The NetXP Task Pane

Introduction

Also known as explorer bars, task panes help the user perform common tasks with little effort. Task panes are part of the Windows XP user interface, found in applications such as Windows Explorer.

The NetXP task pane suite is essentially comprised of three components:

The XPTaskPane Control

This control acts as a container for multiple task pane groups. The background of this control is drawn using a gradient, whose colors can be configured by setting the control's ColorTable property.

The XPTaskPaneGroup Control

This control acts as a container for multiple task pane links. It can also contain any other control. In a task pane, the groups are laid out one under the other. The XPTaskPaneGroup control handles all the layout behavior automatically. That is, if you collapse a group, all groups below it are moved up. Also, the controls inside the task pane group are moved up and out of view as the group is collapsed.

The XPLink Control

This control is a general-purpose hyperlink control supporting images and color tables. It integrates much better with the NetXP task pane than a regular Windows Forms link label control, but it can also be used as a standalone control. When you set an image with this control, the text is automatically moved out of the way of the image, unlike the standard link label control. Other than that, the XPLink control functions much like the LinkLabel control in Windows Forms.