A 'hello world' CS program

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Creating a tab

  • Add a new class to your project and name it MyCustomUI.
  • Add the following code to your class
  1. // Namespaces of the two Ribbon Commander assemblies 
  2. using IlydaUK.Interop.RibbonCommander;
  3. using IlydaUK.RibbonCommander.Core;
  4.  
  5. namespace RibbonCommanderAddin
  6. {
  7.  
  8.     class MyCustomUI
  9.     {
  10.         private rxCustomUI _customUI;
  11.  
  12.         public MyCustomUI()
  13.         {
  14.             // Instantiate a new rxCustomUI in a new context with id 'my_test_cs_ctx'
  15.             _customUI = rxCustomUI.create("my_test_cs_ctx", "Test C# Context");
  16.  
  17.             // Cache a reference to the custom UI's ribbon
  18.             rxRibbon myRibbon = _customUI.ribbon;
  19.  
  20.             // Create a new tab and label it 'My Tab'
  21.             rxTab myTab = new rxTab();
  22.             myTab.label = "My First Tab";
  23.  
  24.             // Add the tab to myRibbon's tabs
  25.             myRibbon.tabs.add(myTab);
  26.  
  27.             // Render the UI
  28.             _customUI.refresh();
  29.         }
  30.  
  31.     }
  32. }
  • Modify class ThisAddin in ThisAddin.cs as follows
  1. namespace RibbonCommanderAddin
  2. {
  3.     public partial class ThisAddIn
  4.     {
  5.         private MyCustomUI _myCustomUI;
  6.  
  7.         private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  8.         {
  9.             // Show the custom ribbon
  10.             _myCustomUI = new MyCustomUI();
  11.         }
  12.  
  13.         private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  14.         {
  15.         }
  16.     }
  17. }
  • Run the add-in. If everything went according to plan a new tab labeled 'My First Tab' will appear when the application starts
    EmptyTab.png

Code Analysis

  1. // Instantiate a new rxCustomUI in a new context with id 'my_test_cs_ctx'
  2. _customUI = rxCustomUI.create("my_test_cs_ctx", "Test C# Context");

rxCustomUI is at the top of the object model hierarchy. Here we instantiate a new rxCustomUI object in a new context with id 'my_text_cs_ctx' and description 'Test C# Context' 


  1. // Cache a reference to the custom UI's ribbon
  2. rxRibbon myRibbon = _customUI.ribbon;

Each rxCustomUI object owns a unique rxRibbon object. Here, we are caching a reference to the rxRibbon object of _customUI 


  1. // Create a new tab and label it 'My Tab'
  2. rxTab myTab = new rxTab();
  3. myTab.label = "My First Tab";

Here, we create a new rxTab object and give it a label 


  1. // Add the tab to myRibbon's tabs
  2. myRibbon.tabs.add(myTab);

Each rxRibbon object has a collection of rxTab objects (accessible through its tabs property). Here we add the tab we created above to our ribbon's tabs 


  1. // Render the UI
  2. _customUI.refresh();

To ensure optimal performance, UI updates always take place in two steps:

  1. Update the target rxCustomUI state, which we have done above
  2. Render the updated UI, which we are doing here

Remarks

  • rxCustomUI contexts are identified by their unique context ids (e.g. 'my_test_cs_ctx' above). When an rxCustomUI is created with a contextId that doesn't correspond to an existing context, the context gets created. Otherwise the rxCustomUI joins the context and shares its state with other rxCustomUIs in it.
  • You can use rxCustomUI.clear to clear a context's state


Making our code more compact

The Ribbon Commander API is composable, which we can take advantage to make our code more compact: 

  1. namespace DynamicRibbonXAddin
  2. {
  3.     class MyCustomUI
  4.     {
  5.         private rxCustomUI _customUI;
  6.  
  7.         public MyCustomUI()
  8.         {
  9.             // Instantiate a new rxCustomUI in a new context with id 'my_test_cs_ctx'
  10.             _customUI = rxCustomUI.create("my_test_cs_ctx", "Test C# Context");
  11.  
  12.             // Clear existing state in this context
  13.             _customUI.clear();
  14.  
  15.             // Add a new tab and label it
  16.             _customUI.ribbon.tabs.add(new rxTab
  17.             {
  18.                 label = "My First Tab"
  19.             });
  20.  
  21.             // Render the UI
  22.             _customUI.refresh();
  23.         }
  24.     }
  25. }
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