WinForms Controls v18.1

Chart Control

Custom Units of Measurement. Custom Aggregate Functions

You can now aggregate data by a custom unit of measurement (e.g. 15 minutes, 4 hours, etc.) You can also define a custom function that aggregates values using custom rules without modifying the source collection.

DevExpress Charts - Custom Units of Measurement

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Custom Colors for Automatically Generated Series

Our Chart Control can now provide custom colors to auto-generated series using one of the following colorizers:

  • Key-Color Colorizer assigns colors from a palette to series by series data member values.
  • Data Source Colorizer binds colors that the extra data source stores to a series via series data member values.

sample

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Crosshair Cursor Enhancements

This release extends the capabilities of our Crosshair Cursor. New features include:

  • Display values of series points that are selected by the Crosshair Cursor in a legend
  • Crosshair Cursor Lines (argument and value) follow the mouse cursor simultaneously
  • The ability to display the Crosshair Cursor in the exported/printed chart
  • The ability to display any data source field value within the Crosshair Cursor's Label.

WinForms Chart Control - Crosshair Cursor Enhancements | DevExpress

Blog Post  Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

DirectX Rendering (2D Charts)

2D WinForms Charts now support DirectX rendering.

DirectX vs GDP+ comparison

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Multi-Select Enhancements

You can select multiple items by drawing a rectangular region with the CTRL key pressed.

You now have the ability to cancel selection in code. To cancel selection, set the Cancel property to 'True' within the SelectionChanging event handler.

Multiple Selection - DevExpress Charting

 

Data Grid Control

Infinite Scrolling

Our WinForms Grid ships with an 'Infinite Scrolling' mode – allowing you to more efficiently display data from very large data sources. Once incorporated into your app, you will be able to load (and display) only a small portion of your data source at start up. New records will load and appear on screen as users scroll the Grid vertically. A new data binding mode will help you connect our WinForms Data Grid control to your data source, even when the entire record count is unknown or infinite by nature (like a web service).

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Binding Selection to Data Source

In multiple row selection mode, you can sync row selected states with a Boolean field in the bound data source. The selection binding mode ensures that row selection persists whenever you filter or group grid data.

Selection binding mode was designed to be used in conjunction with the Web-Style Row Selector (the built-in Selection column). You can, however, use it when the built-in Selection column is hidden.

We've also added support for data filtering against the built-in Selection column via the Auto-Filter row (you can display only selected, deselected or all rows).

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Data Editors

Calendar - ClassicNew View

The DevExpress WinForms Calendar Control and Date Edit ship with a ClassicNew view (inspired by Outlook 2016).

WinForms Calendar - ClassicNew View | DevExpress

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Open File, Save File and Folder Browser Dialogs

The DevExpress WinForms Open File, Save File and Folder Browser Dialogs were first released as a community technology preview in v17.2. This update marks their official release.

New enhancements include:

  • The Folder Browser Dialog includes Compact and Wide display modes.
  • Ability to select legacy or skinable dialogs when using the Open File/Folder Behaviors and MVVM services.

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

PictureEdit - DirectX Support

Our WinForms PictureEdit control now supports DirectX rendering.

Documentation

 

Toast Notification Manager Enhancements

With this release, the DevExpress WinForms ToastNotificationManager gives you the ability to create Windows 10-inspired toast notifications. You can create multiple types of toast notifications by adding the following elements to regular text and image blocks:

  • Custom App Logo with optional image cropping
  • Hero Image
  • Attribution Text
  • Custom Timestamp

New event handlers allow you to customize notifications dynamically (e.g., add interactive elements), and handle toast notifications that failed to show.

To test your WinForms apps on a developer machine, use a new smart tag action that creates the application shortcut in the Windows Start Menu at design time.

WinForms Toast Notification Manager | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Splash Screens - Overlay Wait Form

v18.1 introduces an Overlay Wait form. The Overlay Form is a semi-transparent splash screen that runs in a background thread and prevents access to a control or form by displaying an overlay.

  • The Overlay wait form never locks up the main and operation threads when functioning in a separate thread.
  • You can bind the Overlay form to any control, not just the main UI form.
  • The transparent Overlay wait form overlaps the owner control in its entirety, and prevents an end-user from interacting with the underlying control.
  • You can resize and move the main form while the Overlay form is visible (if you bind the Overlay wait form to a control and perform a lengthy operation asynchronously).
  • Multiple animation options.
  • Its custom painting mechanism allows you to draw the Overlay wait form manually.

WinForms Splash Screens - Overlay Wait Form | DevExpress

Demo  Blog Post  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Group Control - New Group Styles

We've enhanced our WinForms Group Control with new rendering styles:

  • Light
  • Title
  • Card

These group styles are also available for groups embedded in our WinForms Layout Control.

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Color Pick Editors - Magnifier Dialog enhancements

Our Magnifier Dialogs have been updated with the following enhancements:

  • When zooming, the Magnifier Dialog displays a pixel grid allowing you to distinguish individual pixels easily;
  • Avoid pixel hunting by switching to precise cursor positioning (press CTRL).

Color Pick Editors - Magnifier Dialog | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

ListBox - Highlight Search Results

Our WinForms ListBox control now highlights strings that match the search text.

WinForms ListBox - Highlight Search Results | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

High DPI Support

Enhanced High DPI Drawing for all Windows Forms Controls

With this release, we've enhanced DirectX rendering support, and improved the scaling of control elements, borders, indents and images across our WinForms product line.

Documentation

 

Image to DPIAware Image Conversion

We've added a new action to the ImageCollection's smart tag, which converts the ImageCollection to DPIAwareImageCollection.

Documentation

 

SVG Icons in New Controls

We now use SVG icons by default in the following controls:

  • Scheduler
  • Filter Editor
  • LayoutView
  • PDF Viewer

To revert to previous behavior and use raster graphics instead, disable the 'WindowsFormsSettings.AllowDefaultSvgImages' option.

 

Map Control

Circular Scrolling

The DevExpress WinForms Map Control allows you to scroll image and vector maps "circularly."

WinForms Map Control - Circular Scrolling | DevExpress

 

Runtime Vector Item Editor

With this release, you can edit vector items at runtime. We've developed a special toolbar panel to provide quick access to the most common editor functions.

  • Add new vector elements (Pushpin, Path, Polyline, Dot, Ellipse, Rectangle, Line)
  • Select/Edit/Transform (add, remove and move points)
  • Undo/Redo

An end user can switch to Edit mode, draw new elements and edit or delete vertices. Modified vector layer data can be persisted to a file using a supported format (Shapefile, SVG and KML).

This feature is compatible with both Geographical and Cartesian coordinate systems, as well as our newly introduced Circular Scrolling functionality.

WinForms Map Control - Runtime Editor for Vector Items | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Navigation UI

Pager Navigation

The Radio Group and Windows UI Button Panel can be used as a pager for the following: Tile Control, Tile Bar, Navigation Frame and Image Slider.

The pager automatically splits the target control's contents into individual pages.

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Tile Control - DirectX Hardware Acceleration

The DevExpress WinForms Tile Control now supports DirectX rendering so you can create high performance solutions for use on High DPI devices.

 

Fluent Design Form

This release includes our new Fluent Design Form. Inspired by the brand new Microsoft Fluent Design System, its features include:

  • Integrated Hamburger Menu
  • Adaptive Layout
  • Acrylic Material (a partially transparent texture)
  • Reveal Highlight

Acrylic Material and Reveal Highlight effects are available on systems with Windows 10 Spring Creators Update.

WinForms Fluent Design Form | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation  Blog Post
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Hamburger Menu

We've integrated the Hamburger Menu with our Accordion Control: Set the ViewType property to HamburgerMenu and the Accordion Control will support a collapsed state designed to mimic the behavior of Windows 10 apps (displays a narrow strip of icons when collapsed).

Used together with our new Fluent Design Form, the Hamburger Menu automatically adapts its state when you resize the form. It also supports Acrylic Material and Reveal Highlight effects (available on systems with Windows 10 Spring Creators Update).

WinForms Accordion Control - Hamburger Menu | DevExpress

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Accordion Control – Navigation Pane layout

Our WinForms Accordion Control supports a new Navigation Pane option - one that mimics the latest styles used by Microsoft UWP applications. To enable it, set the EnablePaneFooter property to true.

The control also supports DirectX Hardware acceleration - an option designed to improve rendering performance on High DPI screens.

Blog Post  Demo


Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

PDF Viewer

DirectX Rendering (Beta)

With this release, both our PDF Viewer for WinForms and PDF Document API support DirectX rendering:

  • Performance boost for common usage scenarios.
  • Support for all text rendering modes (e.g. using the text as a clip region for a drawing).
  • High-quality text rendering (GDI uses integer coordinates for glyph positioning) and improved text antialiasing (especially for Type 1 fonts).

    PDF - Text Antialiasing | DevExpress

  • Support for all blend modes.

    PDF – Blend Modes | DevExpress

To use DirectX rendering, activate one of the following options:

  • PDF Document API: enable the 'PdfDocumentProcessor.RenderPageContentWithDirectX' option.
  • WinForms PDF Viewer: enable the 'PdfViewer.RenderPageContentWithDirectX' option.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Pivot Grid Control

Performance Enhancements

We continue to improve the Pivot Grid's in-memory data processing. The following features are now processed by the pivot grid in Optimized Mode:

  • Drill-Down
  • Unbound Expressions
 

Print Row Headings on Every Page

You can now set a new option and print row headings on every page.

