MDI Alternative

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Hi all

I am working on a Institutes Management System. In my current UI i have used a TabControl having 5 tabs. One of my tab is search tab in which I search the DB and populate a grid view.

On clicking a student name in the grid view i have to show all the information of that student. I can show that information in a new tab but the problem is if the user clicks on multiple students should I create multiple tabs or a single tab with multiple child windows in that Tab.

I don't whether the latter case is even possible or not ?

But need your help on this.

bottom line is I have to show records of multiple students. How I should approach this ? help me :D

PS: I have searched the internet and I know MS discourages MDI.

Posted 2-Jan-11 19:34pm

Phan7om

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2 solutions

Solution 1

You can always create new tabs if you want to avoid MDI forms.
Just as an example, Internet Explorer or other browsers support multiple tabs and many tabs can be opened together.

Note: Having tabs and MDI's together might be a little confusing to the user anyway.

Posted 2-Jan-11 19:40pm

Abhinav S

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Jan-11 1:45am

Abhinav, you're right about having MDI + tabs. However, the combination is not so much confusing as MDI itself. The arguments about inconvenience of MDI are quite convincing.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Jan-11 2:23am

Anyway, I voted 5.

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-02T19:52:00

Solution 2

Create a tab per student. To avoid confusion, thoroughly devise what to put in the tab's title -- the only visible part of a non-current tab.

You cannot create child window in a tab, only FrameWorkElement children (Controls, in particular) -- don't do it: it will be too confusing.

By all means, don't use MDI, not just because it is discouraged by Microsoft where this style was created. The arguments about inconvenience of MDI are quite convincing.

Posted 2-Jan-11 19:52pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Jan-11 1:53am

Do you need any help of Tab Control techniques? They are fairly simple for those having basic experience with WPF...

Phan7om 4-Jan-11 12:24pm

Hi SAKryukov

I've decided to use tabs and I think google will be able to solve all the problems. Thnx for the help, but still if i find any difficulties I will bug you :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Jan-11 12:59pm

Phan7om,
You're welcome.
(I've already given some advices on navigation here. Clear design is the key.)
If you decide on tabs, will you please also formally accept the answer?
Thank you.