NetAdvantage for Windows Forms 2007 Volume 1

Feeling as though we just shipped a product a few months ago…It’s that time to ship a product packed full of exciting features again.  I’m not going to talk about the ASP.NET side of things, but their release (you need to be a current subscriber to see Tony's post in the beta forums) is not just monumental it’s really freakin’ cool. 

What I am going to talk about is a new technology that the Windows Forms team has shipped labeled Infragistics Express Styling™.  Now not to discount any of the other features added like Ribbon MDI merging, Ribbon support of Aero (Vista Glass), or a whole host of other rockin’ features, but this Express Styling™ is the next gen approach to how you build styles. 
It starts by selecting File -> New -> New Style Library from Template
 

 

Next you select the type of template you would like to apply your choices include Flat, Glassy, Grey, Office 2007, or Vista.  These templates define how the colors will be applied to your application.  For instance a flat template won’t have the polished glass look of the Glassy template.  The templates have nothing to do with the color of the application, only the ‘feel’ of the colors as they’re applied.
Next, you have the option of selecting a pre-defined palette that will help you choose colors that work well together or just selecting the colors that perhaps are defined by your organization.  There is a live preview that shows how the colors look in different scenarios to give you a feel for what to expect.
 

After choosing your color selection, you select OK and you’ve nearly completed styling your application in the colors that you have chosen!  The last step is to just remember to load the style file by calling the load method Infragistics.Win.AppStyling.StyleManager.Load(@"C:\myIsl.isl ");  Here's a few samples that I threw together in about a minute...

Ok so...interested yet?  If you're a current subscriber you can download the bits here: 

NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 1 (CLR 1.X)

NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 1 (CLR 2)

If you're not a subscriber...subscribe NOW and get access to these bits along with a that will give you what looks to be some monumental releases in the future!