WPF ribbon control roadmap and look into the future
It is not a secret that Microsoft is developing its own WPF ribbon control. By default it will support Office 2007 (Fluent) user interface style and newer, Scenic Ribbon for Windows 7. I’ve blogged about this and now let’s take a look at changes planned for V1 and when can we expect it.
If you are regular visitor and reader here at UXPassion.com then you have probably noticed that I’ve been running series of tutorials explaining how to implement free Microsoft WPF Ribbon control in your WPF applications.
You can find my first article introducing you to WPF ribbon control and the rest of the series here:
How to get free WPF ribbon? Read this article and you will get all details there.
HOW TO: Use and add ribbon to your WPF applications (Part 1)
HOW TO: Use and add ribbon to your WPF applications (Part 2)
HOW TO: Use and add ribbon to your WPF applications (Part 3)
HOW TO: Use and add ribbon to your WPF applications (Part 4)
HOW TO: Use and add ribbon to your WPF applications (Part 5)
HOW TO: Use and add ribbon to your WPF applications (Part 6)
WPF ribbon control roadmap
However, I’ve decided to temporarily quit this series as of today. I know, I know – I promised that I will cover this topic thoroughly and I can say – I will do it, but you will have to wait for this a bit.
Reason? No, it’s not that I’ve got tired or fed-up with all those WPF ribbon tutorials. Thing is that Microsoft will implement some major changes in their WPF ribbon control and continuing with these tutorials will be just pointless since they will not be really useful for you in the future.
What are the planned changes?
Please note that information listed here are probably not complete and that some other changes might occur in the future, but major changes will affect several WPF ribbon control features.
For example, RibbonCommand will be affected. Microsoft has noted that due to some difficulties with reusing existing ICommands with RibbonCommand and the fact that tooling support (Expression Blend 3, Visual Studio 2008) for Commands is fairly limited at the moment, RibbonCommand will be removed from the RibbonControlsLibrary.
So what will happen with the all properties that have been associated with RibbonCommand? Well, they will now be moved to specific and individual Ribbon controls. Honestly, I find this approach to be better since It is more consistent with the design and development of the classic, traditional, WPF controls.
Some controls will be introduced – namely Gallery, SplitButton and Spinner. And, according to the current roadmap, KeyTips feature will be added as well. This all should make Microsoft’s free WPF ribbon control more useful for all UI designers and developers.
When will the V1 of the WPF ribbon control is going to be released?
There have been some speculations about summer of 2009 to be date when WPF ribbon control will be released – but that is not going to happen definitely. We might get a new CTP (community technology preview) within next several months, but not the full V 1. And that CTP2 version will contain design changes related to RibbonCommand so that developers and designers can get familiarized with those.
I would say that full WPF ribbon control could be expected late 2009 or early 2010 – and from what I’ve learned – it is not going to be a part of NET 4.0, rather, it will be out of band control available, as it is the case right now, through the Office UI licensing site.
And reason why WPF ribbon control is a bit late now is the fact that teams at Microsoft are busy, busy, busy working on new .NET 4.0.
Will you continue WPF ribbon tutorials?
Sure, will do. Probably right after CTP has been released and definitely after V1 is released, so stay tuned and thanks for your support and patience.
22 Responses to “ WPF ribbon control roadmap and look into the future ”
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- Vibor Cipan
- Vibor Cipan
- Vibor Cipan
- Martin H. Normark
- martinhn
- Martin H. Normark
- Martin H. Normark
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- Serge Van Meerbeeck
- Vibor Cipan
- Vibor Cipan
well crap that sucks!
i heard that the ribbon bar would be better in .NET 4.0 and that we wouldn’t have to worry about things like mine(previous post), but thanks for the tuts and the info I really enjoy this site!
Yeah, I can understand your problem here. But I guess we will need to hold on for a while and see the stuff about new WPF ribbon. I’m sure you are aware of other commercial and 3rd party WPF ribbon alternatives available out there on market…
Anyways, thanks for the comments and support! It’s really appreciated!
Vibor
Can you release examples on how to use Ribbon with a MVVM project? TIA.
As I said, I will hold off from publishing new posts regarding ribbon WPF ribbon for now but once when CTP2 (or final V 1) is released I will continue Microsoft WPF ribbon tutorials series and walkthroughs.
Thanks for sharing this info.
– ranting
I’ve stopped monitoring ribbon project on codeplex after months of “sorry, this is a known issue, it will be fixed soon”. Glad to hear it will be released. Choosing it for our development was the biggest mistake I’ve done this year.
– end of ranting
Can you confirm that release will have support for keyboard navigation (key tips)?
& thanks for your blog. i’ve seen lots of great things here…
Hi Valeriu,
I’m not part of WPF team therefore I cannot really give any 100% confirmations about specific features but I know that Key Tips have been feature that was asked for and I know that team has said they will include it as a part of v. 1.0 for WPF ribbon control.
And as for ranting – I feel your pain
But it was clear from the beginning that WPF ribbon is currently released as a CTP and that some, even major changes, might occur, as we are seeing it right now.
Thank you for your comment and nice words about blog – this is what really inspires it and keeps it going forward – so I really appreciate it a lot.
WPF ribbon control roadmap and look into the future http://tinyurl.com/yhs274p
Hi there – we are looking at using this library in our new business system – however i am trying to figure out if we are any closer to getting CTP2 or V1?
Any news?
Hey Vibor,
so is CTP1 / CTP 2 released its almost mid year of 2010 now ?
when will you have your tuts ready, eagerly waiting for your tuts !
Still nothing from Microsoft… Not sure why is it taking them so long…
I’ve just convert my project from .net 3.5 and .net 4.0 And my scriptManager isn’t working anymore. It’s giving me this error : Could not load ScriptManger because it dosen’t exists In System.Web.Ui.
Any ideas?