Getting Started with Windows Forms Navigation Pane (GroupBar)

11 Oct 20225 minutes to read

Assembly deployment

Refer to the control dependencies section to get the list of assemblies or NuGet package that needs to be added as a reference to use the control in any application.

You can find more details about installing the NuGet package in a Windows Forms application in the following link:

How to install nuget packages

Create a simple application with GroupBar

You can create a Windows Forms application with the GroupBar control using the following steps:

Create a project

Create a new Windows Forms project in Visual Studio to display the GroupBar control.

Add control through designer

The GroupBar control can be added to an application by dragging it from the toolbox to a designer view. The Syncfusion.Shared.Base assembly reference will be added automatically.

wf group bar control added in designer

Add control manually in code

To add the control manually in C#, follow the given steps:

  1. Add the Syncfusion.Shared.Base assembly reference to the project.

  2. Include the GroupBar control namespace Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools;.

    using Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools;
    Imports Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools

  3. Create a GroupBar control instance, and add it to the form.

    GroupBar groupBar1 = new GroupBar();
this.Controls.Add(groupBar1);
    Dim groupBar1 As GroupBar = New GroupBar()
Me.Controls.Add(groupBar1)

Add group bar items

You can add the group bar items inside the Groupbar control using the GroupBarItems collection property.

GroupBarItem groupBarItem0 = new GroupBarItem();
GroupBarItem groupBarItem1 = new GroupBarItem();
GroupBarItem groupBarItem2 = new GroupBarItem();
GroupBarItem groupBarItem3 = new GroupBarItem();
GroupBarItem groupBarItem4 = new GroupBarItem();
GroupBarItem groupBarItem5 = new GroupBarItem();

this.groupBarItem0.Text = "GroupBarItem0";
this.groupBarItem1.Text = "GroupBarItem1";
this.groupBarItem2.Text = "GroupBarItem2";
this.groupBarItem3.Text = "GroupBarItem3";
this.groupBarItem4.Text = "GroupBarItem4";
this.groupBarItem5.Text = "GroupBarItem5";

this.groupBar1.GroupBarItems.AddRange(new GroupBarItem[] {
            this.groupBarItem0,
            this.groupBarItem1,
            this.groupBarItem2,
            this.groupBarItem3,
            this.groupBarItem4,
            this.groupBarItem5});
Dim groupBarItem0 As GroupBarItem = New GroupBarItem()
Dim groupBarItem1 As GroupBarItem = New GroupBarItem()
Dim groupBarItem2 As GroupBarItem = New GroupBarItem()
Dim groupBarItem3 As GroupBarItem = New GroupBarItem()
Dim groupBarItem4 As GroupBarItem = New GroupBarItem()
Dim groupBarItem5 As GroupBarItem = New GroupBarItem()

Me.groupBarItem0.Text = "GroupBarItem0"
Me.groupBarItem1.Text = "GroupBarItem1"
Me.groupBarItem2.Text = "GroupBarItem2"
Me.groupBarItem3.Text = "GroupBarItem3"
Me.groupBarItem4.Text = "GroupBarItem4"
Me.groupBarItem5.Text = "GroupBarItem5"

Me.groupBar1.GroupBarItems.AddRange(new GroupBarItem[] {
            Me.groupBarItem0,
            Me.groupBarItem1,
            Me.groupBarItem2,
            Me.groupBarItem3,
            Me.groupBarItem4,
            Me.groupBarItem5})

wf group bar control added in designer

Display mode

You can change the visual mode of the GroupBar control like stack by enabling the StackedMode property.

this.groupBar1.StackedMode = true;
Me.groupBar1.StackedMode = True

wf group bar control added in designer