Save and Restore Layout

Feb 27, 2026
2 minutes to read

You can save the NavBar control’s layout into a number of storage medias and restore it later. This allows you to:

provide layout persistence between application runs;
automatically switch between the predefined layouts;
allow end-users to load different layouts according to their needs;
share layouts between different controls in one or different applications, etc.

Refer to this article to learn how to save and restore the control’s layout in code. At design-time, you can utilize the “Layout” tab of the Navigation Bar Designer.

Note

To allow a layout to be correctly saved and restored, ensure that all nav bar groups and items created at runtime have their names (the Name property) specified.

Important

Deserializing layout settings from untrusted resources may create security issues. Review the following help topic for additional information: Safe Deserialization.

API

Member	Description
NavBarControl.SaveToRegistry	Saves the control’s layout to the specified system registry path.
NavBarControl.SaveToStream	Saves the control’s layout to a stream.
NavBarControl.SaveToXml	Saves a control’s layout to a specified XML file.
NavBarControl.SaveToJson	Saves the control’s layout to a JSON object.
NavBarControl.RestoreFromRegistry	Restores the control layout stored at a specified system registry path.
NavBarControl.RestoreFromStream	Loads a control’s layout from a stream.
NavBarControl.RestoreFromXml	Loads a control’s layout from a specified XML file.
NavBarControl.RestoreFromJson	Loads the NavBar’s layout from a file in JSON format.
NavBarControl.LayoutVersion	Gets or sets the version of the control’s layout.
NavBarControl.LayoutUpgrade	Occurs after a layout whose version doesn’t match the current layout version has been loaded from a stream, xml file or system registry.