XAF.Core - Provide the capability to save and customize all the LayoutControl's settings

Hi Garth,
We have introduced a couple of events into the WinLayoutManage class that will allow you to manage saving and restoring a control's properties in the application model.
These are the events: SynchronizeItemInfo and ItemCreated
and two virtual methods:
protected virtual void OnSynchronizeItemInfo(DictionaryNode dictionaryNode, BaseLayoutItem itemInfo)
protected virtual void OnItemCreated(BaseLayoutItem item, DictionaryNode itemInfo, DetailViewItem detailViewItem)
Handling these events (overriding virtual methods) will affect only the application and NOT the MODEL EDITOR (either invoked at design time in Visual Studio or at runtime from your application).
This is how you can use these methods:

1. First you will need to create a custom WinLayoutManager:

C#
public class MyWinLayoutManager : WinLayoutManager {  
        protected override void OnItemCreated(BaseLayoutItem item, DictionaryNode itemInfo, DevExpress.ExpressApp.Editors.DetailViewItem detailViewItem) {  
            base.OnItemCreated(item, itemInfo, detailViewItem);  
            TabbedGroup tabbedGroup = item as TabbedGroup;  
            if(tabbedGroup != null) {  
                tabbedGroup.HeaderOrientation = ExtractTabOrientation(itemInfo);  
            }  
        }  
        protected override void OnSynchronizeItemInfo(DictionaryNode dictionaryNode, BaseLayoutItem itemInfo) {  
            base.OnSynchronizeItemInfo(dictionaryNode, itemInfo);  
            TabbedGroup tabbedGroup = itemInfo as TabbedGroup;  
            if(tabbedGroup != null) {  
                dictionaryNode.SetAttribute("HeaderOrientation", tabbedGroup.HeaderOrientation.ToString());  
            }  
        }  
        private TabOrientation ExtractTabOrientation(DictionaryNode itemInfo) {  
            TabOrientation result = TabOrientation.Default;  
            if(itemInfo != null) {  
                String tabOrientation = itemInfo.GetAttributeValue("HeaderOrientation");  
                if(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tabOrientation)) {  
                    try {  
                        result = (TabOrientation)Enum.Parse(typeof(TabOrientation), tabOrientation, true);  
                    }  
                    catch { }  
                }  
            }  
            return result;  
        }  
    }  

2. In your application class, override the CreateLayoutManagerCore method:

C#
protected override DevExpress.ExpressApp.Layout.LayoutManager CreateLayoutManagerCore(bool simple) {  
            if(simple) {  
                return new WinSimpleLayoutManager();  
            }  
            else {  
                DictionaryNode optionsNode = Model.RootNode.GetChildNode(OptionsNodeName);  
                DictionaryNode layoutOptionsNode = optionsNode.GetChildNode("LayoutManagerOptions");  
                MyWinLayoutManager manager = new MyWinLayoutManager();  
                manager.CustomizationEnabled = layoutOptionsNode.GetAttributeBoolValue("CustomizationEnabled", manager.CustomizationEnabled);  
                manager.VerticalSpace = layoutOptionsNode.GetAttributeIntValue("VerticalSpace", manager.VerticalSpace);  
                manager.HorizontalSpace = layoutOptionsNode.GetAttributeIntValue("HorizontalSpace", manager.HorizontalSpace);  
                manager.GroupVerticalPadding = layoutOptionsNode.GetAttributeIntValue("GroupVerticalPadding", manager.GroupVerticalPadding);  
                manager.GroupVerticalSpace = layoutOptionsNode.GetAttributeIntValue("GroupVerticalSpace", manager.GroupVerticalSpace);  
                manager.IgnoreSpacesInSimpleGroup = layoutOptionsNode.GetAttributeBoolValue("IgnoreSpacesInSimpleGroup", manager.IgnoreSpacesInSimpleGroup);  
                return manager;  
            }  
        }  

Note: implementing this suggestion doesn't allow you to save all settings of the layout control, because we do not serialize the control, but we simply store some properties of the control (please check the B97105 issue for more details).
Thanks,
Dennis

These enhancements are both cool and well thought through. Thank you, Dennis.
I'm waiting for a couple of fixes to reported 8.2.4 bugs before upgrading.
I've got a couple of application requirements that these events may be the solution for.