toolpanel examples

Basic ToolPanel Examples

There are a number of ToolPanel Control: Labels, TextBoxes, CheckBoxes, Images, Buttons, ImageButtons, Hyperlinks, etc. A smattering of them are shown below. Just mouse over the controls below to begin getting an idea of what is possible.

HyperLink Control

Because of the way ToolPanels work, they just create a little 'panel' of HTML that pops-up when invoked. Because it's HTML instead of just text, like ToolTips, you can do spiffy things like add images to your ToolPanel content.

  

Note, there's one ToolPanel Control that isn't displayed above: the DynamicToolPanel Control. Like ASP.NET validators which allow you to pick a control to validate, this control just drops onto the page, and allows you to 'target' another ASP.NET (or 3rd party) control to 'ToolPanel.' This means that complex controls, like DataGrids, Repeaters, Tables, etc. (which aren't included in the ToolPanel Control Suite) can be 'Paneled' as well.

Basic ToolPanel Functionality

Using just the ToolPanelLabel Control, here are some more examples of what ToolPanels can do. Just mouse over the Labels below...

Interactive ToolPanel

Non Interactive ToolPanel

Mouse-Relative ToolPanel

Page-Relative ToolPanel

ToolPanel with a close 'button'

Advanced ToolPanel Functionality

Given that ToolPanels are just floating chunks of HTML, a number of powerful options become available functionality-wise. Couple those options with a skinning and variable-replacement framework that is baked-in, and ToolPanel Controls expose some advanced functionality that can be exploited by experienced developers.

iFrame ToolPanel

So, what are ToolPanels?

What are ToolPanels? They're just a bit of .NET functionality that lets page designers add 'pop-up' functionality to their pages in a jiffy. Want to add some extra help/instructions on a complex form? Drop in a ToolPanelTextBox, and it behaves exactly like an ASP.NET TextBox Control, but has new properties that allow you to specify what the corresponding pop-up will look like. You can quickly and easily specify WHERE the pop up appears (it can appear relative to the invoking control (in this case the TextBox), relative to the page (maybe you've got a 'help-pane' off to the right of the page), or it can follow the mouse around and pop up relative to the user's cursor). You can also specify the format of the ToolPanel, with border, width, background color, assign a cssclass to it, etc. And, of course, you can specify the contents of the ToolTip.

Since these controls are ASP.NET controls, all properties can be set at design time, or at run time (or both). And all of this functionality is available at your fingertips in the designer and via Intellisense while you code.

Furthermore, ToolPanels also expose a Skinning Framework that allows you to specify HTML templates to wrap your content in, allowing you to provide very professional looking 'pop ups' to your page with very little effort. ToolPanel Controls also expose a Variable Replacement framework that allows you embed ${tokens} in your Toolpanel content or skin which are then replaced during rendering with a simple string representation of a variable collection expressed as $token=somevalue;$aDifferentToken=some other value;. These tokens/variables can be utilized to further improve the functionality of basically static templates by allowing a quick infusion of context relative help.