No release would be complete without a new set of app-wide themes for our WinForms users. 13.2 will ship with 3 new Visual Studio inspired themes (Blue, Light and Dark). The following is an example of the Visual Studio 2013 Blue Theme.

In addition to app-wide themes for WinForms, we've enhanced our design time experience (something a number of you have asked for) with Visual Studio Color Theme support across all our control designers. Once 13.2 is released, all of our designers can change skin settings to match those you've specified via Visual Studio's color theme. You'll be able to use this feature via the DevExpress menu in the IDE (DevExpress\WinForms\Use Visual Studio Color Theme in Control Designers). Here is an example of how the new themes is applied to the TreeList's custom node editor...

As many of you already know, 13.1 introduced Smart Tag support for our biggest WinForms control libraries (Bars, Grid, Docking, etc). 13.2 will extend this support across our product line including the controls that ship as part of the WinForms Data Editors Library (products such as BarCodeControl, ButtonEdit, CalcEdit, CheckButton, ComboBoxEdit, etc).

A stunning new ASP.NET theme is coming out in the next major DevExpress release, 13.2:

Moderno – Light & Sexy

This new theme is sexy. Yes, there I said it. It’s a sexy theme that feels light and fast.

What’s with the name?

We named it Moderno because it uses modern CSS3 techniques to draw many of the elements. And also because it has a clean modern look like our Metropolisthemes.

CSS3 – Less Images

CSS3 is the latest standard for CSS which provides benefits over older versions.

Benefits like borders, the ability to create rounded corners without images. Drawing boxes and shadows. With the other themes that do not use CSS3, we use images to draw many of those same great UI elements. Learn more here.

The new Moderno theme takes advantage of CSS3 to provide a clean, beautiful, and light theme.

More Padding

The padding sizes are bigger in Moderno so that the theme looks great on mobile devices too. And DevExpress ASP.NET controls have supported touch on mobile devices since 2011.

Check out the DevExpress ASP.NET GridView in Moderno:

I’m a big fan of this theme. And once you try it on your web projects then you will be too.

With our next major release (13.2), we have simplified the manner in which you are able to add custom and computed fields to existing business models. The functionality is available to both developers and end-users.

Once beta 1 is released, you can explore this new custom member functionality by exploring the FeatureCenter solution located in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\DXperience 13.2 Demos\eXpressApp Framework\FeatureCenter\CS folder.

Design time

As you know, XAF already offered the ability to create non-calculated persistent fields at design time using the Model Editor. In 13.2, we’ve extended the Application Model with an Expression attribute as illustrated in the image below.

When the Expression attribute has a value, XAF will create a calculated member or it will default to the creation of a persistent member. Additionally, you can create a complex expression such as the Sum of another custom field as illustrated below.

By design, XAF will not display these custom fields in any view since they were created manually after the Application Model was generated.

Runtime

The great thing is that in 13.2, end-users can use the runtime version of the Model Editor to create custom members and extend the business domain as discussed in the previous section.

The image below illustrates where to locate the custom member in the Windows version of our FeatureCenter (same location for the web).

To invoke the runtime Model Editor, end-users can execute the Edit Model action.

You may also want to restrict Application Model modification to certain user groups. You can do that as illustrated below.

Developers can restrict end-users from creating custom members at runtime by setting the static ModelMemberRequiredCalculator.AllowPersistentCustomProperties to false.

The Web Runtime

To create a custom member for the web, you can use the Standalone Model Editor and edit the Model.xafml file located in the root of the web-site.

Custom members are in their first release (CTP) so we look forward to your feedback as we get it ready for the official release. Let me know what you think.

I’m sure it goes without saying that we’ve all been horrified about the news from the Philippines this past couple of weeks. Typhoon Haiyan caused incredible damage throughout the Leyte and Samar islands (part of the Eastern Visayas), destroying much of the towns, cities, and infrastructure in those low-lying islands. Houses and buildings were flattened, obliterated. Millions of people were affected by the devastation, having lost their homes, possessions, loved ones, jobs; whereas thousands of people have died or are still missing (unremarkably in this kind of disaster, even now, 10 days later, no one knows for sure how many victims there are). Wikipedia, unsurprisingly, have an extremely good article already on the typhoon and the devastation it wrought, and I’d recommend reading it.

Needless to say, relief in the form of food, housing, money is pouring into the Philippines to try and help. We at DevExpress want to do our share and so we’ve set up an auction on EBay, proceeds from which will go directly to the Red Cross to provide aid to all the victims.

On the auction block then is a single user license to DevExpress Universal. Normally this goes for $2199.99, but this time you’re in the driving seat: all proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross’ Typhoon Haiyan Relief and Recovery Fund. So bid early and often. I’ve put in my bid, so watch out. (Do note: by winning you will also get some eBay bucks for the next quarter, so it’ll be like winning twice!)

Please consider helping out the Philippines by bidding on this item.

Check out the new DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control for WebForms and MVC in the upcoming 13.2 release:

Ribbon History

The Ribbon metaphor was popularized by Microsoft when they included it with the release of Office 2007:

With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 came the "Fluent User Interface" or "Fluent UI", which replaced menus and customizable toolbars with a single "Office menu", a miniature toolbar known as "quick-access toolbar" and what came to be known as the ribbon: Multiple tabs, each holding a toolbar bearing buttons and occasionally other controls. -Wikipedia

And DevExpress customers have been requesting a web version for many releases now. I'm happy to tell you that the new DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control delivers a stunning UI and great functionality that you'd find in a rich Ribbon control.