DevExpress Pivot Grid - Print Row Headings on Every Page

Documentation

 

Excel Inspired Filter

We've improved the Pivot Grid's Filter Popup. End-users can now filter grouped data using Excel inspired filter.

WinForms Pivot Grid - Excel Inspired Group Filter | DevExpress

Documentation

 

Ribbon, Bars and Dock UI

Dock Windows - Light View

This release includes a new "Light" mode. When used, all Dock Windows are drawn using 1-pixel borders.

WinForms Dock Windows - Light View | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Design-Time Enhancements

WinForms Bar Manager
The designer's 'Toolbars' page allows you to manage toolbars, create different bar item types, add bar items to toolbars and populate hierarchical sub-menus. The Customization Form is now resizable, and provides on-form actions to manipulate bar items and categories.

WinForms Ribbon
The designer's 'Ribbon Items' page allows you to customize ribbon item hierarchy (categories, pages, page groups, buttons and sub-menus).

WinForms Popup Menus
A new editor integrated into the Bar Manager/Ribbon Designer allows you to customize popup menus. The menu editor allows you to create a popup menu, populate the menu with items, and modify menu/item settings.

 

Ribbon Memory Usage and Performance Enhancements

We have optimized our WinForms Ribbon Control. Depending upon your usage scenario, the Ribbon's startup time is up to 10% faster than previous versions. As you might expect, memory consumption has also been reduced.

 

Rich Text Editor

Microsoft Word Inspired Formatting and Layout

We've invested significant resources to improve the manner in which our DevExpress Rich Edit control for WinForms, WPF, and our Word Processing File API renders documents. We've enhanced layout and formatting accuracy when displaying, printing and exporting documents. DPI settings are also no longer an issue.

DevExpress Rich Text Editor – Improved WYSIWYG Support

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Checkbox Form Fields

With this release, our WinForms and WPF Rich Text Editors can load documents with checkboxes. End-users can toggle checkbox state, save, print or export the result.

Documentation  Blog Post

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Automatic Document Format Identification
With this release, if a document is loaded from a file or stream programmatically, the DevExpress RichEditControl automatically identifies the document's format based on its content. Documentation

Print API
Our WinForms RichEditControl now includes the 'Print' method that allows you to print documents using default or custom printer settings. Documentation

 

Scheduler Control

New Storage Mechanism

We've replaced our existing SchedulerStorage with SchedulerDataStorage. Its features include:

  • Labels and statuses can have their own data sources out-of-the-box.
  • Storage data isn't reloaded after each change in the underlying data source.
  • Previously, any data change fired the same 'CollectionLoaded' event, and it was impossible to identify what kind of operation was performed. The new storage provides various events for different action types.
  • Enclosing data operations with the BeginUpdate\EndUpdate methods is no longer required.
  • The new storage correctly recognizes any data modifications performed at the data source level.

SchedulerStorage will continue to be supported (for backward compatibility purposes).

Documentation

 

SVG Icons

With this release, the DevExpress WinForms Scheduler uses SVG icons by default. To revert to previous behavior and use raster graphics instead, disable the 'WindowsFormsSettings.AllowDefaultSvgImages' option.

WinForms Scheduler - Vector Icons UI | DevExpress

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

DirectX Rendering

The DevExpress WinForms Scheduler Control now supports DirectX rendering so you can create high performance solutions for use on High DPI devices.

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Skins and Vector Icons

New Skin Selector

With the release of our Bezier vector-based skin (which provides dozens of unique skin presets or swatches), a traditional skin gallery may “feel” overcrowded. Our new skin/swatch selector is designed to address this issue and provide users a more intuitive way to apply the desired appearance to their application.

WinForms Skin/Theme Selector | DevExpress

Documentation

 

Office Palettes for Vector Skins

In v18.1, we've added four vector skin palettes inspired by MS Office.

Office Palettes for Vector Skins | DevExpress

 

SVG Icon Builder in MS Windows Store

The DevExpress SVG Icon Builder is a productivity tool designed to simplify the creation of custom SVG icons by combining existing graphical elements. You can install it directly from the Microsoft Windows Store.

Download from MS Windows Store  Blog Post  Documentation

 

Spreadsheet Control

Spreadsheet Shapes

From simple lines and rectangles, to banners and callouts, our WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet controls now support all shape types. You can move, resize and remove shapes. Worksheets with shapes can also be printed and exported to PDF. Refer to the following blog post for more information and limitations associated with this specific feature.

DevExpress Scheduler Control - Shapes

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Custom Colors for Individual Chart Series Points

With this release, our WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet controls can display, print and export worksheets with charts that contain series points with custom colors.

Blog Post

 

Formula AutoComplete

With this release, we've simplified formula construction. Our WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet controls now support Formula AutoComplete. This feature can help prevent spelling or syntax errors by providing a list of function names, defined names and table names that match the characters you enter into a formula.

WinForms Spreadsheet Control - Formula AutoComplete | DevExpress

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Automatic Document Format Identification: With this release, if a document is loaded from a file without specifying its format, the Spreadsheet control automatically identifies the document's format based on its content (regardless of filename extension).

A new 'Print' method allows you to print an entire document or an individual sheet using default or custom printer settings.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

TreeList Control

Excel-Inspired Group Filter

Excel-inspired filter dropdowns can now group filter items from two or more columns, and present the result as a hierarchical checked list. For instance, instead of a linear task list, you can show tasks grouped by employees:

WinForms TreeList - Excel-Inspired Group Filter | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

DirectX Hardware Acceleration

Enable the 'WindowsFormsSettings.ForceDirectXPaint' option and leverage the power of DirectX hardware acceleration to boost TreeList rendering on High DPI devices.

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Display Node Images within Data Cells

By default, our WinForms TreeList control reserves space for both Select and State images if either are displayed within a node. With this new option, you can save space by moving Select/State images from the indent region to node cells.

WinForms TreeList - Node Images | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Band and Column Separators

You can now highlight individual columns and bands by changing the width and appearance settings of their separators.

WinForms TreeList - Column and Band Separators | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Tree Line Visibility

By default, tree lines are displayed or hidden based upon the currently applied skin. v18.1 introduces the new 'ShowTreeLines' option allowing you to explicitly specify whether to display tree lines. If this option is enabled, you can specify node hierarchy line styles using the TreeLineStyle property.

Demo   Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

We've added a few popular Data Grid API members (RowClick, RowCellClick, MakeColumnVisible, etc.) to the TreeList control and added expand/collapse node animation effects.

 

Vertical Grid Control

Office 2016 Inspired View

Our WinForms Property Grid ships with a new "flat" view inspired by Office 2016. Its features include:

  • Ability to organize categories into separate groups
  • Advanced value editing for numeric properties

WinForms Vertical Grid - Flat View | DevExpress

Demo  Blog Post  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Design-Time Access to all DevExpress Project Settings

When you start a new project, you can right-click the Visual Studio Solution Explorer and select DevExpress Project Settings to activate a page that exposes major DevExpress project settings.

DevExpress Global Settings

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Filter Editor Enhancements

With this release, we've improved our WinForms Filter Editor. New enhancements include:

  • Tabbed UI
  • Syntax Highlighting
  • Auto-Complete
  • Expression Validation and Error Indication

The Filter Editor now uses SVG icons by default. To revert to previous behavior and use raster graphics instead, disable the 'WindowsFormsSettings.AllowDefaultSvgImages' option.

Filter Editor

Demo  Documentation
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

Template Gallery - Logify Client Template (Windows Forms, WPF and ASP.NET)

Logify is a 24/7 application monitoring tool (helps you track errors and log app crash events). The DevExpress WinForms Team has extended our Template Gallery with a new template designed to add a Logify client to your project with one click.

DevExpress Template Gallery - Logify Client Template

Logify is a paid subscription service and must be purchased separately. To learn more about Logify and how to use it in your next WinForms project, please visit https://logify.devexpress.com/

 

Adorner UI Manager - Tab Badges

The DevExpress WinForms Adorner UI Manager can now display tab badges.

Demo
Requires installation of WinForms Subscription v18.1. Download

 

MVVM: DialogService UICommands

The DevExpress MVVM DialogService can now display dialog windows with custom buttons.

Documentation

 

WPF Controls v18.1

Accordion Control

Navigation Pane Mode

A new Navigation Pane mode allows you to create an Outlook-inspired side bar panel and integrate it with our WPF Office Navigation Bar control. In this mode, the Accordion control only displays selected group content and shows other groups as buttons at the bottom.

WPF Accordion Control - Navigation Pane Mode | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Chart Control

Custom Units of Measurement. Custom Aggregate Functions

You can now aggregate data by a custom unit of measurement (e.g. 15 minutes, 4 hours, etc.) You can also define a custom function that aggregates values using custom rules without modifying the source collection.

Blog Post

DevExpress Charts - Custom Units of Measurement

 

Crosshair Cursor Enhancements

This release extends the capabilities of our Crosshair Cursor. New features include:

  • Display values of series points that are selected by the Crosshair Cursor in a legend
  • Crosshair Cursor Lines (argument and value) follow the mouse cursor simultaneously
  • The ability to display the Crosshair Cursor in the exported/printed chart
  • The ability to display any data source field value within the Crosshair Cursor's Label.

