Extended WPF Toolkit v2 Community Edition Adds AvalonDock Control, New Features and Improvements

Microsoft has released Extended WPF Toolkit Toolkit v2.0.0 community edition with enhanced features, 67 improvements and bug fixes. It includes a flexible docking window control named AvalonDock, which provides a system that allows developers to create customizable layouts using a dock system similar to what is found in many popular integrated development environments (IDEs). Moreover, the toolkit also includes Aero, Metro, and Visual Studio 2010 themes in addition to Office 2007 themes.

WPF Toolkit v2.0.0 includes WindowContainer control which can contain more than one ChildWindow at the same time. The MessageBox class included with the toolkit also has several new properties that allow its chrome to be styled including the ability to display it in XBAP application. Moreover, a Windows 8 theme is added to all the controls in the toolkit in addition to a live explorer application which demonstrates all the features. It also  includes NewItemTypesAttributes class, PropertyContainerStyle property, PreparePropertyItem and ClearPropertyItem events, CreateFilter() method and SelectedProperty property.

The release has been updated with PropertyGrid.Background color adjusted to reflect Visual Studio color in addition to fixes for PropertyGrid.Padding, PropertyItem.Background and PropertyItem.VerticalContentAlignment. In addition to the above mentioned improvements, the value of the PropertyItem.Height in the new release no longer breaks the row lines positions.

The latest release of the toolkit has removed ReceiveWeakEvent method including the ability to update selected property when the focused PropertyItem change. Moreover, PropertyItem no longer handles the PreviewMouseDown event and the previous, next properties can be selected with the up and down arrows.

The release removed copyright watermark in DataGrid and the SplitButton has a standard look and behavior that integrates well with the other buttons. The RichTextBox no longer shows glitches when text is set and the Text property will now be updated when changing the TextFormatter. The memory leak in the previous release has been fixed in ChildWindow control and a new propery named DateTimePicker.AutoCloseCalendar has been added.