It's Responsive!

The DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control is responsive:

In the animated gif above, the ribbon is covered by ASPxPopupControl to demonstrate the ribbon responsive layout.

Features 

And, you can also set up these properties:

- AllowMinimize – specifies whether or not a ribbon control can be minimized. When this functionality is disabled, the minimize button is not displayed.
- ShowFileTab – specifies the file tab visibility.
- ShowTabs – specifies the tab header visibility.
- ShowGroupLabels – specifies the group label visibility.

Adaptive Layout support

The DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon also provides an adaptive layout functionality. When a ribbon control has insufficient space to display all its items, groups with more than one item are collapsed, and each collapsed group displays an expand button.

Ribbon w/ Moderno Theme

And the new Ribbon control looks great in the newest DevExpress theme: Moderno.

Data Binding

The DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control can be populated with information taken from a data source using the DataSourceID or DataSource property. While binding, the control automatically creates tabs, groups and items; and retrieves their property values from the corresponding data items.

You can specify the data source fields to which the tabs, groups and items properties are mapped using the TabDataFields, GroupDataFields, and ItemDataFields properties, respectively.

Additionally, ASPxRibbon provides specific events related to data binding that can be handled according to your application logic.

- TabDataBound – allows you to customize the settings of an individual tab immediately after it is bound to data.
- GroupDataBound – allows you to customize the settings of an individual group immediately after it is bound to data.
- ItemDataBound – allows you to customize the settings of an individual item immediately after it is bound to data.
- DataBound – occurs after the control data binding is complete, and allows you to customize the control.

Templates

The DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon (ASPxRibbon) control also supports ASP.NET templates which allow you to customize a control's appearance and layout. You can create templates for two elements: file tab (FileTabTemplate) and item (Template).

In the image above, the FileTabTemplate property is used to replace tab text with an arrow image that invokes a popup menu.

Menu Emulation

This example demonstrates how the ASPxRibbon control can be customized to implement the look and feel of a menu. For this purpose, all items are displayed large in size (the Size property is set to Large). The following properties are used to hide ribbon elements.

- ShowFileTab – specifies the file tab visibility.
- ShowTabs – specifies the tab header visibility.
- ShowGroupLabels – specifies the group label visibility.

Client-Side Events

The DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control provides you advanced client-side event support. Client-side events are triggered in response to specific actions or events on the client. You can create client-side code for the following events:

- ActiveTabChanged – fires after the active tab is changed.
- FileTabClicked – fires after a file tab is clicked.
- CommandExecuted – occurs after an action is executed on a ribbon item (e.g., an end-user clicks a button or changes an editor value).
- Init – occurs on the client side after the control is initialized, but prior to its display in the browser.
- MinimizationStateChanged – occurs when the ribbon minimization state is changed.

Available for WebForms & MVC!

The new ASP.NET Ribbon is available as a WebForms control:

And as a native ASP.NET MVC extension:

Thanks!

In 13.1 we released a beta for our new pdf viewer. This excellent addition to our control suite enables an in app viewing experience for your pdf documents. Given that these documents can be loaded by filename or even from a stream of bits, you have the ultimate flexibility in loading and displaying pdf documents in a controlled manner.

Consider the scenario, however, where you have hundreds (or thousands+) of pdf documents. Invariably the boss might one day ask for that one pdf document with specific text (any lawyers out there?). How does one efficiently search these documents without going opening each and every document? Starting in 13.2 we are greatly increasing your ability to manage and work with these documents within code.

var search = "parameters";
PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new PdfDocumentProcessor();
processor.LoadDocument("CSharpSpec.pdf");
var searchParams = new PdfTextSearchParameters
{
    CaseSensitive = false,
    WholeWords = true
};

var results = processor.FindText(search, searchParams);
while (results.Status == PdfTextSearchStatus.Found)
{
    var text = string.Join(", ",
                    results.Words.Select(p => p.Text).ToArray());

    Console.WriteLine("Found \"{0}\" on page {1}",
        text,
        results.PageIndex);

    results = processor.FindText(search, searchParams);
}

Console.WriteLine("That's all folks!");
Console.ReadKey();

Notice how easy it is to load up a pdf document processor and search for specific text. Now imagine doing this across your entire library of pdf documents!

In the age of “big data” it is imperative that we, as developers, have the ability work with any type of data: be it structured or unstructured. Indeed the best way to derive the greatest value from our data is the ability to handle it all at once. I think this tool will greatly help with pdfs!

As always, if there are any comments and/or questions, feel free to get a hold of me!

Seth Juarez
Email: sethj@devexpress.com
Twitter: @SethJuarez

Today we released the beta for DevExpress 13.2, the .NET edition. If you have an active account for Universal or DXperience, you should have received an email (if our Client Services system is working properly) detailing what you have to do in order to get it. It’s pretty simple really: just go to the Download Center (after logging in of course), find the beta and download it. Install on a development machine (please, not your production machine – we may be good, but there might still be a couple of bugs left to fix ;) ) and have at it. You can find out what’s new in the release here. Please provide feedback to our support team via support@devexpress.com or by opening a ticket in the Support Center (it will be automatically marked as private for the beta feedback).

I’m writing this post, though, to give you some warnings about breaking changes. If you recall, we endeavor to not introduce breaking changes in our minor releases, but major releases – of which we have two per year – are open season. Well, OK, I exaggerate for effect, but there are some breaking changes you should be aware of, and there are some known issues as well. I’ll detail some of the more significant items here in this article.

