WPF SplitButton?

Question

I've just spent a very frustrating afternoon trolling Google looking for a commercial-grade WPF SplitButton control that will work in a toolbar. A SplitButton is one where you can click on the main part of the button to take a default action, or click on a little triangle on the right to get a drop-down menu of alternate actions).

I found several on the web (including the one on CodeProject, and including the two on CodePlex). None of them work properly in a toolbar--they either don't appear at all, or they don't have toolbar button styling. I even looked at some commercial offerings, like ActiPro's pop-up button (in their SharedLibrary DLL). Same problems.

And yes, I've seen all the posts about how easy it is to create one. It's very easy to create a bad one, but not so easy to create one that looks and works like the SplitButtons in Outlook or Visual Studio, where the drop-down menu doesn't disappear if you release the mouse button.

So, here's my question: Are there any commercial-grade SplitButtons out there, either open-source or commercial, that work in toolbars? I'm not looking for a control that is part of a $1,500 annual subscription to somebody's controls library, but if there is a reasonably-priced SplitButton, I'd sure like to find it.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

The only true "commercial-grade" split button that I know of is the one by Syncfusion, which is included as part of their ribbon controls (although it works outside of the ribbon as well).

That being said, I remember this implementation as being fairly usable and complete, if you're looking for something free.

Answer 2

I don't know what exactly you are looking for in a split button, but this video on how to create one is pretty complete and makes a splitbutton that is just about perfect.

http://windowsclient.net/learn/video.aspx?v=3929

I know you didn't want a tutorial, but I've used this before and you couldn't tell the difference between it and the ones in outlook.

Answer 3

I think what you mean is called a DropDownButton. There is a boolean property on MenuItem "StaysOpenOnClick" which could solve your problem.

Answer 4

Another good free implementation that seem to have it all:

http://huydinhpham.blogspot.com/2008/09/wpf-drop-down-and-split-button.html

• The split button can be used in the toolbar and has a proper toolbar style. It can also be restyled if you want.
• Dropdown menu is exposed via its own property - i.e splitbutton can have it's own context menu separate from the dropdown one (even though it seems illogical it can be useful in some cases - like toolbar context menu that pops up when you right click on a button placed in the toolbar).
• The dropdown menu is standard ContextMenu - i.e. content can be databound, menu items restyled etc.
• Both the main and the dropdown parts of the split button have command properties associated with them.