SplitButton and DropDownButton : really not recommended ?

[tbolon]

I would like to raise a discussion about the #5911 issue, which has been closed by @merriemcgaw, stating that the SplitButton and DropDownButton button style will not be considered because they are deprecated and not recommended anymore.

I was facing a UX problem today which could be resolved with a splitbutton and was questioning myself about the absence of this control on winforms.

After having discovered the BS_SPLITBUTTON win32 style I have finally found this issue in the repo, and the reason why this issue was closed.

I also found that the fluent UI exposes multiple variations of the split/dropdown button implemented in WinUI.

Bootstrap CSS also implements split buttons and dropdown buttons

I am also sure that a lot of other frameworks implements these controls.

I am sure that there are some accessibility issues with split/dropdown buttons, but I can't find why it must be considered as not recommended? Perhaps I have missed something about that?

I can understand that if the style did not exists in win32, then it should not be developed inside this repo, but since the win32 style exists, I don't really see why it should be ignored?

Thanks,

[merriemcgaw]

Do you know how the Win32 BS_SPLITBUTTON style button appears on Win11 machines? Many but not all of the Common Controls were updated for a Win11 look and feel, but if this one was not, it would be a lot more work on our end to keep the look and feel consistent on Win11. I'm more than happy to take a proposal from the community if you are able to go through the API Approval logistics and help with the implementation. However, given our current landscape I don't know if the WinForms team will be able to pick up implementing this for .NET 7.

[tbolon]

Thank you for your answer,

I just wanted to know why it was considered as not recommended. I see your point now, as the native control has not been updated for win11. I didn't want to ask without having made some search, so I looked globally if this kind of UI was considered a bad practice (which is often the case).

Beside, I have also discovered that not all the required behaviors are implemented natively. It's the responsibility of the developer to implement the dropdown menu.

I hope this discussion could help people coming into this repo asking themselves the same question as me.

Thanks again for your insight.