First of all, and this covers by far the longest subset of breaking changes, is that types and members that have been marked as obsolete for a year or more have been removed. If you have been skating by some of these “this thing is obsolete” warnings for a while, now’s the time to make the required changes to your code. In fact, I’d make a general recommendation: if you see something marked as obsolete, change your code now rather than wait for the proverbial rainy day. I know from bitter experience, those rainy days just never seem to turn up on time.

Breaking Changes

Now for some major breaking changes:

Dashboard

BC2012: Selection is no longer updated when using API to add or remove items in a dashboard assigned to the DashboardDesigner.

Previously, when adding dashboard items to the DashboardDesigner.Dashboard.Items collection, the last added item received selection. Similarly, when removing one or several items in code, the first remaining dashboard item was selected.  From 13.2, the selection is not updated when modifying the Dashboard.Items collection. The previously selected item remains selected after adding a new item (or selection remains empty if it has been empty before). When removing the selected item, selection becomes empty. In place of the automatic selection updates, we have introduced the DashboardDesigner.SelectedDashboardItem property that allows for manual control over selection via the API. To retain the previous behavior, make sure to assign a dashboard item to this property after adding the item to the Dashboard.Items collection. When adding or removing dashboard items in the designer's UI, the selection is updated as usual.

BC2004: The Dashboard Title is visible by default

Starting with the 13.2 version, the default value of the dashboard.Title.Visible property is true. Dashboards created previously will contain a title after loading from XML with the new version.

DevExpress WPF

BC2017: BooleanNegationConverter and DefaultBooleanToBooleanConverter will no longer invert an indeterminate value (null and DefaultBoolean.Default, respectively)

In previous versions BooleanNegationConverter inverted indeterminate values (null and DefaultBoolean.Default, respectively). These indeterminate values were treated as False and converted to True. In the current version we have changed this behavior. From now on, these converters will keep indeterminate values unchanged. Values will be inverted only if they are set to True or False. If the target property type is Boolean, any input indeterminate value will be converted to True.

DXMap (Common to XPF)

BC1980: The Template property has been removed from the MapShape class

To customize the appearance of map shapes, use the corresponding properties of the MapShape class (e.g., MapShape.Fill, MapShape.Stroke, MapShape.StrokeStyle).

eXpressApp Framework (XAF)

BC1945: Сhanges to the ISupportAppearanceCustomization interface

The ComplexWebListEditor class no longer implements the ISupportAppearanceCustomization interface. Now you implement it directly using the ASPxTreeListEditor and ASPxGridListEditor classes. The OnCustomizeAppearance method in the ComplexWebListEditor has suffered the same fate.

BC1998: The ApplicationStatusUpdater and UpdateStatusEventArgs classes are obsolete.

You should now use the XafApplication.StatusUpdating event instead of the ApplicationStatusUpdater.UpdateStatus event. Use the XafApplication.UpdateStatus or ModuleUpdater.UpdateStatus method instead of the ApplicationStatusUpdater.Notify method.

Snap

BC1991: The AppendSection method implementation has been changed to return the most recently added document section.

In previous versions, this method returned the second to last document section.

BC2014: The behavior of the DataSources and DataSource properties of the SnapControl.Document has been changed

Starting with version 13.2, the Snap document data sources are reset when creating or loading a new document. The data sources assigned to a SnapControl (SnapControl.DataSources and SnapControl.DataSource) are not affected.

Known Issues

Here are some of the known issues with 13.2.3 (the current beta version):

• B250979 - ASPxSpreadsheet does not show documents in native Internet Explorer 9
• B250876 - Dashboard - The drill-down feature is not available on the Web when Multiple Master Filter is enabled
• B251001 - DXGrid (WPF and Silverlight) - A project with the GridControl does  not work in "Debug" mode if the AutoGenerateColumns property is not set to "None" in .NET Framework 4.0
• B250858 - DXRichEdit for Silverlight - Simple View does not display any document content
• B250378 - eXpressApp Framework - Localization - XAF satellite assemblies are not included in the installation
• B250899 - Snap - Demo - Hyperlinks do not work in the 'IList Data Source' module
• B250900 - WPF Demos - The StockMarket demo crashes when the mouse is hovering over the ChartControl before data is loaded
• B250385 - XtraCharts Suite - A stacked spline area chart incorrectly draws empty points
• B250386 - XtraCharts Suite - A 3D Stacked Spline Area is drawn incorrectly
• B250393 - XtraCharts Suite - The client-side PointToDiagram and DiagramToPoint methods do not work when using the DateTime scale
• B250909 - XtraReports Suite - Demo Center - Reports demos for WPF do not work
  

I would hasten to add though, that if you are going to test the beta with your code, to please keep our Support team apprised of any issues you may find. Please don’t assume that we know of them; yes, we are still testing and bug bashing, but we don’t want to let other bugs we don’t know about slip through the crack. Your feedback will be invaluable.

Our upcoming release (v13.2) will include a number of enhancements to the DevExpress WinForms Map Control including theme/skin support, integrated printing, searching and routing and more.

Before I describe these features, let me try to step in front of a question that is going to be asked. That question is "what about Google Maps?" I'm going to keep my opinion of Google as a company to myself, but I will say that for us, support of Google is not an issue...the issue is a matter of licensing. Whereas Microsoft is easy to work with and has gone out of its way to work with us, Google has not. So, in short this is not a problem with our Map Control....It's a licensing issue.

Ok, with that said, let's get to the new features...

DevExpress Themes

The Map Control now supports all DevExpress Themes shipping with our WinForms Subscription. Here's how darker themes look when applied to a map...

