[Feature] Ribbon control

[XamDR]

Describe the problem this feature would solve

Nowadays there is no Ribbon control for UWP development, so in order to develop apps with a style similar to Office apps, one has to use workarounds like implement similar behavior with a TabView and/or a CommandBar. But this just make things more complicated than it should be.

Describe the solution

Therefore in order to make easier to develop Office style apps, a new Ribbon control should be added to the toolkit. I want to notice that this has also been proposed in the Windows UI Library GitHub repo, specifically in this issue, but there hasn't been updates on when this control will be implemented. On the other hand, the WCT has usually been a pioneer in adding new controls and APIs that eventually are ported to the Windows UI Library, so I think this could be a similar case.

I also want to notice that there is already a Ribbon control for WPF, so in order to have relatively easy migrations, the future Ribbon for UWP should have a similar API to the WPF one. For that matter, the source code of the WPF Ribbon control is available here.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Currently the only solution in order to have a true Ribbon control in UWP apps is actually to develop a WPF app and then add UWP controls through XAML islands. This is not ideal because there is always some issues when mixing different technologies. Even if the opposite would be true (i.e., add WPF controls to UWP apps, which is not possible as far as I know), the issues with interoperability would persists somehow.

Additional context & Screenshots

Here I'd like to share some screenshots:

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[michael-hawker]

Thanks @XamDR for the issue. I know there's been a revival of this discussion lately. I can sync more with the WinUI folks about this topic, I know they're busy with WinUI 3, so that's why not as many of the new control requests are getting funded at the moment.

A port of the WPF one at least could be an interesting starting point though. 🤔

[yoshiask]

I started creating a Ribbon control for the WCT at yoshiask/UWPRibbon. If you're interested in helping build or test a potential Ribbon control, you should check it out!

[yoshiask]

I wrote this comment on the WinUI Ribbon proposal, I hope it's of some use while we figure out what features we want for a UWP ribbon. microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml#168 (comment)

[michael-hawker]

@yoshiask let's sync middle of next week sometime and see where you're at and where we should be heading. I think there's something we could do in this space, but we should make sure we're aligning with future design directions too.

[shaheedmalik]

Here's how the one in Word Mobile looks.

[mdtauk]

Mock ups I have posted in previous issues.