WPF Chart Control - Crosshair Cursor Enhancements | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Top N and Others

With this release, you can limit the amount of information displayed by a chart and visualize data more effectively. You can adjust the number of points included in the Top N group. All other points will be aggregated into the "Others" group.

The series provides the following ways to select "Top" points:

  • N points with largest values
  • Points whose values are larger than a threshold
  • Points whose percentage values are larger than a threshold

TopN and Others sample

 

Multi-Select Enhancements

You can select multiple items by drawing a rectangular region with the CTRL key pressed.

You now have the ability to cancel selection in code. To cancel selection, set the Cancel property to 'True' within the SelectionChanged event handler.

Multiple Selection - DevExpress Charting

 

Data Editors

On Demand ItemsSource Initialization

With this release, DevExpress WPF Data Editors that use source collections (e.g. ComboBoxEdit, LookUpEdit, ListBoxEdit), no longer process the entire source collection at startup. Data editors traverse through source items until the selected item is found. This significantly improves startup time for forms with editors bound to large source collections.

We've also introduced a new option that prevents an editor from looking for an empty value in the source collection. This makes forms with empty editors load faster.

 

TrackBarEdit - Custom Ticks and Steps

In v18.1, our WPF TrackBarEdit exposes new collections that allow you to define custom ticks and steps. For example, you can create a track bar with non-linear steps to better control zoom factors.

 

SVG Validation Icons

This release includes new SVG icons for validation error indication (used by our WPF Data Editors).

 

Token Editors - Show Selected Items

Our lookup editors in Token selection mode (ComboBoxEdit and LookUpEdit) can now keep selected items visible in a popup.

 

Data Grid Control

Server-Side Data Processing with Any Data Source

This release introduces support for virtual data sources. With these sources, our WPF Data Grid can be bound to any data source, even if the record count is unknown. The Grid control only requests top N records and allows you to implement the required data operations supported by your data source.

  • You can connect the grid to data sources not supported by Server Mode (Web Services, NoSQL Databases, etc.).
  • A data source needs to expose an API to only return top N records (total item count is not required; sorting, filtering, and summary calculation operations are optional).
  • You can specify which data operations are allowed (e.g. an end-user can sort by columns A, C, and D, and the Search Panel can filter data using the StartsWith criteria). This prevents a user from overloading the database with non-optimal queries. The Data Grid automatically hides all UI elements for non-supported operations.
  • You can use the asynchronous API to access data (e.g., Entity Framework Async Queries).

In Virtual Source mode, the DevExpress WPF Data Grid can display data split across pages or allow users to navigate records via infinite scrolling.

WPF Grid - Server-Side Data Processing with Any Data Source | DevExpress

Documentation

 

Data Paging

v18.1 introduces Page Navigation for those who prefer to display and load data page by page. Our new Data Pager supports all data source types and can be used on a standalone basis.

DevExpress WPF Grid - Data Paging

Documentation 

Performance Enhancements

Data summary and conditional formatting rules are now calculated much faster. We've optimized summary recalculations by restricting recalculations to those items that have been affected by a property change.

The DevExpress WPF Data Grid does not recalculate total summaries when a user sorts data.

 

Data Shaping Enhancements (ICollectionView)

When working with ICollectionView sources, our WPF Grid control delegates all data management operations (sorting, filtering, grouping) to ICollectionView. which imposes some limitations on core grid features.

With this release, you can overcome all ICollectionView limitations. Simply disable the 'AllowCollectionView' option, and allow our WPF Grid to perform all data management operations.

Documentation

 

Data Grid & Tree List

Band Separators

With this release, our WPF Data Grid and TreeList controls display thick band separators. You can specify separator color and thickness. You can also specify different appearance settings for root and nested band separators.

DevExpress WPF Grid - Band Separators

Documentation

 

Nested Property Notifications

The DevExpress WPF Data Grid and TreeList controls can automatically update individual cells, sorting, grouping, filtering, and summary when nested property values change.

Note: Only the object wherein a property is defined needs to implement the INotifyPropertyChanged interface - There are no such requirements for other objects in the nested property path.

Documentation

 

Best Fit Enhancements

Our WPF Data Grid and TreeList controls now offer a 'Best Fit' option for Band headers. Best Fit calculates and applies the optimal width required for a band to fully display its contents. This functionality is available for end-users and via the Grid's API.

Documentation

 

Scrolling Performance

Vertical scrolling has been optimized. It is now 15% faster.

 

INotifyDataErrorInfo Validation Support

Our WPF Data Grid and TreeList controls automatically display validation errors within data source objects that implement INotifyDataErrorInfo. Unlike IDataErrorInfo, the INotifyDataErrorInfo interface notifies bound UI controls when a validation error occurs within a data source.

Documentation

 

Retain Scroll Position

The DevExpress WPF Data Grid and TreeList controls ship with a new option that helps the Grid retain scroll position when updating data.

This behavior is supported by all data update types (add/remove, data sorting, full data refresh), and has been designed not to impact performance.

Documentation

 

Document Scaling

This release introduces document scaling for our WPF Data Grid, TreeList, Pivot Grid and Chart controls. Scaling allows you scale down an oversized control to fit the paper's width, or scale up the control to print it across multiple sheets of paper.

 

Dialogs

Folder Browser and Open/Save File Dialogs

The DevExpress WPF Open File, Save File and Folder Browser Dialogs were first released as a community technology preview in v17.2. This update marks their official release.

New enhancements include:

  • Breadcrumbs.
  • Ability to select folders using the Open File Dialog
  • Localization Support
 

Docking UI

Performance Enhancements

This release includes performance enhancements designed to render dock panels faster.

  • Dock/Undock operations are now 10% faster.
  • A new option (LogicalTreeStructure) allows panel content to remain in the same logical tree, preventing redundant updates. This makes dock panels dock/undock 2 times faster.
  • 'Restore Layout' is also significantly faster.
 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

  • Ability to specify a panel's auto-hide position relative to another panel or group.
  • Ability to customize a context menu for individual layout items.
  • Dock Panels can be activated using logical or keyboard focus.
 

MVVM Framework

New Expression Evaluation Engine

With this release, the DXBinding, DXEvent, and DXCommand extensions use a new expression evaluation engine by default. Expressions are now initialized up to 2 times faster.

The new Expression Evaluation Engine provides the following features:

  • Dynamic Typing
  • No casting is required to compare or return values
  • Ability to create objects using the ‘new’ operator
  • Ability to assign values using the equals (=) operator in DXCommand and DXEvent
 

Pivot Grid Control

Performance Enhancements

We continue to improve the Pivot Grid's in-memory data processing. The following features are now processed by the pivot grid in Optimized Mode:

  • Drill-Down
  • Unbound Expressions
 

Lightweight Templates

With this release, the DevExpress WPF Pivot Grid uses lightweight templates for cells and headers by default. Lightweight templates simplify the Pivot Grid's visual tree, thus improving the grid's loading, scrolling, etc.

 

Ribbon and Toolbars

Ribbon Control - Simplified Markup

You no longer need to declare the default page category to add Ribbon pages. Pages can be added to a Ribbon Control directly. Use the page's CategoryName property to specify a category.

 

Rich Text Editor

Microsoft Word Inspired Formatting and Layout

We've invested significant resources to improve the manner in which our DevExpress Rich Edit control for WinForms, WPF, and our Word Processing File API renders documents. We've enhanced layout and formatting accuracy when displaying, printing and exporting documents. DPI settings are also no longer an issue.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Checkbox Form Fields

With this release, our WinForms and WPF Rich Text Editors can load documents with checkboxes. End-users can toggle checkbox state, save, print or export the result.

Blog Post

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Automatic Document Format Identification
With this release, if a document is loaded from a file or stream programmatically, the DevExpress WPF RichEditControl automatically identifies the document's format based on its content. Documentation

Print API
Our RichEditControl now includes a Print method that allows you to print documents using default or custom printer settings. Documentation

 

Scheduler Control

Outlook Inspired ResourceTree Control (CTP)

This release includes a community preview of our new ResourceTree Control. As its name implies, the control displays Scheduler Resource Items using a tree UI metaphor. Features include:

  • Ability to create/Delete Resources
  • Ability to reorder Resources via Drag and Drop
  • Built-In Search support

DevExpress Scheduler for WPF - Outlook Inspired ResourceTree Control

 

SVG Icons

WPF Scheduler - SVG Icons | DevExpress

 

TimelineView - Resource Auto Height

Our WPF Scheduler's TimelineView can now automatically resize resources to fit all appointments.

 

Spreadsheet Control

Spreadsheet Shapes

From simple lines and rectangles, to banners and callouts, our WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet controls now support all shape types. You can move, resize and remove shapes. Worksheets with shapes can also be printed and exported to PDF. Refer to the following blog post for more information and limitations associated with this specific feature.

DevExpress Scheduler Control - Shapes

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Custom Colors for Individual Chart Series Points

With this release, our WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet controls can display, print and export worksheets with charts that contain series points with custom colors.

Blog Post

 

Formula AutoComplete

With this release, we've simplified formula construction. Our WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet controls now support Formula AutoComplete. This feature can help prevent spelling or syntax errors by providing a list of function names, defined names and table names that match the characters you enter into a formula.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Automatic Document Format Identification: With this release, if a document is loaded from a file without specifying its format, the Spreadsheet control automatically identifies the document's format based on its content (regardless of filename extension).