And here's how the map looks when using a light theme...

To select a skin and apply it to the Map Control, you need to specify the control's look and feel via the LookAndFeel property.

Microsoft Bing Services

The WinForms Map Control now supports Bing Services including, Search, Geocode and Route. As you already know, these services allow end-users to visualize any location on a map, see detailed information for a given location or create a route between two or more locations.  

Printing and Export

A highly requested feature...Our WinForms Map Control now supports printing and export. As you might expect, you can preview the map prior to printing or export - you can even control map size for optimal printing (options include Normal, Zoom, Stretch)

New Map Elements and Features

This release introduces a new map visual element – map callout (annotation). In contrast to a custom element, the map callout displays as a frame, to which you can add the appropriate text.  This map callout supports selection and can be highlighted when being hovered by a mouse pointer or via touch.  Its appearance is defined by the current skin. 

Another great new feature is the ability of the WinForms Map pushpin to display text - often used to display route information between points. 

In addition, you can now control the display of map borders. This feature will come in handy when you print or export maps to different file formats.

And finally, performance has been improved when loading shapes with images.

Zoom and Select Specific Map Region

The Map Control allows end-users to zoom in and select a specific region and see current map information. To zoom in, press Shift+Ctrl keys and select a region on a map using the left mouse button. In addition, you can use the quick item selection function. Just press "Shift" and select a region on the map and all items that belong to this region will be selected. 

The eBay auction I talked about a couple of days ago is still running, but we thought we’d like to do something more for the relief fund for the Typhoon Haiyan disaster.

We’ve been horrified about the news from the Philippines since November 7. Typhoon Haiyan caused incredible damage throughout the Leyte and Samar islands (part of the Eastern Visayas), destroying much of the towns, cities, and infrastructure in those low-lying islands. Houses and buildings were flattened, obliterated. Millions of people were affected by the devastation, having lost their homes, possessions, loved ones, jobs; whereas thousands of people have died or are still missing (unremarkably in this kind of disaster, even now, no one knows for sure how many victims there are).

We wanted to do our small part and involve our community, so here’s the deal. For the first three people who correctly answer the question below, DevExpress will donate $500 in their name to the Typhoon Haiyan relief fund at the Red Cross.  I’ll reply here once we have the winners.

I shall be very strict about what I accept as answers, so be careful when composing your comment to add below. (Also, our blog engine takes a little time to make comments visible, so don’t worry if your answer doesn’t show immediately.)

The question is:

Name the event and the year that saw Vern Troyer join the DevExpress team to launch CodeRush Xpress.

On your marks, get set, GO!

Check out the 7 new ASP.NET MVC extensions that we're introducing in the next major release, 13.2:

1. FormLayout

The DevExpress ASP.NET MVC FormLayout extension delivers a comprehensive form design feature set. Use the FormLayout to easily create form layouts of any complexity by combining the order and hierarchy of the provided layout elements. To create a well-designed form capable of editing Model class instances, simply add the FormLayout to the View and bind its layout item to the Model class fields.

Much like the DevExpress ASP.NET WebForms Layout engine, this new MVC extension supports the following features:

• Data Binding
• Seamless Integration with DevExpress Data Editors
• Support for Third-Party Components
• Help Text Rendering
• Tab and Group Box Containers

2. Grid Lookup

A highly requested extension will now be available in 13.2. The GridLookup editor combines the functionality of the DevExpress DropDownEdit and GridView extensions for ASP.NET MVC to allow end-users to easily select values from a drop-down grid containing lookup items. The GridView extension is seamlessly embedded into the editor's drop-down window, providing the editor with a powerful customizable data-processing and data-representation functionality.

Like the DevExpress ASP.NET AJAX Grid Lookup, this new MVC extension supports the following features:

• Multiple record selection
• Advanced filtering options
• Binding to large Datasets
• Support for item templates

3. ImageGallery

The DevExpress ASP.NET MVC ImageGallery extension displays image collections using a tabular layout with dynamic layout adaptation, an integrated pager and a built-in image slider.

• Loads images from a folder
• Automatic thumbnail generation
• Touch gesture support
• Responsive layout
• Endless paging support - more images are loaded when scrolling the page or by clicking the 'Show more items' button
• Template support

4. Rating

The RatingControl extension is used to visualize end-user ratings. It also provides end-users with an intuitive interface to rate content by allowing them to select item images ("stars" by default) that represent the user’s rating.

This new MVC extension replicates the features of its WebForms counterpart and includes the following options:

• Customizable titles for each extension item
• Customizable number of items (stars)
• Customizable item fill if the extension value is a fractional value
• Customizable item images
• Read-only mode support

5. TokenBox

The DevExpress ASP.NET MVC Token Box editor provides the ability to auto complete values from a predefined list. An end-user can select a value from the dropdown window list or type it manually.

6. Ribbon Control

The DevExpress ASP.NET MVC Ribbon extension helps you introduce the look, feel and behavior of a ribbon based UI in your application.

Learn more here.

7. Custom Color Picker

Ok, this is technically not a new MVC extension but we've added some great new functionality to it. And seven is a much better number than six. :)

The DevExpress ASP.NET MVC ColorEdit extension allows end-users to set a color of web elements with ease. You can type the value directly into the editor's text box, select a color from the color palette in the editor's dropdown window, or use the optional color picker to select a custom color. End-users can specify colors by typing directly within the edit box by using longhand or shorthand hexadecimal notation (HEX) for RGB color values (#f0f, #D8D8D8, etc.), or by using standard HTML color names ("red", "green", etc.), which are then automatically converted to color codes.

