Results Pane
The results pane is the large middle pane provided in the MMC 3.0 framework. Its content reflects the information associated with the selected node in the tree.
.gif)
Figure 1. Results pane (list view).
View Types
Because MMC supports multiple results-pane views per node, you can display information in four ways: list view, message view, HTML view, and Windows Forms view.
List view: The MMC list view displays the objects contained in the selected node. The list view provides a simple programmatic model for displaying basic lists of objects as well as basic sorting and column selection. Because list view uses the entire results pane, no additional controls can be added above or below the list view. If you need extra controls, you should implement your design by using the Windows Forms view.
.gif)
Message view. You use the message view to display general information about, or warning or error messages related to, the selected node.
.gif)
HTML view. Using HTML view, you can display HTML documents (such as reports) in the results pane.
Windows Forms view. Using flexible Windows Forms, you can provide a rich, customized user interface.
.gif)
Summary view. As part of the Windows Forms view, MMC 3.0 supports summary view for nodes (instead of showing a blank results pane). Using summary view, you can show the current status of an object or a snap-in.
.gif)
Filtering and Searching
Filtering is the act of applying a set of criteria to reduce the number of objects in a results set. You can offer filtering either in the list view or in the Windows Forms view.
Searching is the process of locating an object within a snap-in, across multiple nodes.
Taskpads
MMC 3.0 does not support the creation of taskpads, which functionally were precursors to start pages and the Actions pane. However, for backward compatibility, MMC 3.0 supports the viewing of taskpads created in MMC 1.2 and MMC 2.0.