paneldriven

Paneldriven is a design and architectural paradigm for user interfaces in which the arrangement and behavior of panels—modular, self-contained UI units—drive the application's workflow and state. In paneldriven systems, panels coordinate to present data, accept input, and trigger navigation or actions.

Key concepts include a panel manager that orchestrates visibility and layout, a panel registry that maps identifiers to panel implementations, and an event or messaging layer that allows panels to communicate. Panels typically encapsulate their own data, logic, and presentation, while a lightweight controller aggregates higher-level flow.

State across the app is distributed but coordinated. The visible set of panels and their states form the current workflow. Inter-panel communication is focused on events such as 'open', 'update', or 'close', enabling dynamic composition without a single monolithic screen.

Common use cases include integrated development environments with side-by-side editors, dashboard interfaces with resizable panes, and complex editors or file managers that expose multiple panels for different concerns.

Benefits of paneldriven design include modularity, easier testing of individual panels, and flexible layouts that support concurrent tasks. Potential drawbacks are the need for careful coordination between panels to avoid inconsistent states, performance considerations with many panels, and a learning curve for teams new to panel-centric thinking.

See also: panel-based user interfaces, multi-pane layouts, event-driven architecture, component-based design.