>You must keep track of which forms were open when the XML file was saved and re-open them before loading the XML file.

So i guess i should save the open forms into a separate file, instead of messing this XML file.

In fact, all I want to save for each form is the file name to initialize it.
Is it possible to tag objects (e.g., the list of file names in this case) to the UltraTabbedMdiManager? Is it worth doing that? 

>to maintain the tab groups into which the user has organized the mdi child forms
The only think i can think of is to switch between normal MDI and tabbed MDI. Anything else user acn do to organize child forms?

Thanks!

mike2008 said:

In fact, all I want to save for each form is the file name to initialize it.
Is it possible to tag objects (e.g., the list of file names in this case) to the UltraTabbedMdiManager? Is it worth doing that? 

No, because the load operation would load in the tag values and try to find the mdi child forms all before returning. There would be no way to intervene after the tag values were loaded to open the forms before the load operation attempted to find them.  I would recommend using a separate file for this. 

mike2008 said:

>to maintain the tab groups into which the user has organized the mdi child forms
The only think i can think of is to switch between normal MDI and tabbed MDI. Anything else user acn do to organize child forms?

Just like in VS, the user can drag the tabs down or to the side to form new tab groups. They can also form new tab groups by right-clicking the tab and selecting 'New Horizontal Tab Group' or 'New Vertical Tab Group'

I tried to save child MDI forms in a separate file and successfully load them within MainForm's OnLoad method.
But the LoadTabbedMdiLayout does not seems to work, even if i put it after loading all the child MDI forms. Even worse, it messes up the layout.
I also tried to put LoadTabbedMdiLayout in OnLayout method in the MainForm, and it behaves the same. 

Do you have any idea what is going wrong? and how can i make this work?

Thanks. 

I must apologize: I was thinking about how the dock manager loads the layout and I assumed the tabbed mdi manager worked the same way, so I am sorry for giving bad advice. I have checked with someone more familiar with this component, and there are properties and events built in specifically for what you are trying to do. Handle the StoreTab event on the tabbed mdi manager. When a tab is going to be serialized to the XML file, this event will be fired for each tab. In your case, when you handle this event, set the PersistedInfo of the tab for which the event is being fired to the file name associated with the tab. For deserialization, handle the RestoreTab event. This event will be fired for each tab which was serialized. In the handler, you can get the PersistedInfo for the tab and create a Form (or use an existing Form) to use for the tab. Set the Form on the Form property of the event arguments.

Mike Dour"]In the handler, you can get the PersistedInfo for the tab and create a Form (or use an existing Form) to use for the tab. Set the Form on the Form property of the event arguments.

I successfully save the xml and load when opening. 

Now I need to add more information to the PersistedInfo object, e.g., some state information of the child form. I have a Serializable class called MdiChildFormState to save to PersistedInfo, and I added the new members with [OptionalField()] attribute. 

Then I tried to load the old version of the MDI layout file (without new memebers), and I got the following exception:
[System.ArgumentNullException]    {"Member at position 1 was null.\r\nParameter name: members"}    System.ArgumentNullException

and ex.StackTraceis like the follows:
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.FormatterServices.PopulateObjectMembers(Object obj, MemberInfo[ members, Object[ data)
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ReadObjectInfo.PopulateObjectMembers()
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.ParseObjectEnd(ParseRecord pr)
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Parse(ParseRecord pr)
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.EndElement(String prefix, String name, String urn)
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
   at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream)
   at Infragistics.Win.UltraWinTabbedMdi.UltraTabbedMdiManager.Load(Stream stream, Boolean xml)
   at Infragistics.Win.UltraWinTabbedMdi.UltraTabbedMdiManager.LoadFromXml(Stream stream)

Any idea how I can solve this issue?

Thanks.

Mike2008

It looks like OptionField in Serializable class does not work when using SOAP formatter.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=140592

I implemented ISerializable interface for the class, and added my own serialization and deserialization method to handle optional fields.

It works fine now.

Thanks.