Dock exposes a small set of helper classes that adapt the core interfaces to different host environments or provide additional runtime services. These adapters are mainly used by the sample applications but are part of the public API and can be reused in your own projects.
HostAdapter implements IHostAdapter and bridges a dock window (IDockWindow) with a platform specific host window. It is responsible for presenting the floating window, updating its size and location and closing it when requested.
Typical usage looks like the following:
var hostAdapter = new HostAdapter(dockWindow);
window.Host = hostAdapter;
hostAdapter.Present(isDialog: false);
The adapter fetches the window instance from Factory.GetHostWindow if it has not already been assigned. Calling Save stores the last known position and dimensions so that they can be restored later.
NavigateAdapter implements INavigateAdapter and provides history based navigation for docks. It maintains two stacks for back and forward navigation and exposes methods such as GoBack, GoForward and Navigate.
Create an instance for a given IDock and use it to issue navigation commands:
var adapter = new NavigateAdapter(rootDock);
adapter.Navigate(document, bSnapshot: true);
The adapter cooperates with the factory to activate dockables and can also show or close floating windows via ShowWindows and ExitWindows.
TrackingAdapter stores bounds and pointer positions used when tools are pinned, visible or displayed as tabs. The docking logic reads these values when calculating drop targets or restoring the layout after a drag operation.
A new adapter contains NaN values for all coordinates until you call the various Set* methods. Most applications interact with TrackingAdapter indirectly through the built in docking controls.
The provided adapters give you a ready made implementation for common behaviours such as window hosting and dock navigation. You can derive from them or implement the corresponding interfaces yourself if your application has special requirements.
For an overview of other Dock concepts see the documentation index.