Save and Restore the Layout of Panels

Dock Manager allows you to save the layout of dock panels and documents and then restore it later. Use the DockManager.SaveLayout and DockManager.RestoreLayout methods for the layout serialization and deserialization.

All panels and documents must have unique names, which you can specify with the Name property. Unique names ensure correct identification and serialization of dock items.

<mxd:DockGroup Orientation="Horizontal" DockHeight="*">
    <mxd:DockPane Name="dockPaneErrors" Header="Error List"/>
    <mxd:DockPane Name="dockPaneOutput" Header="Output"/>
</mxd:DockGroup>

The DockManager.SaveLayout method uses the specified stream as is - it neither clears the stream nor changes the current stream position before saving the layout.

Example

The following example shows how you can save the layout of dock items to a file, and restore the saved layout.

string fileName = "docking_layout.xml";

private void BtnSave_Click(object? sender, Avalonia.Interactivity.RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    using (var stream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
    {
        dockManager1.SaveLayout(stream);
    }
}

private void BtnRestore_Click(object? sender, Avalonia.Interactivity.RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (!File.Exists(fileName)) return;
    using (FileStream fileStream = File.OpenRead(fileName))
    {
        dockManager1.RestoreLayout(fileStream);
    }
}