A new 'Print' method allows you to print an entire document or an individual sheet using default or custom printer settings.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Themes

Lightweight Templates for Standard WPF Controls

With this release, our Office2016SE and VS2017 themes use lightweight templates to render standard WPF controls. New templates contain fewer visual elements and support appearance customization properties (BorderBrush, BorderThickness, Background, etc.)

Lightweight templates are supported by the following WPF controls:

  • Button
  • TextBox
  • ListBox
  • CheckBox
  • ProgressBar
  • Slider
  • ScrollViewer
  • TreeView
 

Tree List

API Enhancements

Our WPF TreeList control's new API includes:

  • Ability to add new nodes.
  • Ability to change fitter settings before a filter is applied by a user (the SubstituteFilter event).
  • Skip the calculation process in the CustomSummary event (the TotalValueReady property).
  • Update a node's position immediately after its data has been modified (the ImmediateUpdateRowPosition property).

Documentation

 

Windows UI

Application Bar - Appearance Customization

With this release, you can customize the Application Bar's border using the BorderBrush and BorderThickness properties.

 

Windows 10 UWP Controls v18.1

Data Grid

Auto Filter Row

This update includes an intuitive column based search option. By enabling the Auto-Filter Row (displayed at the top of the grid), users can filter grid contents by individual column values. You can control the search operators used (LIKE, EQUALS, etc.) based on the data type associated with each column.

Documentation

 

New Item Row

Inspired by Outlook, the Data Grid's New Item Row allows end-users to add new records within the Data Grid. It can be displayed above or below all data/group rows.

New API events allow you to initialize and update new records.

Documentation

 

API Enhancements

The new CellValueChanging event fires when an end-user changes a cell editor's value, and allows you to cancel the changes made, or implement custom value processing/posting.

 

.NET Core 2.0

With this release, DevExpress UWP controls are based on .Net Core 2.0.

What's new in .NET Core

 

SDK v16299

With this release, DevExpress UWP controls use SDK v16299. This allows us to leverage new features (e.g., preview input events) internally and stay up-to-date with the latest developments at Microsoft.

 

ASP.NET Controls v18.1

CardView Control

Adaptive Layout

ASP.NET and MVC CardView - Adaptive Layout | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation

 

Chart Control

Custom Units of Measurement. Custom Aggregate Functions

You can now aggregate data by a custom unit of measurement (e.g. 15 minutes, 4 hours, etc.) You can also define a custom function that aggregates values using custom rules without modifying the source collection.

Blog Post

DevExpress Charts - Custom Units of Measurement

 

Custom Colors for Automatically Generated Series

Our Chart Control can now provide custom colors to auto-generated series using one of the following colorizers:

  • Key-Color Colorizer assigns colors from a palette to series by series data member values.
  • Data Source Colorizer binds colors that the extra data source stores to a series via series data member values.
 

Crosshair Cursor Enhancements

This release extends the capabilities of our Crosshair Cursor. New features include:

  • Display values of series points that are selected by the Crosshair Cursor in a legend
  • Crosshair Cursor Lines (argument and value) follow the mouse cursor simultaneously
  • The ability to display the Crosshair Cursor in the exported/printed chart
  • The ability to display any data source field value within the Crosshair Cursor's Label.

WinForms Chart Control - Crosshair Cursor Enhancements | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Editors

ListBox, ComboBox, TokenBox - Custom Filtering

We've extended the filtering capabilities in drop-down lists (ListBox, ComboBox, TokenBox). Our new server-side and client-side API allows you to implement custom filtering logic to provide diacritic-insensitive or multi-word filtering.

Demo  Documentation

 

Client-Side Read-Only State Management

With this release, you can dynamically change an editor's read-only state on the client.

 

ComboBox, ListBox, TokenBox - Client-Side Performance Enhancements

 

GridView Control

Performance Enhancements

Using new internal algorithms, we've significantly improved the layout recalculation logic of the ASP.NET and MVC Grid View in adaptive mode. The control's client Initialization is now up to 6-18 times faster when compared to earlier versions.

 

Image and Data Navigation

Image Gallery - Adaptive Layout Mode

ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Image Gallery - Adaptive Layout | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation

 

DataView - Adaptive Layout Mode

ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC DataView - Adaptive Layout | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation

 

ImageSlider - Virtual Paging

The DevExpress ASP.NET Image Slider supports virtual paging. In this mode, images are loaded on demand when the user navigates content via the pager.

Demo  Documentation

 

Navigation and Layout

FormLayout - Adaptivity

The DevExpress ASP.NET and MVC Form Layout ships with a new adaptive layout mode. Once enabled, Form Layout elements are automatically adjusted based upon Layout control size. You can use this new features to create adaptive web apps with ease.

ASP.NET Adaptive Layout Control | DevExpress

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Ribbon - Group Scrolling

You can now scroll Ribbon groups whenever portions of the Ribbon are invisible.

ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Ribbon - Group Scrolling | DevExpress

 

TabControl/PageControl - Tab Swipe

End-users can now scroll tabs with a finger swipe on small touch screens.

ASP.NET Ribbon Control - Tab Swipe | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Pivot Grid Control

Print Row Headings on Every Page

You can now set a new option and print row headings on every page.

DevExpress ASP.NET Pivot Grid - Print Row Headings on Every Page

 

Rich Editor Control

Input Method Editor Support (IME)

Input Method Editor (IME) allows you to use the Latin keyboard to enter Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Tigrinya symbols. IME is enabled when an end-user switches the desktop key input to a supported language.

 

Table of Contents

With this release, we've added support for interactive table of contents. End-users can now move to a specific position within a document instantly. The following tables are supported:

  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Figures
  • Table of Tables
  • Table of Equations

You can add/update tables and mark their entries using the Rich Editor's Ribbon UI. Our new API offers numerous options to manage interactive tables.

DevExpress Web Forms and MVC Rich Text Editor - Table of Contents | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation

 

Table AutoFit

Tables can now automatically resize columns to fit content or a document window.

AutoFit

 

AutoCorrect

Our ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Rich Text Editor ships with AutoCorrect support. You can use AutoCorrect to fix capitalization errors, create numeric lists, hyperlinks and emails, as well as automatically insert symbols and other pieces of text.

Demo  Documentation

 

Stateless Mode

With our new stateless option, you can maintain document state in external storage. Ready-to-use Redis and SQL examples are included.

 

Scheduler Control

Date Highlighting in Date Navigator

Our Date Navigator can highlight dates that include appointments. The following highlight modes are available:

  • Bold
  • Labels
  • Custom

ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Scheduler - Date Highlighting | DevExpress

Demo

 

Resource Navigator Enhancements

Our Resource Navigator ships with a new navigation mode. In this mode, all available resources are displayed as tokens. End-users can display or hide resources by adding or removing corresponding tokens.

ASP.NET Web Forms Scheduler - Resource Tokens | DevExpress

Demo

 

New Standalone Scheduler Storage Control

v18.1 ships with a new ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC SchedulerStorageControl. This is a non-visual component that implements nearly the same functionality as our ASP.NET Scheduler, and allows you to integrate all scheduler-based data operations using third-party web controls.

Demo  Documentation

 

Month View Adaptivity

The Scheduler's Month View now supports an adaptive display mode. All appointments are transformed to a more compact view on smaller screens.

 

Spreadsheet Control

Reading View Mode

This release includes a new Reading View (View Only). When enabled, the document displayed within the control cannot be modified by the end-user. The Spreadsheet control's built in Ribbon is transformed into a custom toolbar with lightweight rendering.

ASP.NET Spreadsheet Control - Reading View | DevExpress

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Client-Side API Enhancements

New client-side events include:

  • CellBeginEdit
  • CellEndEdit
  • CellCancelEdit
  • ProtectionWarning

We've also implemented new client-side methods that allow you to set the active editor's value, apply or cancel cell editing, check edit mode, obtain a cell's boundaries and detect the active sheet name.

Blog Post  Demo

 

Stateless Mode

With our new stateless option, you can maintain document state in external storage. A ready-to-use Redis and SQL examples are included.

 

TreeList Control

Batch Editing

Our ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC TreeList controls support data editing in batch mode. Batch modifications allow you to eliminate unnecessary server updates and speed TreeList's performance.

ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC TreeList - Batch Editing | DevExpress

Demo  Documentation

 

ASP.NET Bootstrap Controls v18.1

New Scheduler Control

v18.1 ships with our new ASP.NET Bootstrap Scheduler control. Its features include:

  • Day View, Work and Full Week Views, Week and Month Views, Timeline and Agenda Views
  • Group by Date and Resource
  • Custom Edit Form, Custom Appointments
  • Time Zones, Reminders and Resource Sharing
  • Adaptive Layout
  • Data Export and Printing
  • Integrated standalone controls: Date and Resource Navigators, View Navigator and View Selector

Demo

 

CardView Control

Header Filter - Instant Find

v18.1 introduces a simple and quick way to find column filter values. The Find Panel allows users to enter a search string and initiate a search against all filter values displayed in the header dropdown.

Demo

 

Chart Control

ASP.NET Boostrap Sparkline Control

The DevExpress Bootstrap Sparkline control allows you to display a single series chart within containers such as our Grid control. Its features include:

  • 8 sparkline types.
  • Numerous appearance options.
  • Flexible data binding.

