The management at my company really likes the web interface for managing your Windows Azure sites – and I don’t blame them. It’s a unique and easy to use product. I was wondering if anyone out there knew of an API that allowed you to mimic the look and feel of the Azure web interface. I know Microsoft has been all about the Open Source lately, perhaps they have even released the source code for the Azure web interface? I’ve Googled the hell out of it and can’t find anything.
To be clear, I’m referring to a CSS/HTML/Javascript library that mimics their page layout – especially the way the left navigation collapses into icons, optionally showing a sub-menu of the selected item, and the way they have the contextually sensitive bar across the bottom of the page.
EDIT: ModernDesigner pointed out the Metro UI CSS kit, which is a solid start, but what about the nice collapsible side-bar that Azure has?
I think you’re wanting the Metro UI Pack. The user interface concept (was) called Metro. Everybody knows it as metro, but then it was called the Modern UI, now it’s just called the Windows UI. But if you search for Metro UI, you’ll get a lot of stuff. Hope this helps.
Edit: In response to your edit, collapsible sidebars can be used by creating charms (metro ui), then using jQuery toggle/animation methods. I don’t know that there’s a premade API that will allow you to do this as it is waaay to broad, each user will have different ideas and want different customization options, so there’s no way really to adhere to that specific need. However, I did find this, and on the bottom gray bar, if you click the ellipses in the right corner, it has something similar to what you may want.