Dock

DockSettings in Controls

Dock.Settings defines global properties that help you implement consistent drag and drop behaviour. This guide explains why these settings matter and how to apply them when creating custom controls or overriding templates.

Why use DockSettings?

All Dock controls start a drag operation only after the pointer moves a short distance. The thresholds are exposed as DockSettings.MinimumHorizontalDragDistance and DockSettings.MinimumVerticalDragDistance. By relying on these values you ensure every control reacts the same way and users do not accidentally begin dragging.

When you build your own controls or replace the default templates you should respect these distances instead of hard coding your own numbers.

Checking drag thresholds

The DocumentTabStrip control uses the settings when it decides whether a pointer movement counts as a drag:

var delta = currentPoint - _dragStartPoint;
if (!(Math.Abs(delta.X) > DockSettings.MinimumHorizontalDragDistance)
    && !(Math.Abs(delta.Y) > DockSettings.MinimumVerticalDragDistance))
{
    return; // Not enough movement yet
}

You can apply the same check in your custom PointerMoved handlers before calling BeginMoveDrag on the host window.

Marking drag and drop areas

DockProperties exposes attached properties to opt‑in to docking features:

• IsDockTarget designates the surface that accepts docked items.
• IsDragArea marks a region where the user can start dragging.
• IsDropArea marks a region that can receive drops.
• IsDragEnabled and IsDropEnabled allow you to enable or disable interactions globally for any subtree.

These properties are normally set in the default styles but you can place them on your own controls:

<Border xmlns:dockSettings="clr-namespace:Dock.Settings;assembly=Dock.Settings"
        dockSettings:DockProperties.IsDragArea="True"
        dockSettings:DockProperties.IsDropArea="True" />

From code you can toggle interactions dynamically:

DockProperties.SetIsDragEnabled(myControl, false);
DockProperties.SetIsDropEnabled(myControl, false);

Guidelines

1. Use the DockSettings drag distances whenever you implement pointer logic for dragging dockables.
2. Apply DockProperties to identify drag handles and drop zones in your templates.
3. Consider disabling drag or drop interactions with IsDragEnabled and IsDropEnabled when your UI needs to lock down docking temporarily.

For an overview of all settings see Dock settings and the other guides listed in the documentation index.

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