Demo

 

Editors

ASP.NET Bootstrap ListBox - Filtering

The DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap List Box can now filter data. The integrated Find Panel allows users to enter a search string and initiate a search against all items.

Demo

 

ASP.NET Bootstrap ListBox - SelectAll

End-users can now select all items using the 'Select All' check box.

Demo

 

GridView Control

Bands

With this release, our Bootstrap Grid View control supports column header and data cell bands.

  • Column Header bands allow you to arrange column headers across multiple rows.
  • Data cell bands allow you to create banded data row layouts allowing cells to occupy multiple rows.

Demo

 

Cell Merging

Much like Microsoft Excel, the Grid's cell merging option allows you to improve usability by avoiding the duplication of common information. Neighboring data cells across different rows can be merged whenever they display matching values.

Demo

 

Column Resizing

End-users can now resize grid columns by dragging a column header's border.

Demo

 

Merged Column Grouping

Our ASP.NET Bootstrap GridView now includes a 'Merge Column Groups' mode. In this mode, you can merge grouped columns by dragging the appropriate column header(s) to the group panel and arrange them across a line.

ASP.NET Core Bootstrap GridView - Merged Column Grouping | DevExpress

Demo

 

Header Filter - Instant Find

v18.1 introduces a simple and quick way to find column filter values. The Find Panel allows users to enter a search string and initiate a search against all filter values displayed in the header dropdown.

ASP.NET Bootstrap GridView Control - Header Instant Find | DevExpress

Demo

 

Layout Control

Groups and Tabbed Groups

With this release, our Bootstrap Form Layout supports layout groups and tabbed layout groups.

  • Layout groups serve as containers for layout items and other groups. A layout group can be displayed as a card with caption and borders.
  • Tabbed layout groups are tabbed containers for layout items and groups.

Demo

 

DevExtreme JavaScript Controls v18.1

Angular Components

Server Side Rendering (SSR)

DevExtreme Angular components utilize the Angular Renderer for DOM manipulations (like native Angular components). You can use our components within Angular Universal apps (rendered on both the client and server-side).

Server Side Rendering, Angular | DevExtreme

Blog Post  Documentation  Demo

 

Data Grid & Tree List

Performance and UX Enhancements

This release includes the following performance enhancements:

  • Virtual Column Rendering: In this mode, the grid can render and scroll thousands of columns without performance loss. Documentation

    Demo  Blog Post

  • Virtual Row Rendering: Speeds grid performance when working with large page sizes and using the Pager or Virtual Scrolling. Documentation

    Demo

  • Improved performance for fixed columns and column auto width.

DevExtreme Data Grid - Render Performance | DevExpress
* the columnRenderingMode option is set to 'virtual'
** the rowRenderingMode option is set to 'virtual'


We've also made virtual scrolling scenarios more user-friendly:

  • We've removed the 'empty space' while scrolling a DataGrid in virtual mode with local data.
  • Loading Indication (scrolling with remote data in virtual mode).
 

Integrated Filter Builder

Our Data Grid now includes an integrated Filter Builder. The built-in Filter Builder gives you and your users more granular control over filter construction. The Filter Builder displays filter criteria as a tree structure, where nodes represent simple filter conditions.

DevExtreme Data Grid - Integrated Filter Builder

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Built-in Icons for Editing Command Column

v18.1 introduces an icon mode for the Data Grid and TreeList editing command columns.

DevExtreme Data Grid - Editing Column Icons

Demo  Documentation

 

Tree List - Record Paging

The DevExtreme Tree List can now split data across pages. Our integrated pager allows end-users to navigate records page-by-page. End-users can also modify page size.

DevExtreme TreeList- Record Paging

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Tree List - State Management

Our Tree List component can now save and restore layout information. This information can include the visibility and size of visual elements, their appearance settings, filter and sorting information, etc.

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Data Visualization

Client-Side Data Aggregation

DevExtreme Charts v18.1 now supports the following data aggregation usage scenarios:

  • Built-in Data Aggregation (avg, sum, range, ohlc, count, min, max);
  • Custom Aggregation Functions;
  • Ability to specify aggregation intervals;
  • Ability to obtain an aggregated point and it’s original source points;
  • Configure aggregation at a series level or for the entire chart.

Client-Side Data Aggregation | DevExtreme

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Bar Width and Spacing

New customization enhancements include:

  • Ability to specify different bar widths for different bar series within a chart.

    Custom Bar Width

  • Ability to adjust spacing between bar groups (two neighboring ticks).

  • Fix the width of a bar or bar group (in pixels).

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Palette Extension Modes

This release includes a new 'paletteExtensionMode' option that allows you to extend a Chart control's color palette. This option uses an algorithm that calculates extra colors. The following modes are available:

  • Alternate

  • Extrapolate

  • Blend

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Localization

Localization Related Enhancements

We have published our built-in localization API. You can now localize strings and apply supported formats to numbers, dates, and currencies without the use of any external localization library.

Demo  Documentation

 

MVC Controls

CRUD API Scaffolding for Visual Studio

This release ships with the DevExtreme Scaffolder for Visual Studio. The DevExtreme Scaffolder can generate ASP.NET MVC/Core API Controllers with CRUD actions - actions that can be consumed by any client-side application (including web and native mobile apps). We've also integrated our DevExtreme ASP.NET server-side data library into API controllers, and enabled all key server-side features (sorting, filtering, grouping, etc.)

CRUD API Scaffolding for Visual Studio | DevExpress

Documentation  Blog Post

 

CRUD Razor View Scaffolding for Visual Studio

The DevExtreme Scaffolder can now generate Razor Views and Razor Pages with pre-configured DevExtreme ASP.NET MVC Controls bound to ASP.NET back-end API.

The following controls are available to scaffold:

  • Data Grid
  • Tree List

You can also specify the CRUD operations available within the generated view.

CRUD Razor View Scaffolding for Visual Studio | DevExpress

Documentation  Blog Post

 

Pivot Grid

Apply Layout Changes on Demand

We have extended our PivotGrid API to improve performance when operating with large volumes of data. With this release, you can configure our Pivot Grid to apply layout changes after a user has completed the configuration process.

Demo  Documentation

 

React Components

React Grid - Tree View Mode

The DevExtreme React Grid now supports a Tree View mode. In this mode, the grid can display hierarchical data (a tree-like data source, a plain list with a parent-id reference or any custom structure with manual transformation into a tree) and leverage built-in data management features (sorting, filtering, editing and record selection).

React Grid - Tree View Mode | DevExtreme

Demo  Documentation  Blog Post

 

React Grid - Column Bands

Our React Data Grid ships with a new Bands plugin. You can hide, display and reorder entire column sets instead of performing the same operation on each individual column.

React Grid - Column Bands | DevExtreme

Demo and Documentation  Blog Post

 

DevExtreme React Wrappers (CTP)

This release ships with more than 65 new React components (based on our existing DevExtreme widgets). This includes Charts, DataGrid, Scheduler, PivotGrid, and many others. The feature set, functionality and appearance of these React components are the same as their DevExtreme counterparts.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Scheduler

Appointment Grouping Enhancements

Our DevExtreme Scheduler control can display appointment groups as rows within views with static titles.

DevExtreme Scheduler - Appointment Grouping

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Context Menu API

The DevExtreme Scheduler now includes a straightforward Context Menu API. This new API allows you to create and customize context (popup) menus, assign menus to appointments and empty cells.

Blog Post  Demo  Documentation

 

Themes

Material Design Theme

v18.1 includes a new Material Design theme based upon Google Guidelines. Our new theme can be customized via the DevExtreme Theme Builder.

Material Design Theme | DevExtreme

Demo  Blog Post

 

Bootstrap 4 Support

v18.1 announces Bootstrap 4 support. All DevExtreme components can be used in applications with Bootstrap 4.

You can also import colors from Bootstrap 4 themes to DevExtreme themes.

 

TypeScript

TypeScript Enhancements

DevExtreme API now uses TypeScript String and Numeric Literal Types.

 

UI Widgets

Filter Builder Enhancements

The following features have been added to the DevExtreme Filter Builder:

  • New Between filter operator;
  • Custom filter operations.

Demo  Documentation

 

Form - New 'Button' Item

Our new 'Button' item makes it significantly easier to add/customize the buttons used on your forms.

DevExtreme Form - Buttons

Demo  Documentation

 

Form - Range Slider Editor

The DevExtreme Range Slider can now be used to edit Form field values.

Form - Range Slider Editor | DevExtreme

 

Vue Components

DevExtreme Vue Wrappers (CTP)

v18.1 introduces Vue support. All DevExtreme JavaScript widgets are now available as Vue components.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Native Vue Data Grid (CTP)

We now offer a native Data Grid component for VueJS as part of our DevExtreme Reactive Components offering. Native Bootstrap rendering, seamless theming, and all core features are now available for use for those targeting Vue.​

Native Vue Data Grid | DevExtreme

Demo  Documentation

 

.NET Reporting v18.1

Reporting - All Platforms

Document Generation Performance Improvements

With v18.1 release, we have managed to improve performance and memory handling when creating very large reports.

The new component 'CachedReportSource' stores document pages in the file system or in a database during document generation. This decreases memory consumption when creating very large documents — in fact, with the new component, the size of a document is limited largely by the available storage space, with memory consumption increasing only slowly with very large page numbers.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

.NET Core Support (CTP)

Because of our decision to support .NET Standard 2.0, you can create ASP.NET Core applications that target both .NET Framework and .NET Core (with a few documented restrictions).

