Ribbon ShowTabHeaders / Toolbar Mode

Overview

Issue #331 asks for a first-class replacement for the old reflection-based “NoTabRibbon” workaround: use a ribbon as a toolbar by hiding the tab strip while keeping the selected tab’s groups.

Owned by Krypton.Ribbon.

Architecture

Ribbon chrome is stacked in _ribbonDocker:

  1. GroupsArea (Fill) — groups for SelectedTab
  2. Minimize bar / QAT-below / notification bar (Bottom)
  3. TabsArea (Top) — app button/tab, tab strip, button specs
  4. CaptionArea (Top) — non-integrated caption / QAT-above / contexts

ShowTabHeaders does not remove children from the docker (that approach in PR #2501 also tore out CaptionArea and hit an init-order bug where _showTabs defaulted to false before CreateViewManager ran).

Instead, ViewLayoutRibbonTabsArea.ApplyTabHeaderVisibility toggles:

  • _tabsViewport.Visible (primary — collapses preferred height; the scroll-port hosts the real tab control)
  • LayoutTabs.Visible
  • Left/right tab separators

App button/tab and ButtonSpecs stay in TabsArea. CaptionArea visibility remains controlled by ViewDrawRibbonCaptionArea.UpdateVisible().

KryptonRibbon.ShowTabHeaders
        │
        ▼
ApplyTabHeaderVisibility()
        │
        ▼
ViewLayoutRibbonTabsArea
  ├─ LayoutAppButton / LayoutAppTab   (unchanged)
  ├─ tabsDocker
  │    ├─ _tabsViewport / LayoutTabs  ◄── hidden when false
  │    └─ ButtonSpecs                 (unchanged)
  └─ separators around tabs           ◄── hidden when false

Public API

KryptonRibbon.ShowTabHeaders
Type bool
Default true (field initializer and AssignDefaultFields)
Category Values
Effect Hides/shows the tab strip; groups of SelectedTab remain

Also: ResetShowTabHeaders().

KryptonRibbonToolbar

Subclass of KryptonRibbon that sets ShowTabHeaders = false after the base constructor. Re-declares ShowTabHeaders with [DefaultValue(false)] so the designer serializes correctly (base default is true).

Toolbox bitmap: ToolboxBitmaps.KryptonRibbonToolbar.bmp.

Designer support

  • Verbs: Hide Tab Headers / Show Tab Headers (KryptonRibbonDesigner)
  • Smart tag: Show Tab Headers (KryptonRibbonActionList)

Both use designer transactions for undo/redo.

Usage

// Property on a normal ribbon
ribbon.ShowTabHeaders = false;
ribbon.SelectedTab = ribbon.RibbonTabs[0]; // keep a valid selection

// Or drop in the toolbox control
var toolbar = new KryptonRibbonToolbar();
toolbar.RibbonTabs.Add(singleTab);

For a leaner band, combine with existing properties:

ribbon.ShowTabHeaders = false;
ribbon.RibbonFileAppButton.AppButtonVisible = false;
ribbon.QATLocation = QATLocation.Hidden;
ribbon.ShowMinimizeButton = false;

Edge cases

Scenario Behavior
Multiple tabs, headers hidden Groups of SelectedTab only; no header UI to switch (programmatic SelectedTab still works)
Mouse wheel over groups Does not change tabs when headers are hidden
Key tips Tab-header key tips omitted when headers are hidden
Contexts Context titles still follow caption/integration rules; not removed by this property
Minimized mode Still requires a valid SelectedTab for the minimized popup
Design time Property is live (WYSIWYG); use Add Tab verb / property grid when headers are off