Building a vertical IE Explorer Bar (Band Object) (like Favorites Panel)

Question

Hi all,

I am trying to build a vertical explorer bar (band object) in IE7 that "sticks" across all tabs (similar to the "Favorites" bar).

In case you don't know I'm talking about, open up IE7 and go to View->Explorer Bar->Research to open the Research bar. Open a new tab in the same window and notice that the research bar is not displayed on the new tab or any other new tabs you open.

On the other hand, if you open the Favorites bar instead (View->Explorer Bar->Favorites) and open another tab. You will notice that the bar is displayed on all windows.

Is this possible by using band objects?

Answer 1

In general, these band objects are created with a separate instance per tab in IE7/8. In order to sync up your open/closed state, you may have to track all of your live instances of your band. When the user opens/closes the visible band, you would send an event to the others to invoke ShowBrowserBar().