>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!

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.

Another question:
Our application uses different managers (Toolbar, Dock, and MDI), is it possible to save the setting in a single file instead of multiple ones.
What is the industrial standard to do that? 

Thanks. 

Its possible, but it would need to be done manually. You could create an XML file where you store each configuration stream as a base 64 value in the file. Here is one way you could accomplish this for a toolbars manager and dock manager:

private void Form1_Load( object sender, EventArgs e )
{
 if ( File.Exists( "config.xml" ) == false )
  return;

 using ( XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader( "config.xml" ) )
 {
  reader.ReadStartElement( "Config" );

  using ( MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream( this.ReadBase64( reader ) ) )
   this.ultraToolbarsManager1.LoadFromBinary( stream );

  using ( MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream( this.ReadBase64( reader ) ) )
   this.ultraToolbarsManager1.LoadFromBinary( stream );
 }
}

private void Form1_FormClosed( object sender, FormClosedEventArgs e )
{
 using ( XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter( "config.xml", Encoding.Default ) )
 {
  writer.WriteStartElement( "Config" );
  writer.WriteStartElement( "ToolbarsConfig" );

  using ( MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream() )
  {
   this.ultraToolbarsManager1.SaveAsBinary( stream, true );

   byte[ buffer = stream.GetBuffer();
   writer.WriteBase64( buffer, 0, buffer.Length );
  }

  writer.WriteEndElement();

  writer.WriteStartElement( "DockConfig" );

  using ( MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream() )
  {
   this.ultraDockManager1.SaveAsBinary( stream );

   byte[ buffer = stream.GetBuffer();
   writer.WriteBase64( buffer, 0, buffer.Length );
  }

  writer.WriteEndElement();
  writer.WriteEndElement();
 }
}

private byte[ ReadBase64( XmlTextReader reader )
{
 List<byte> finalBuffer = new List<byte>();
 byte[ buffer = new byte[ 1000 ];

 while ( true )
 {
  int bytesRead = reader.ReadBase64( buffer, 0, buffer.Length );

  if ( bytesRead < buffer.Length )
  {
   byte[ retValue = new byte[ finalBuffer.Count + bytesRead ];

   Buffer.BlockCopy( finalBuffer.ToArray(), 0, retValue, 0, finalBuffer.Count );
   Buffer.BlockCopy( buffer, 0, retValue, finalBuffer.Count, bytesRead );

   return retValue;
  }
  else
  {
   finalBuffer.AddRange( buffer );
  }
 }
}

That saves all the layout settings in one XML file.
However, there is a limitation: the individual layout is saved as Binary, and therefore unreadable.
The ReadBase64 method is reading each binary block in the XML file. 

Is it possible to use SaveAsXml on individual layout and combine them into the final XML file? and how can I read it back?

Thanks!

I'm not sure I understand the question. Do you want to be able to read the layout file in an editor or do you want to have all layout files for different components stored in one file? If you want to open the layout file in an xml editor and be able to read it, you can use SaveAsXML and try to write string values insted of base 64 values in elements. You would need to wrap the serialized stream with a StreamReader to get the text value written to the stream. Similarly, when you read the text from the xml file, you would need to create a new MemoryStream, wrap it in a StreamWriter and write the text value to the writer. However, if you want to know how to combine the layout files into one layout file, the code posted originally will do that.

It all depends on how you want to store the data. If you want to convert the bytes of the saved binary layout file to some other format, you can use that. I just used Base64 because it is the standard way to store binary data.

So  Base64 is necessary to implement as binary?

It all depends on whether you would like to use SaveAsBinary or SaveAsXml. The binary layout files are smaller in size but cannot be manually examined or edited. The XML layout files can be opened and edited by a developer in any xml editor.

Mike2008, I am going to take advantage of your thread to ask Mike Dour a related question. hope that is okay.

Mike Dour, what is the relative benefit of the Base 64 approach over XML? I am very new to this and hopefully not asking something very basic. It seems like using the XML would be advantageous for application support purposes.

Thanks!

If you use an XmlTextWriter like in the code I posted, I believe there is a WriteString method which will escape all control characters automatically. When you read back the string value with the XmlTextReader, the string will automatically be unescaped.