Using SmartUI 

A SmartUI control is a universal container, which contains SmartItems. These SmartItems can be:

• a Tool of a ToolBar
• a Menu of a MenuBar
• a Tab Item of a TabStrip
• a Panel of a StatusBar
• a Node of a TreeView
• an Item of a ListBox
• a Property of a PropertyList
• a CheckBox or an OptionBox of a CheckList or an OptionList
• and so on.

SmartUI has properties, which allow to define the object's overall look and feel, but the object's real function is determined by the SmartItems, which are added.

For example, a ToolBar and a MenuBar can have the same SmartUI properties. What distinguishes them is that in one case, we added Tool-type SmartItems, and in the other, we added Menu-type SmartItems. This feature enables you to mix different kinds of SmartItems.

The SmartUI and the SmartItems each have their specific roles. And these roles' share-out is at the root of the component's functioning. SmartUI, for example,  arranges the SmartItems vertically or horizontally:

• Vertically for a TreeView style, a ListItem style, a CheckList style, or a PropertyList style...
• Horizontally for a MenuBar style, a ToolBar style, or a StatusBar style...

The SmartItems have intrinsic properties concerning:

• Their dimensions
• Their behavior: visible, selectable, kind of behavior when the mouse is hover (the item is hot), and so on.
• The font attributes: bold, italic, underlined.
• The images...

You can set these individual properties for each item: Size, Bold, Underline, Italic, Image, ForeColor, HotBold, HotUnderline, HotItalic, HotImage, HotTrackSelect, HotForeColor, HandPointer, SelectedBold, SelectedUnderline, SelectedItalic, SelectedImage, Description, Enabled, ToolTipText …

And you can combine all SmartItems in order to satisfy your specific needs:

• ComboBoxes in TreeViews
• ProgressBars in StatusBars/ToolBars
• Internet URL in OptionLists or Statusbars…

As you can imagine, logical combinations lead to a positive result, whereas strange combinations might have a strange result.