Best MVC Suite

DevExpress offers over 50 MVC Extensions now. These native ASP.NET MVC extensions help you deliver a beautiful and functional user interface for you ASP.NET MVC websites.

A quick post to point out that we’ve just made a change to the default settings of XtraRichEdit that may affect users of the control. (I say “just” because this change is not in the current beta release.)

The default font for the XtraRichEdit has changed from Times New Roman 12pt to Calibri 11pt.

If you need the previous behavior, please use the following code before creating RichEditControl or RichEditDocumentServer:

      RichEditControlCompatibility.DefaultFontName = "Times New Roman";
      RichEditControlCompatibility.DefaultFontSize = 12f;

I am excited to announce a couple of features that we’ve added to the DevExpress Report Server for our upcoming 13.2 release. The Report Server is one of the few products in the storied history of DevExpress releases where I’ve had input from its inception. I was there when we had the idea, pitched it to the company (yes we do that – maybe I should say more in a separate blog post), and released the first version. As the product continues to mature (with your excellent feedback) we feel that this is one of the most powerful and affordable ways of doing no-touch on-premise reporting. Let’s dive into some of the new features.

Mixed Mode

Previously the DevExpress Report Server would only function in either Windows Authentication Mode or Report Server Authentication mode. Now you can have both with “Mixed Mode” authentication:

When in “Mixed Mode” users will now be able to choose how to log in:

In essence you can now allow both Windows Domain users as well as remote users with Report Server Credentials.

Stored Procedures

An often repeated feature request was the ability to seamlessly bind to result sets returned from executing stored procedures. I am happy to announce that starting in 13.2 you will now have the option to do so:

Once bound the DevExpress Report Server will also display the available fields:

The DevExpress Report Server also seamlessly handles the parameters that naturally come with using stored procedures. These parameters are automatically generated at design time (for preview purposes) as well as at report generation time (specifically when creating tasks):

I think you will like the new store procedure binding experience.

Email Templates

The DevExpress Report Server sends out a number of emails to inform users of various events such as account activation, scheduled report completion, etc. These emails are quite bland. Starting in 13.2 you now have the ability to make them even uglier more beautiful! There are a number of email templates that you can now edit as part of the Server Settings:

Some of them (like most email subjects) are simple text boxes; others are much more:

This was also one of the more requested features (we do listen).

Miscellany

Another interesting feature that we’ve added in 13.2 is the ability to select report delivery options:

This is perfect for the case where the DevExpress Report Server is running in an internal network but reports need to be delivered to folks outside of the network: they no longer have to log on to the Report Server to view reports.

We’ve also made a number of usability improvements which I’ll let you discover as you upgrade and begin using the DevExpress Report Server. We are really excited to be pushing the boundaries between pure developer tools and end user tools: sometimes the best way to save on development time is to remove the necessity of development time.

As always, if there are any comments and/or questions, feel free to get a hold of me!

Seth Juarez
Email: sethj@devexpress.com
Twitter: @SethJuarez

As we celebrate 15 years in the software development tools business this month, I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you for your loyal patronage over the years. It goes without saying: we'd be nowhere without our loyal users.

Today, DevPro Magazine announced winners of its annual readers choice awards and we are proud to announce that you voted us best in class in an unprecedented 12 categories. Thank you! As you may already know, this adds to our recent awards tally as last month Visual Studio Magazine readers voted us #1 in 8 categories.

Some of the comments you submitted to DevPro during the voting were:

• "DevExpress Universal is a universe unto itself. It has everything you need."
• "CodeRush is the only add-in you need to ensure good, solid, standardized code."
• "I absolutely, positively cannot do without DevExpress ASPxGridView."
• "Microsoft gave the ribbon to the world, but DevExpress XtraBars Suite gives it to developers."

We are truly humbled by your feedback and I promise all of you that we're working harder than ever to meet your expectations.

DevPro Gold Awards

We recently issued an update to TestCafe (v13.1.3) - our functional web application testing tool. This update includes a number of enhancements including:

Simplified Install

If you've not yet had the opportunity to try TestCafe, you'll find that's easier than ever to install and get to testing your desktop or mobile web application.

• Step 1 is to visit the TestCafe download page: http://testcafe.devexpress.com/Download
• Step 2 is to select the appropriate distribution - remember, TestCafe support Windows, MacOs and Linux (32 or 64 bit versions).
• Step 3 is to start testing. Once you execute the appropriate file, TestCafe will automatically configure everything for you and display its Control Panel (no more console windows).

ChangeTest Directories on the Fly

With this release, you no longer need to specify a test directory before running TestCafe. When you run TestCafe for the first time, it will use the "my_tests" folder in your TestCafe installation directory.

You can switch the default test directory at any time by hovering over the "tests/" breadcrumb. Once you click it, TestCafe will activate a directory selection dialog. You can then switch your working directory as needed (the same "directory as a project" approach is used by many IDEs including Eclipse, WebStorm and tools like Sublime Text).

JQuerySelectors

TestCafe's Recorder generates jQuery selectors for elements to which actions should be applied. In previous versions, we used heuristics and tried to choose the most appropriate selector possible. But as you can imagine, a heuristics-based algorithm is not 100% accurate. With this update, we now give you the ability to choose from numerous generated selectors with descriptions that will be understandable to users - even those unfamiliar with jQuery or JavaScript syntax.