Use our new Project Template Item to create an ASP.NET Core Reporting application with both a Document Viewer and Web Report Designer.

.NET Reporting - Project Template for ASP.NET Core Apps | DevExpress

We've also introduced a new "DevExpress v18.1 Report (.NET Standard)" Item Template. This template adds a blank XML report to your project. Once you have added this item to your project, Visual Studio will automatically add a dependency to the DevExpress.Reporting.Core NuGet package. Double-click this report in Visual Studio to invoke a modal window with our Report Designer.

.NET Reporting - Project Template | DevExpress

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Cross-Tab Report Enhancements

If a pivot grid spans more than one page horizontally, you can set a new option and print row headings on every page.

DevExpress Reporting - Table and Cross-Tab Enhancements

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Designer Enhancements

New Report Designer enhancements include:

  • Resizing table columns and rows proportionally: When you include tables in your reports, you can now use new context menu commands to set the same size for multiple rows and columns (much like similar table formatting commands in Microsoft Word). Documentation
  • Adjusting label size and label content: Two new context menu commands are available to automatically adjust label size and their content. Documentation
  • Ability to fit an image, rich text or any other control into a parent container (e.g., a table cell) and position the control correctly within the container. Documentation
  • Line Widths are now provided in pixels. The type used for XRLine.LineWidth property has changed (from Int32 to Single). Line width is now considered a pixel value (not a value in report units). Documentation
  • Smart copy/paste operations: When you copy report controls to the clipboard and then paste them to a new container or band, the original positions of the controls are preserved. Documentation

Blog Post

 

XRTable - Improved Hidden Column Processing

The XRTable control can now recalculate its width whenever a column is hidden instead of leaving an empty space in the final output. You can choose between various redistribution modes to generate the desired table layout.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Web Reporting

ASP.NET MVC - New Query Builder

Our new ASP.NET MVC Query Builder allows an end-user to visually construct queries using our UI controls. This saves the end-user from learning and writing SQL statements. Once the queries are built, you can apply those queries to existing DevExpress controls like the ASP.NET MVC GridView. This places the power of ad-hoc querying at your user's fingertips.

.NET Reporting - ASP.NET MVC Query Builder | DevExpress

Blog Post  Documentation

 

HTML5 Reporting Controls - Web Farm and Web Garden Support

The DevExpress HTML5 Document Viewer and End-User Report Designer can now work in Web Farm and Web Garden environments.

Documentation

 

HTML5 Document Viewer - Display Remote Documents

The DevExpress HTML5 Document Viewer can now display documents created with our Report Server (Report Server is an enterprise reporting platform and must be purchased/licensed separately).

Documentation

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Our Web Report Designer can now validate expression/data bindings specified for report controls, and indicate errors.

Validate expression/data bindings

Documentation


Syntax highlighting for SELECT statements.

.NET Reporting - Syntax Highlighting | DevExpress


The Expression Editor now supports function descriptions (hints).

.NET Reporting - Expression Editor Function Hints | DevExpress


Miscellaneous enhancements include:

  • Ability to rename the data source component.
  • The XRTable control can span cells across multiple rows.
  • HTML5 Document Viewer: Clicking a TOC item automatically selects the corresponding item in the Document Map.
 

WinForms Reporting

End-User Report Designer UX Enhancements

Contextual Tabs inspired by Microsoft Office: Contextual Tabs often display context specific commands, and as such, they don't need to be on constant display (they are displayed only when a specific object is selected or when an end-user performs a specific action).

Documentation


Docking Light View

WinForms Dock Windows - Light View | DevExpress


The Ribbon Style Gallery displays available report styles. End-users can assign any style to selected controls.

.NET Reporting - Ribbon Style Gallery | DevExpress


The Property Grid's Favorites Tab allows end-users to specify their favorite or most frequently used properties.

.NET Reporting - Favorite Properties | DevExpress

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Page Setup Dialog - Custom Paper Size

With this release, our Page Setup Dialog (Print Preview, Report Designer) allows you to specify custom paper size.

 

Enhanced Filter Editor

We've improved the usability of our Filter Editor (when building filter criteria in Text Mode). New enhancements include:

  • Intelligent Code Completion
  • Column and Function Tooltips
  • Input Validation and Error Indication

Documentation

 

Duplex Printing

You no longer need to write any code for duplex printing. The following built-in modes are now available:

  • Flip on Long Edge
  • Flip on Short Edge

.NET Reporting - Duplex Printing | DevExpress

 

WPF Reporting

End-User Report Designer UX Enhancements

  • Contextual Tabs inspired by Microsoft Office: Contextual Tabs often display context specific commands, and as such, they don't need to be on constant display (they are displayed only when a specific object is selected or when an end-user performs a specific action). Documentation
  • The Ribbon Style Gallery displays available report styles. End-users can assign any style to selected controls.
  • The Property Grid's Favorites Tab allows end-users to specify their favorite or most frequently used properties. Documentation
 

Page Setup Dialog - Custom Paper Size

With this release, our Page Setup Dialog (Print Preview, Report Designer) allows you to specify custom paper size.

 

Office-Inspired Property Grid

To improve usability, our WPF Report Designer ships with an Office-inspired Report Properties Panel.

WPF Reporting - Office-Inspired Property Grid | DevExpress

Documentation

 

WPF Backstage Print Preview Control

We've implemented a new Print Preview control that replicates the Print screen available in Microsoft Office. This new control can be incorporated into a BackstageView based Ribbon Menu with ease.

.NET Reporting - WPF Backstage Print Preview Control | DevExpress

Documentation

 

Duplex Printing

You no longer need to write any code for duplex printing. The following built-in modes are now available:

  • Flip on Long Edge
  • Flip on Short Edge
 

Document Scaling

This release introduces document scaling for our WPF Data Grid, TreeList, Pivot Grid and Chart controls. Scaling allows you scale down an oversized control to fit the paper's width, or scale up the control to print it across multiple sheets of paper.

 

Analytics Dashboard v18.1

WPF Dashboard Viewer

We are proud to announce our new Dashboard Viewer for WPF. It ships with the same visualization feature as that of its WinForms counterpart. The DevExpress WPF Dashboard Viewer supports asynchronous data loading, templates, and DevExpress Visual Themes.

DevExpress Dashboard Viewer for WPF

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Web Dashboard

Mobile Layout

Our Dashboard Mobile Layout was first released as a community preview in December, 2017. The produce is now out of beta and can be used in commercial applications.

DevExpress Web Dashboard - Mobile View

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Create Calculated Fields from Binding Menu

End-users can now create Calculated Fields directly from a Dashboard Item's Binding Menu.

DevExpress Web Dashboard - Calculated Fields

Documentation

 

.NET Core Support

With this release, the DevExpress Web Dashboard can be used in ASP.NET Core applications. Our Web Dashboard for ASP.NET Core supports full .NET Framework runtime and the modern .NET Core runtime - allowing you to host your applications on both Mac and Linux PCs.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Web Dashboard Designer - SQL Syntax Highlighting

To simplify usage, we've added SQL syntax highlighting to our Dashboard's Query Viewer and Editor.

 

WinForms Dashboard

Filter Editor Enhancements

With this release, our WinForms Dashboard Filter Editor has a textual pane with AutoComplete and Syntax Highlighting. This pane displays syntax errors, and allows end-users to use functions when building filter criteria.

Documentation

 

Dashboard Title and Caption Enhancements

With this release, we have added new customization capabilities. You can now add your own command buttons or dropdown lists to incorporate custom functionality.

Documentation

 

Dashboard Viewer - SVG Icons

To help improve rendering on High-DPI screens, we've replaced all raster icons with SVG icons within the DevExpress WinForms Dashboard Viewer.

 

Data Processing

Performance Enhancements

This release includes a number of data processing and calculation related enhancements. The multi-core data processing engine we introduced in our previous release can now be used for the following features/calculations:

  • TopN Mode;
  • Calculations with AGGR() Function;
  • Sorting by Summary.
 

Visualization

Display a Dashboard Item Full Screen

End-users can now expand dashboard items to populate the entire dashboard. Supported platforms include: WinForms, WPF and Web Dashboard (ASP.NET Web Forms, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Core and Client).

Documentation

 

Report & Dashboard Server v18.1

A More Modern Administrative Panel and Localization Support (CTP)

The DevExpress Report and Dashboard Server ships with a new Administrative Panel UI, with localization support.

Report Server - A New Administrative Panel UI | DevExpress

Report Server Language Settings | DevExpress

Documentation

 

Office File API v18.1

PDF Document API

DirectX Rendering (Beta)

With this release, both our PDF Viewer for WinForms and PDF Document API support DirectX rendering:

  • Performance boost for common usage scenarios
  • High-quality text rendering (GDI uses integer coordinates for glyph positioning) and improved text antialiasing (especially for Type 1 fonts).

    PDF - Text Antialiasing | DevExpress

  • Support for all blend modes.

    PDF – Blend Modes | DevExpress

  • Support for all text rendering modes (e.g. using the text as a clip region for a drawing).

To use DirectX rendering, activate one of the following options:

  • PDF Document API: enable the 'PdfDocumentProcessor.RenderPageContentWithDirectX' option;
  • WinForms PDF Viewer: enable the 'PdfViewer.RenderPageContentWithDirectX' option;

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Spreadsheet Document API

Spreadsheet Shapes

With this release, you can load, print and export to PDF worksheets that contain shapes.

