FlexiPane 1.0.0

FlexiPane.WPF

A modern and flexible WPF screen splitting library for dynamic pane management. Create resizable, dockable panels with intuitive split controls and visual feedback.

<div align="center"> <img src="images/Screenshot1.png" alt="FlexiPane Split Layout" width="49%" /> <img src="images/Screenshot2.png" alt="FlexiPane Split Mode" width="49%" />

Left: Multiple panels with complex split layout | Right: Interactive split mode with visual guides </div>

✨ Features

• 🎯 Dynamic Screen Splitting - Split panels vertically or horizontally at runtime
• 🎨 Visual Split Mode - Interactive split overlay with guide lines and custom content
• 🔄 Smart Panel Management - Automatic structure simplification when panels are removed
• 🎮 Programmatic Control - Built-in methods for splitting selected panels
• 🎯 Focus & Selection - Automatic focus tracking and visual selection indicators
• 📐 Flexible Layouts - Support for complex nested split arrangements
• 💾 Layout Persistence - Save and load complete layouts to XML files
• 🎨 Fully Customizable - XAML templates for complete visual customization
• ⚡ High Performance - Pure WPF implementation with optimized rendering
• 🔌 Event-Driven Architecture - Rich event system for custom behaviors
• 🎛️ Content Factory System - Pluggable content creation for different panel types
• ⌨️ Full Keyboard Support - Complete keyboard navigation and shortcuts
• 💾 Zero Configuration - Works out of the box with sensible defaults

📦 Installation

Package Manager Console

Install-Package FlexiPane.WPF

.NET CLI

dotnet add package FlexiPane.WPF

PackageReference

<PackageReference Include="FlexiPane.WPF" Version="1.0.0" />

🚀 Quick Start

Add the namespace to your XAML:

xmlns:flexiPane="clr-namespace:FlexiPane.Controls;assembly=FlexiPane"

Use the simplest possible configuration:

<flexiPane:FlexiPanel />

That's it! The panel will automatically initialize with default content and be ready for splitting.

Programmatic Splitting

Split the selected panel programmatically:

// Split vertically at 50%
flexiPanel.SplitSelectedVertically(0.5);

// Split horizontally with custom content
var customContent = new TextBlock { Text = "New Panel" };
flexiPanel.SplitSelectedHorizontally(0.3, customContent);

Handling Events

Customize behavior through events:

// Provide custom content for new panels
flexiPanel.PaneSplitRequested += (s, e) => {
    e.NewContent = CreateCustomContent();
};

// Validate panel closing
flexiPanel.PaneClosing += (s, e) => {
    if (HasUnsavedChanges(e.Pane)) {
        e.Cancel = MessageBox.Show("Discard changes?", "Confirm", 
            MessageBoxButton.YesNo) == MessageBoxResult.No;
    }
};

// Handle last panel scenario
flexiPanel.LastPaneClosing += (s, e) => {
    e.Cancel = MessageBox.Show("Close last panel?", "Confirm",
        MessageBoxButton.YesNo) == MessageBoxResult.No;
};

Architecture

Core Components

• FlexiPanel - Root container managing the entire pane structure
• FlexiPaneItem - Individual panels containing user content
• FlexiPaneContainer - Split containers holding two children with GridSplitter
• FlexiPaneManager - Static manager handling split/remove operations

Tree Structure

The library uses a binary tree structure for managing panels:

FlexiPanel
└── RootContent
    ├── FlexiPaneItem (leaf node)
    └── FlexiPaneContainer (branch node)
        ├── FirstChild
        └── SecondChild

Advanced Features

Split Mode UI

Enable visual split mode for interactive splitting:

flexiPanel.IsSplitModeActive = true;
flexiPanel.ShowCloseButtons = true;

Users can then:

• Click on panels to split them visually
• See guide lines showing where the split will occur
• Close panels with the X button
• Press ESC to exit split mode

Layout Persistence

Save and load complete layouts:

// Save current layout to file
flexiPanel.SaveLayoutToFile("my-layout.flexilayout");

// Load layout from file
flexiPanel.LoadLayoutFromFile("my-layout.flexilayout");

// Clear all panels
flexiPanel.Clear();

Custom Split Guide Content

Provide custom content for the split overlay:

<flexiPane:FlexiPaneItem>
    <flexiPane:FlexiPaneItem.SplitGuideContent>
        <TextBlock Text="Click to split this panel" />
    </flexiPane:FlexiPaneItem.SplitGuideContent>
    
</flexiPane:FlexiPaneItem>

Content Factory System

Register content creators for different panel types:

// Register content creators
flexiPanel.RegisterContentCreator("editor", (paneInfo) => new TextEditor());
flexiPanel.RegisterContentCreator("browser", (paneInfo) => new WebBrowser());

// Set default content creator
flexiPanel.SetDefaultContentCreator((paneInfo) => new DefaultPanel());

Selection and Focus

The library automatically tracks the selected panel:

// Get the currently selected panel
var selected = flexiPanel.SelectedItem;

// Set selection programmatically
somePane.IsSelected = true;

🛠️ Requirements

• .NET 9.0 or later
• Windows platform (WPF dependency)
• WPF application project

📚 Documentation

• Architecture Design - System architecture and design principles
• Splitting Mechanism - Detailed splitting algorithms and tree management

🎮 Demo Application

Check out the FlexiPane.Samples.DefaultApp project for a complete working example demonstrating:

• ✨ Interactive panel splitting with visual feedback
• 🎮 Event handling and custom behaviors
• 🎨 Multiple content types (editor, terminal, explorer)
• 💾 Layout save/load functionality
• 🎛️ Content factory system usage
• ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts and navigation
• 🎯 Programmatic control APIs

To run the demo:

git clone https://github.com/iyulab/FlexiPane.WPF.git
cd FlexiPane.WPF
dotnet run --project src/FlexiPane.Samples.DefaultApp/

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to:

1. 🐛 Report bugs by opening an issue
2. 💡 Suggest features for future versions
3. 🔧 Submit pull requests with improvements
4. 📖 Improve documentation or add examples
5. ⭐ Star the repository if you find it useful!

Please read our contributing guidelines before submitting PRs.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

⭐ Credits

Developed by iyulab

Built with modern WPF best practices and inspired by proven splitting mechanisms from advanced development environments.

🚀 Release Status

✅ Production Ready - The library is stable and ready for production use. Semantic versioning is followed for all releases.

Current Version: v1.0.0

• ✅ Complete core functionality
• ✅ Comprehensive event system
• ✅ Layout persistence
• ✅ Full XAML theming support
• ✅ Demo application with examples
• ✅ NuGet package available