QuarantineMode

Functional tests can be unstable by nature. There are a lot of factors that can cause issues in test runs (network lags; unexpected async behavior, animations; etc.). We are working hard to address many of these (by waiting for XHR request completion, page transitions, iframe loading)...but we're also focused on solutions that follow QA best practices...

If you've written tests in the past, you know that there are many cases where a developer or QA engineer can write an unstable test (for instance, a test might become unstable due to changes to the tested site). Let's say you wrote a test that performs clicks on a dropdown menu's item. Someone then changes dropdown's behavior and it now loads with an animation (loads with a slight delay). While we can recognize such behavior changes, testing software cannot and in this case the test may become unstable.

To help deal with these scenarios, we created Quarantine Mode...

Quarantine Mode helps us find all unstable tests and fix them. It works like this: Quarantine Mode can be enabled in our continuous integration API. If a test fails, it is marked as such and moved to quarantine. In quarantine, a test run will be repeated 3 times. If results of the test differ during these 3 test runs, this test will be marked as unstable and will be added to the list of unstable tests in the test task report.

Martin Fowler introduced the idea of test Quarantines - http://martinfowler.com/articles/nonDeterminism.html if you'd like to read his thoughts on the subject...

NumerousNetworking and Performance Enhancements

We've refactored a significant portion of the internal networking mechanisms of the framework, which has addressed a number of known performance issues. If you compare page load times for a test run or test recording, you'll find that this release is appreciably faster than previous releases.

With that, let me encourage you to try TestCafe if you are building web applications - a 30 day trial is available on http://testcafe.devexpress.com/Download - Please remember, if you own a copy of the Universal Subscription, TestCafe is included free of charge. If you do not and want to get started with functional testing, you can purchase TestCafe for only $499.

I don’t blog much, but today I did want to say something to those of you who follow our blogs.

You may have already read Ray’s blog post about our recent DevPro reader’s choice awards. I want to second Ray and offer my thanks to you guys for voting us first in 12 categories.

Since I’m the manager of our support team, I want to especially thank you for voting our support services the best. We did it again, and I’m really proud of my team.

Over the years, we’ve worked closely with many of you and done our best to respond to you in a timely and accurate manner. I realize that we are not perfect and like so many other things, we have room to improve but I want you to know that our guiding principle is to go above and beyond the call of duty whenever you submit a support ticket to us.

Your feedback is valuable to me so please email management@devexpress.com with any issues you may have with the DevExpress Support Team. I want to know the good and the bad so we can make 2014 an amazing year for all of us.

OK, call this both good news and bad news: this post is not only a “What’s New” but also partially describes some breaking changes.

What is Data Aggregation?

Starting from 13.2, XtraCharts (both ASP.NET and WinForms) will support automatic data aggregation. This is extremely useful in the situation where your charts are trying to display a very large amount of data (e.g., thousands or even millions of data points), and it is necessary to have a quick aggregated overview of this data. Our data aggregation feature works for an X-axis (the argument axis) that is showing either numeric or date-time data.

To quickly demonstrate this feature, below is a chart with non-aggregated data:

And below is a chart with the same data, but automatically aggregated by years.

In addition, the WinForms Chart control supports automatic data aggregation when your end-users scroll, zoom, or resize a chart.

How Does It Work for a Numeric X-Axis?

Though data aggregation is by default disabled for numeric scales, you can easily enable it by setting the AxisX.NumericScaleOptions.ScaleMode property either to Manual or Automatic. In this case, the chart will split the entire X-axis into intervals (according to the AxisX.NumericScaleOptions.MeasureUnit property value) and automatically aggregate data for each interval. Predefined intervals for a numeric scale are Tens, Hundreds, Thousands, Millions, Billions, or you can define any custom value.

The only difference between Manual and Automatic modes is that in Manual mode you need to specify the desired MeasureUnit, while in Automatic mode this measure unit will be chosen automatically by a chart according to its current size and zoom level. So, in most cases, Automatic is the recommended choice.

(Also, there is Continuous scale mode, in which an axis scale is not divided into intervals and therefore aggregation cannot be applied to chart data.)

After you enable data aggregation, data for each interval on X-axis are aggregated using the function specified by the NumericScaleOptions.AggregateFunction property. By default it is Average, though you may change it to Minimum, Maximum, Sum and others.

To disable aggregation, simply set AggregateFunction to None.

How Does It Work for a Date-time X-Axis?

For date-time data on the X-axis everything is even easier, because data aggregation is enabled by default. Just check out the AxisX.DateTimeScaleOptions.ScaleMode property value and either leave it Manual, or choose Automatic.

Predefined measure units for date-time scales are Millisecond, Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter and Year. By default, Day is chosen to provide backward compatibility.

Video

For those who prefer watching to reading, here is a short video describing this feature in detail.

Breaking Changes

To implement all these features, we had to do some significant work and had to rewrite some big chunks of the XtraCharts product. We didn’t stop there: since we were rewriting parts of the product, we took some time to optimize the code both for performance and for usability. As a result there have been some breaking changes. Whereas we’re certain these changes were necessary in order to move the product forward, we recognize that they might have an impact on your migration process to 13.2; nevertheless we’ve tried to minimize the effects to the public API.