Blog Post

 

Improved Chart Printing and Data Export

Our Spreadsheet Document API can now print and export (to PDF) worksheets with charts that contain series points with custom colors applied.

Blog Post

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Automatic Document Format Identification: With this release, if a document is loaded from a file without specifying its format, we automatically identify the document format based on its content (regardless of filename extension).

Our Spreadsheet Document API now includes its own Print method and no longer require the DevExpress.XtraPrinting library to print documents. You can print an entire Workbook or individual Sheet using default or custom printer settings.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Word Processing Document API

Microsoft Word Inspired Formatting and Layout

With this release, we've enhanced both layout and formatting accuracy when printing and exporting documents to PDF.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Checkbox Form Fields

With this release, our Word (RTF) Document API library supports checkbox form fields. You can create checkbox form fields, change their state and size, print and export to PDF and HTML.

Documentation

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Automatic Document Format Identification: With this release, if a document is loaded from a file or stream, we automatically identify its format based on its content. Documentation

Our Word Document API now includes its own Print method and no longer requires the use of the DevExpress.XtraPrinting library to print documents. You can print documents using default or custom printer settings. Documentation

 

XAF - App Framework v18.1

ASP.NET Enhancements

New Lookup Property Editor (CTP)

With this release, XAF reference properties can be edited using the ASPxGridLookupPropertyEditor. This editor is based on the DevExpress ASP.NET Grid Lookup control. Features include:

  • Multiple column support
  • Server mode
  • Incremental search capabilities
  • Data filtering support
  • Data sorting, and much more.

XAF - Lookup Property Editor | DevExpress

Documentation  Blog Post

 

Concurrent Record Updates Merging

With this release, ASP.NET Web Forms XAF applications can handle concurrent record updates by merging simultaneous changes (by two or more different users).

XAF - Concurrent Record Updates Merging | DevExpress

Documentation

 

Mobile Platform Enhancements

Mobile Report Viewer (CTP)

This release ships with our new Mobile Report Viewer. The Report Viewer allows end users to view (and download) reports on mobile devices.

XAF - Mobile Report Viewer | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Layout Enhancements

XAF's DetailView layout integrates DevExtreme Form and Accordion widgets - allowing you to configure tabs and collapsible layout groups. As a result, designing forms with complex data layouts and supporting apps for wide screens is now much easier.

Additionally, our MobileImagePropertyEditor allows you to change its image in Edit mode.

XAF - Layout Enhancements | DevExpress

 

Security System Enhancements

Security Diagnostics Tool

Our Security Diagnostic Tool helps you learn more about why access to a specific object and its members was granted or denied.

Documentation  Blog Post

 

WinForms UI Improvements

New Office-inspired Word Processing Module (CTP)

XAF v18.1 introduces a new reusable word-processing module. This module integrates the DevExpress WinForms Rich Text Editor - allowing end-users to create, load, change, print, save and convert documents in different formats.

XAF - Office-inspired Word Processing Module | DevExpress

Documentation  Blog Post

 

SVG Icons

With this release, the following visual elements support SVG images:

  • Main menu and context menus
  • Detail View layout groups and tabs
  • Built-in property editors
  • Form templates, etc

To obtain the entire list of visual elements that support vector images, refer to the following article.

XAF - SVG Icons | DevExpress

Blog Post

 

Data Access v18.1

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL - Display materialized views in the list of tables

 

SQL Data Source

SQL Data Source Filtering Enhancements

Our updated Filter Editor allows you to use various functions when specifying filter criteria for SqlDataSource. These functions are available in our new text mode and include the following features:

  • Intelligent Code Completion
  • Column and Function Tooltips
  • Input Validation and Error Indication

You can open the extended Filter Editor from both the Query Builder and from the Property Grid (for filter string and group filter string).

 

XPO - ORM Library

Available Free-of-Charge without Technical Support

With v18.1 release, we're making XPO available free-of-charge. Blog Post

 

PostgreSql 3.1 Support

XPO now supports Npgsql v3.1. System.Guid properties are mapped to the UUID database column type by default. To revert to previous behavior and map System.Guid properties to CHAR(36), activate the GlobalUseLegacyGuidSupport or UseLegacyGuidSupport options (PostgreSqlConnectionProvider).

 

Firebird 3.0 Support

FirebirdConnectionProvider now supports:

  • Firebird 3.0 Server
  • Client ADO.NET data provider (FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient 5.8.0);
  • Criteria Functions for Firebird 2.1+ (Substring, AddMonths, AddYears, CharIndex, Round, Remove, Insert, Exp, Power and Replace)

Documentation

 

Nullable Columns

We've extended our core APIs (e.g. Session, XpoDefault, XPDictionary, ORM Data Model Wizard) with new options that allow columns to accept Null values.

You can also use ColumnDefaultValue, ColumnDbDefaultValue, Nullable, NullableBehavior code attributes and specify the required behavior declaratively.

 

.NET Core Enhancements

XPO now supports the following:

  • ADO.NET provider 5.11+ for Firebird.
  • Oracle Data Provider for .NET Core 12.2 Beta 2.
  • XPO Profiler supports ASP.NET Core projects. Lean more
  • Dependency Injection for ASP.NET Core projects. We've implemented new extension methods for the standard IServiceCollection interface to register XPO services for the ASP.NET Core pipeline.

Blog Post

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

  • The ORM Data Model Wizard, ORM Persistent Object, ORM OData Service project and item templates are available in the DevExpress Template Gallery.
  • Table lists can be fetched from an ASA (SQL Anywhere) database.
  • We have optimized our Oracle connection providers. OracleDecimal columns are now processed up to 5 times faster.
  • ContainsOperator or 'Any of' Aggregate for the WcfInstantFeedbackSource / WcfServerModeSource and ODataServerModeSource / ODataInstantFeedbackSource components (DevExpress Data Library).

LINQ to XPO improvements include:

  • A second Select can be applied to a joined table.
  • The 'Equals' operator has been replaced with 'IsNull' operator.
  • Expression Injections (e.g. PersistentObject.CollectionProperty.AsQueryable().Any(SomeExpression)).
 

CodeRush for Visual Studio v18.1

Code Formatting

Simple Wrap

The new 'Simple Wrap' formatting option allows you to configure wrapping of only those line parts that exceed the margin, performing a non-greedy wrapping and adding a minimal number of line breaks.

Code Formatting - DevExpress | CodeRush

 

Auto Format Code

We have added new options to Auto Format code as you type (after pressing the } and ; keys).

Auto Format Code - DevExpress | CodeRush

 

Extended Formatting Options

We extended code formatting options with the following settings:

  • Bitwise operators (&, |, and ^), Relational operators (==, !=, <, >, <=, and >=), null-coalescing operator ("??"), base types list and constructor initializer now have individual wrapping and spacing options.

    Extended Formatting Options - DevExpress | CodeRush

  • Removal of Excessive Line Breaks.

    Extended Formatting Options - DevExpress | CodeRush

  • Blank line configuration options for #region directives.

  • Separate Line Break configuration options before "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" keywords.

Documentation

 

Code Templates

Selection to Template

We have added the ability to create a template right from your code using a context menu. Select the code to become a template, right-click and choose Selection to Template...

Selection to Template - DevExpress | CodeRush

CodeRush automatically creates Links and Fields based on the selected code and opens the new template in the Template Editor.

Selection to Template - DevExpress | CodeRush

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Use Type in Templates

You can now easily include any type in the CodeRush templates system as a Template Name Variable. Just right-click the type anywhere it appears in the Visual Studio editor and choose Use Type in Templates....

Use Type in Templates - DevExpress | CodeRush

After adding the new type, it will instantly become available in all type-aware templates, including declaration verbs like "m" (for methods), "p" (for properties), "q" for constants, "t" (for types) and "v" (for variables).

Documentation

 

Template Duplication

Now you can create new templates based on existing templates. Just right-click the template you want to duplicate (in the Templates options page), and select "Create Duplicate". Enter a new template name, and change the expansion or context as needed.

Template Duplication - DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

Smart Duplicate Line Improvements

Smart Duplicate Line (SDL) gets even smarter and morphs into Smart Duplicate Selection (SDS). You can now press Shift + Enter to duplicate the selected code block. SDS duplicates the selection, placing text fields around the code - parts likely to change in the duplication.

Smart Duplicate Line Improvements - DevExpress | CodeRush

This feature can be used in any language Visual Studio supports. You can use SDS to duplicate CSS styles, HTML controls, parameters in method declarations, binary expressions, arguments, string constants and entire method blocks. Smart Duplicate Selection will also remember changes you make in each file and suggest those same changes in similar duplications you perform in the same file.

Blog Post  Documentation

 

Layered Options

CodeRush now stores your settings in Layers, which allow you to bind settings to a particular solution and team, in addition to personal preferences which can serve as defaults (unless overridden by team/solution settings) or, if needed, personal settings can override team/solution settings.

You can use this feature to create solution-dependent options and share them with your entire team. These options are applied automatically to all team members using CodeRush when the solution is open.

DevExpress | CodeRush

 

Code Analysis

Code Metrics

Code Metrics now support a Threshold Value setting that determines when the metric appears and when/if the metric contributes to code analysis. This allows code analysis to report members that exceed your specified complexity thresholds.

DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

Code Issues Catalog

CodeRush Analyzers now appear in the Code Issues Catalog. You can use this options page for the following tasks:

  • Enable/disable specific Code Issues.
  • Add/remove Code Issues to/from Visual Studio's background analysis.
  • Specify the severity of each Code Issue.

DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

Refactorings and Code Providers

Invert Selection

The Invert Selection code provider inverts selected lines of code in a variety of ways:

  • Assignments (a = bb = a)
  • Boolean literals (truefalse)
  • Addition/substraction assignments (a += ba -= b)
  • Equality operators (==!=)

DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

Remove Unused Assembly References

We have added the ability to remove unused assembly references from your projects, accessible through the project's right-click context menu:

DevExpress | CodeRush for Roslyn

Documentation

 

Unit Test Runner

.NET Memory Profiler Integration

You can now run unit tests under SciTech Software’s .NET Memory Profiler. If this third-party product is installed, you can use the Run Under Memory Profiler option to run tests designed to identify memory leaks and other memory usage issues.

DevExpress | CodeRush

 

F# Support

CodeRush Test Runner now supports running tests created for the F# language.

 

Test Runner UX Enhancements

  • The Test Runner's Results section and Test Runner hints now let you select and copy expected and actual values.

    DevExpress | CodeRush

  • We have improved the Test Runner Window filtering capabilities.

 

Code Style

Default Visibility Modifier

You can now change the default visibility modifier CodeRush uses for generated members.

DevExpress | CodeRush

This setting is used by Declaration Providers, Templates and other features that generate new members from scratch.

Documentation

 

Optional Parentheses

There's a new Code Style option that lets you set preferences for adding clarifying (but optional) parentheses to your code.

DevExpress | CodeRush

 

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Feature Advisor

The Feature Advisor introduces CodeRush features likely to improve your coding efficiency based on the ways you create and modify code in the editor.

DevExpress | CodeRush

Blog Post

 

Region Creation

Press Ctrl+3 to automatically create a region around the current member or selection instantly.

DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

Right Margin Line

The Right Margin Line can help you keep code lines from getting too long or exceeding style guidelines. The margin serves as a visual indicator showing lines that have overrun the specified line length.

DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

XML Support

The following features support XML markup language now:

 

Filtering in Jump To Members

Type, member, and access filtering is now available for the Jump To Members navigation feature.

DevExpress | CodeRush

Documentation

 

VCL Controls v18.1

New Object-Relational Mapping Tool (Beta)

The VCL ExpressEntityMapping Framework is an object-relational mapping (ORM) tool that simplifies data access and management by converting relational data into objects, properties, and collections for use in code. With this tool, you can query data and implement business logic using entity models and an object-oriented approach instead of handling the low-level data access and constructing/executing SQL statements manually.

DevExpress VCL Object-Relational Mapping Tool

The ExpressEntityMapping Framework ships with the following features:

  • Support for the Code-First, Database-First, and Model-First approaches to application development;
  • A standalone application that helps you design entity models in a visual fashion, and generate classes based on them;
  • Transparent and controllable object-relational mapping via built-in attributes or registration functions;
  • Support for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Firebird, SQLite, and Microsoft Access database engines;
  • Comprehensive database generation, updates, and integrity validation based on definitions of your entity classes;
  • Advanced support for existing databases with the capability to prohibit changing their schemas;
  • Data access using FireDAC and dbGo ADO connection components – no additional connections are required in your existing applications;
  • A dataset component allowing you to bind entity objects to data-aware controls;
  • Easy-to-build object queries allowing you to retrieve, sort, and filter data using LINQ expressions, object-based criteria syntax, or plain text, including calculated conditions and a wide set of criteria operators and functions;
  • An advanced parser supporting a database-independent criteria string syntax;
  • Support for ordinal, real, enumerated, and Nullable types, string fields/properties of unlimited size, and BLOB data serialization;
  • Custom object identifiers (keys) allowing you to mark a field/property of any supported data type as a key by a corresponding attribute;
  • IEnumerable and IEnumerable<T> object collections and LINQ expression results.

DevExpress VCL Object-Relational Mapping Tool

 

Ribbon and Toolbars

This release adds the following enhancements:

  • A new Search Toolbar that follows the ribbon tabs displayed in the tab area;
  • A new editor that allows end-users to search toolbar/ribbon commands by their captions and display search results in a drop-down window. This editor is designed for use in two use-case scenarios: either standalone or when embedded in toolbars or ribbon groups. When embedded in the new Search Toolbar, the editor allows you to mimic the 'Tell Me' box available in modern Microsoft Office applications.

DevExpress VCL Ribbon and Toolbars

 

Data Export – Improved Performance

With this release, we've improved our data export engine’s performance and optimized memory usage when exporting data.

  • Grid Views without master-detail data presentation are now exported up to 8 times faster and use up to 4 times less memory than in previous releases.
  • The TreeList control’s data export is up to 9 times faster and consumes up to 13 times less memory when compared to previous versions.
  • XLSX export compresses XML files and streams compressed data to the resulting file without storing temporary XML files in memory.
 

Grid Control

Improved Customization Options

We've improved the quick band/column customization functionality with:

  • A three-state check box allowing users to toggle the checked state of all items on the list;
  • A check box allowing users to sort items alphabetically;
  • Ability to switch the checked state of selected items by pressing the Space key;
  • Ability to select multiple items by pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse pointer over them. In addition, end-users can hold down the Ctrl key to invert the selection and thus select non-contiguous items.

DevExpress VCL Grid Control - Improved Customization Options

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

  • We've added the ability to manage and apply conditional formatting rules in the Layout and Data Editor at design time.
  • The indicator cell for a row now displays a new icon in response to displaying an in-place Edit Form.
 

Hybrid Touch-Friendly Scrolling

With this release, we've added a scrollbar mode similar to that found in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that run on Windows 10. This mode is a hybrid of the classic mode and the touch-friendly scrollbar mode introduced in v17.2. In the new mode, the scrollbar thumb appears when an end-user hovers the mouse pointer over a control or scrolls through its content. Hovering the mouse pointer over the scrollbar thumb or its movement path transforms the thumb to a traditional scrollbar.

Moving the mouse pointer away from the scrollbar reduces it back to the thumb. The thumb disappears if the mouse pointer is stationary or the control is not scrolled for some time.

You can enable the new scrollbar mode by switching the corresponding option in a skin (or look&feel) controller.

DevExpress VCL Hybrid Touch-Friendly Scrolling

 

PDF Viewer

Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

The VCL PDF Viewer now allows you to display bookmarks within its Navigation pane for PDF documents that include bookmarked sections. This release also adds support for hyperlinks (both external links and links to specific parts in a loaded document).

DevExpress VCL PDF Viewer - Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

 

Page Thumbnail Navigation

With v18.1, we've added navigation by page thumbnails. Page thumbnails represent miniature previews of document pages. The Page Thumbnails panel located in the Navigation pane allows end-users to do the following:

  • Navigate through the document by clicking page thumbnails;
  • Enlarge or reduce the thumbnail size;
  • Select thumbnails using mouse clicks combined with the Shift or Ctrl key;
  • Print pages which correspond to selected thumbnails.

DevExpress VCL PDF Viewer - Page Thumbnail Navigation

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements

  • Multi-threaded content rendering improves performance when scrolling, zooming, or rotating pages;
  • The PDF Viewer can now display a 'Locked View' image when opening a PDF document. This is especially useful for large documents.
 

Scheduler Control

Google and Microsoft Office Calendars

v18.1 introduces a storage component that allows users to create, display, or modify appointments on Google and Microsoft Office calendars.

Accessing calendar data requires that you obtain OAuth 2.0 credentials for your application and specify them via the new authorization components introduced in this release.

DevExpress VCL Scheduler Control

 

Agenda View

Appointments can now be rearranged using drag and drop.

 

Skins Library

Vector (SVG) Skins

v18.1 adds full support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) skins. The release ships with a new skin (The Bezier) first introduced in our WinForms product line and which is based entirely on SVG images. This new skin allows our VCL controls to look perfect on any screen with any DPI settings. The Bezier is the first skin that ships with UI elements that allow users to change the skin palette and instantly re-paint the entire skin at runtime. You can choose from dozens of unique palette presets or easily create a custom palette to apply a corporate style to your application.

 

Skin Editor Enhancements

This release adds the following enhancements:

  • The new tabbed MDI UI simplifies the manner in which you switch between skins and their elements.
  • The Project Manager and tabs allow you to reorder skins in a project using drag and drop and Move Up/Down buttons.
  • A Find Panel allows you to quickly locate skin elements in product groups.

DevExpress VCL Skin Editor

 

TreeList Control

Node Filtering

The VCL TreeList control now provides the following node filtering options:

  • The end-user ability to build filter criteria using the Filter Control component (TcxFilterControl).
  • A new Filter property allowing you to programmatically specify filter criteria.
  • A new OnFilterNode event enabling you to dynamically filter out individual nodes.

DevExpress VCL TreeList Control - Node Filtering

 

TreeList & Vertical Grid Controls

Find Panel

We've added the Find Panel functionality first seen in our Grid control to the TreeList and Vertical Grid controls. These controls offer numerous options to customize the display and behavior of the Find Panel.

DevExpress VCL TreeList and Vertical Grid - Find Panel