEventHandlers();
        }

        #endregion

Finally, the OnLogOn activates the theme and preloads data:

        void IExplorerExtension.OnLogOn(IApplication application)
        {
            VaultApplication = application;
            connection = application.Connection;

            // Load property definitions for both FILE and ITEM entity classes
            mFilePropDefs = connection.WebServiceManager.PropertyService.GetPropertyDefinitionsByEntityClassId(EntityClassFile);
            mItemPropDefs = connection.WebServiceManager.PropertyService.GetPropertyDefinitionsByEntityClassId(EntityClassItem);

            // do more stuff that myPanelGrid needs
//...

            // Register theme support
            mCurrentTheme = VDF.Forms.Library.CurrentTheme;
            VDF.Forms.Library.ThemeChanged += Library_ThemeChanged;
            myPanelGrid.UpdateTheme(VDF.Forms.Library.CurrentTheme.ToString());
        }

 Does this resonate with your objective?

[mwillia1]

That's what I'm trying to do but my question is where do you get the instance of myPanelGrid to use in the following line?

myPanelGrid.UpdateTheme(VDF.Forms.Library.CurrentTheme.ToString());

[mwillia1]

Maybe this explains it better:  From what I can tell the DockPanel constructor will only use default constructor of a control so you have to get an instance of the control set up by the DockPanel to call some sort of Init function.

//Method 1
//private CustomControl _customControl;

public IEnumerable<DockPanel> DockPanels()
{
    var guid = new Guid("some guid");
    var dockPanel = new DockPanel(guid,
                                 "Title",
                                  typeof(CustomControl),
                                  true);
    //Method 1:
    //_customControl = ???

    return [dockPanel];
}

public void OnLogOn(IApplication application)
{
    //Method 1
    _customControl.Init(customArg);

    //Method 2
    //CustomControl customControl = ???
    customControl.Init(customArg);
}

[Markus.Koechl]

For a full implementation sample, the SDK extended the HelloWorld sample extension with a DockPanel that loads a browser control. Did you have a look at it?
If I am not mistaken, the typeof(BrowserControl) expression passes the Type metadata to the DockPanel constructor, which likely handles instantiation internally (e.g., via Activator.CreateInstance) when the dock panel is initialized/loaded.
My sample and snippets before extend the constructor by overriding OnLoad(), e.g., to make the theme handler available before the user selection drives the content of the dock panel.