Here is a list of breaking changes in XtraCharts 13.2:

• The drawingof all Area, Stacked Line, and Full-Stacked Line views has changed when series contain missing or empty points.
• The series points are always aggregated for date-time arguments by default.
• Setting the DateTimeScaleOptions.GridAlignment property to a value less than the current measure unit no longer affects data representation and calculation.
• In previous versions, you could not set grid alignment to a value less than the measure unit specified in the DateTimeScaleOptions.MeasureUnit  (e.g., MeasureUnit– Month, GridAlignment– Day). Also, for example, the width of bars no longer depends on the GridAlignment property.
• The AxisBase.GridSpacing property now specifies the number of grid alignment units.
• The ColorEach algorithm has been changed for unsorted data with numeric or date-time arguments.
• The current chart interlacing can become inverted in some scenarios.
• The MeasureUnit property for date-time Y-axes is no longer supported.
• The number and/or position of Tickmarks and Gridlines in X-Axes might be changed.
• The order of qualitative arguments in X-Axis might have changed in some cases. (For example: suppose the first series has arguments A, B, D, and the second series has arguments A, C, B, D. Prior to version 13.2, the arguments on the X-axis would appear as A, C, B, D; with 3.2, the arguments will be in the order A, B, D, C.)
• The SeriesPoint.Tag property now returns the list of tags for all aggregated points.
• The ChartControl.DateTimeMeasurementUnitsCalculated event no longer exists. Instead, handle the ChartControl.AxisScaleChanged event, which is raised when the scale mode, measure unit, grid alignment or grid spacing of the axis scale has been changed.

Wait, what? An ASP.NET Spreadsheet control? Yes, it's true, DevExpress are introducing a new web-based spreadsheet control that provides all the features you'd expect: fast, powerful, with a beautiful functional user experience. Your users will believe they're actually editing their Excel files in their browser.

Introducing Spreadsheet (Preview)

We're introducing the new DevExpress ASP.NET Spreadsheet control as a preview in 13.2. And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here's an image of it in action:

We're releasing it as a special preview edition. Why? Because it's a big ambitious control that we're still perfecting. However, the new ASP.NET Spreadsheet control has enough of a feature set that we'd love for you to test drive and give us your feedback.

The DevExpress ASP.NET Spreadsheet control is also known as the ASPxSpreadsheet control within Visual Studio and our documentation.

Features

The new ASP.NET Spreadsheet control ships with the following features:

Automatically Generated UI

This is, in my opinion, it's best feature. Easy as 1,2,3 (pun intended).
1: Drag and drop the control on to your form.
2. Add a line in the pageload to specifiy which excel file to edit.
3. Run and get an instantly beautiful and functional excel user interface.

Automated Formula Calculation Engine

Formulas are one of the most commonly used features of spreadsheets. With ASPxSpreadsheet, you can easily insert and calculate formulas just like Microsoft Excel.

A formula is a string expression that begins with an equal (=) sign and can contain constants, operators, cell references, functions, and names.

Load, Save, & Open in Microsoft Excel

The new DevExpress ASP.NET Spreadsheet control is powerful. Just consider this workflow that the ASPxSpreadsheet control provides for an end-user:

1. Load a Microsoft Excel file from your website.
2. Modify it on your website.
3. Save the changes and download it locally.
4. Open and keep working in Microsoft Excel.

Built-in Spreadsheet Functions

The ASPxSpreadsheet's built-in functions cover a wide range of categories - from basic mathematical operations, such as simple addition and subtraction, to complex engineering and statistical calculations. This can meet even the most demanding requirements. The provided function categories include:

• Financial
• Statistical
• Engineering
• Logical
• Text
• Date & Time
• Lookup & Reference
• Math & Trig
• Informational

The built-in functions are listed within the Formulas tab of the ASPxSpreadsheet's automatically generated Ribbon. In this tab, functions are divided into groups for easy access.

Cell References and Formatting

A formula can contain references to other cells or cell ranges within the same or different worksheets. The following references are supported:

• Relative, Absolute and Mixed References
• Cross-Worksheet References
• 3D References
• Structured References
• External References

Data Merging

The DevExpress ASP.NET Spreadsheet control allows you merge data by using a spreadsheet template that is loaded into the ASPxSpreadsheet and programmatically populated with data taken from an xml file. The template presents the predefined report layout and contains specific aggregation formulas. The data is retrieved from an xml file and merged with the corresponding worksheet cells into an integrated report. As a result, a worksheet represents a complete report calculated automatically.

Charting

Charts are used in spreadsheets to make it easier to understand large quantities of data by visualizing the relationship between different data series.

The ASP.NET Spreadsheet allows you to easily insert a professional-looking chart that displays the details you want. A comprehensive set of 2D and 3D charts is provided to address a broad range of business needs with ease.

To create a chart, select a series of data within a worksheet and click on the required chart type within the user interface Ribbon's Insert tab. The data can be arranged in rows or columns - the ASP.NET Spreadsheet automatically determines the best way to plot the data on the chart. For plotting charts, the ASP.NET Spreadsheet uses the powerful charting functionality of the DevExpress ASP.NET Chart Control.

You can move a chart to any location on a worksheet by dragging the chart. You can also change the size of the chart for a better fit.

Pictures

The ASP.NET Spreadsheet allows you to insert pictures into a worksheet. Pictures might help you illustrate your data or decorate a data report with graphics.

Worksheet Management

The ASP.NET Spreadsheet allows you to populate a worksheet programmatically. The API of the IWorkbook object (accessed via the ASPxSpreadsheet.Document) is used to create data within cells and to perform the required calculations.

Large Excel Files Support

The ASP.NET Spreadsheet control provide Virtual Scrolling of the rows that let's you load a large excel file and easily navigate through it without making your user interface feel sluggish. And it provides this using the callbacks so your end-users won't experience full page refreshes. This feature is similar to the DevExpress ASPxGridView's Virtual Scrolling.

