State Persistence in UWP Docking (SfDockingManager)

15 Jul 20261 minute to read

State persistence is the combined process of serialization and deserialization.

SfDockingManager provides built-in state persistence functionality to save and load the layout across sessions, preserving the dock states and sides of its child windows. It also provides the ResetDockState() method to reset the layout to its initial state.

Saving Current State

The current layout can be serialized into an XML file and saved in IsolatedStorage using the SaveDockState method. The following example saves the layout when the application is being suspended.

C#

private void OnSuspending(object sender, SuspendingEventArgs e)

{

dockingManager.SaveDockState();

var deferral = e.SuspendingOperation.GetDeferral();

//TODO: Save application state and stop any background activity

deferral.Complete();

}

Loading Saved State

The saved layout can be retrieved from IsolatedStorage, de-serialized, and loaded using the LoadDockState method. On first launch (when no saved state exists), calling LoadDockState has no effect.

C#

private void Docking_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

{

dockingManager.LoadDockState();

}

Resetting Initial State

To reset the SfDockingManager state, call the ResetDockState() method of the SfDockingManager instance.

C#

dockingManager.ResetDockState();

Serializing Dynamically Added Children

By default, SfDockingManager cannot de-serialize its saved layout properly when its child collection is modified after the DockState is saved.

The SfDockingManager state persistence feature is implemented in such a way that the SfDockingManager matches the child collection of the saved layout with the current SfDockingManager layout internally and loads properly when the SfDockingManager children collection remains the same. Therefore, when any child collection changes dynamically, it results in an improper layout. To avoid this, ensure the children collection of SfDockingManager is the same at both save and load time.