Responsive UI

The new ASP.NET Spreadsheet control is also responsive! This means that once you set the Width to 100%, then the Spreadsheet control will resize with your browser. And the Ribbon control inside of the Spreadsheet control will expand and collapse as necessary. Take a look at the new Ribbon control here.

ASP.NET MVC - Planned

ASP.NET MVC support is planned and will appear in a later major release.

A Great Ribbon UI Toolbar

Microsoft Excel makes great use of the Ribbon control. And because we've introduced the DevExpress ASP.NET Ribbon control, we've also incorporated this into the ASP.NET Spreadsheet control. This gives you the native look and feel of Microsoft Excel but with wide reach of the web because it can run on multiple browsers and it supports touch for mobile tablets too!

There are a metric ton of fantastic features that we are adding to our spreadsheet control for windows (both WinForms and now WPF).

Charts

I am happy to announce that starting in 13.2 we have integrated charting directly into our spreadsheet control:

All you have to do is highlight some data, insert a chart, and that’s it!

Once inserted you can change the chart type, modify the layout, and even change the chart theme via the design ribbon tab. In addition to the design tab, we also have a layout tab which allows even more fine grained control over the chart:

Often when analyzing data it is sometimes easier to give the data to our end users and allow them the opportunity to shape and visualize data however they choose. This type of control will undoubtedly help provide insight to your customer’s data in a familiar way.

More

There are tons of other usability features which we have snuck in to 13.2 release that provide the traditional experience one has come to expect from spreadsheet software. I will only mention four (there really isn’t enough space).

Number Formatting

We have created a really intuitive way of formatting numbers:

Formula Bar and Name Box

These additional controls help identify the current cell address, table name, or defined name under consideration (Name Box). The Formula Bar allows your end users to edit formulas (like they otherwise would in other spreadsheet tools).

Formatting

Conditional Formatting

Finally

There are a bunch of other things I am leaving out (for now). Overall this is going to be a pretty exciting release: especially for those providing spreadsheet solutions directly in their applications.

As always, if there are any comments and/or questions, feel free to get a hold of me!

Seth Juarez
Email: sethj@devexpress.com
Twitter: @SethJuarez

Our next major release (13.2), updates our Validation Module with more features that come with different behavior rules, such as Warnings and Information. These can be applied to your existing validation rules using code or the Model Editor.

The XAF validation module is a mature and flexible validation system, which allows you to create rules that can validate any business problem, For more information, check out the module documentation.

Suppose we have a Business Object that disallows saving a Customer if the Name property is blank. If this attempted the UI should respond with a “Everybody has a name!” message.

When an end user tries to save the Customer without a name, XAF will show the Validation Error listview and consequently abort.

Creating a warning rule

A common requirement for our Customer class is to warn the end user that, if possible, he/she should provide the Customer’s city. To do this, we need to mark the City property with a  RuleRequiredField. However, this time we have to set the ResultType to Warning as illustrated below.

When the end user saves the Customer (in runtime) providing a Name and not a City, XAF will again show the Validation Error listview however, this time there will be an extra Ignore action.

If the end user executes the Close action, the object will not be saved however if he executes the Ignore action it will be saved. In both cases in the detailview there will be a warning action by the City textbox to draw the end user’s attention.

Creating an Information rule

XAF allows you to create validation rules even at runtime using the Model Editor. So let’s say we want to just inform the end user, if he enters a Customer Age not between 10 and 60. This means that we need to use a RuleRangeField rule as illustrated in the next two images.

When the end user saves a Customer (in runtime) with an invalid Age range, XAF will not display the Validation Error listview at all. However, it will display an Information icon to draw his/her attention to the Age property.

Where to see more examples?

You may explore our FeatureCenter application located in your C:\Users\Public\Documents\DXperience 13.2 Demos\eXpressApp Framework\FeatureCenter\CS folder to see a few rules in action.

What about the web?

The validation module as a platform agnostic module works similarly for the web.

The soft validation is in its first release (CTP), thus we look forward to your feedback as we get it ready for it’s official release. Let me know what you think.

We have done a great deal of work on our dashboard tool for both Windows and the Web. While I can’t detail every new feature, I thought I would mention 3 new developer friendly things available starting in our 13.2 release.

Visual Studio Integration

In this release you’ll now be able to build dashboards directly in Visual Studio. The process is pretty straight forward.

Add a Dashboard via the Template Gallery

Literally right click and select Add New DevExpress Item and the wizard appears.

Add Data Source

Once the designer loads up you can use the new Dashboard Visual Studio menu item to add/edit the available Data Sources.

Data Source Types

As you know, our dashboards bind directly to your database or to an internal project data source.

As you can see we have added UI in an effort to simplify both of these cases.

Build Your Dashboard

Once bound you can create your dashboard layout just as you did before. In Visual Studio, however, you have more fine-grained control through the use of the standard property editor available in the IDE.

Creating a Dashboard Preview

Just like a DevExpress Report, a dashboard is just a set of files that can be edited directly in Visual Studio:

Just like reports, you can also set the dashboard source at design time (once you compile).

Overall the Visual Studio experience is intended to be both simple and familiar so you can be effective the moment you install the product.

Server Side Filtering with Parameters

This was a highly requested feature! Even though previous versions could handle server side filtering, it was cumbersome and required a bit of code. Starting in 13.2 you can customize a Dashboard Data Source to do server side filtering  using the new parameters feature.

When using the Dashboard Data Source Wizard, there are now two additional buttons: one for parameters and one for filtering. The notion of parameters in dashboards is virtually identical to parameters in reports. In this case they can be used to directly filter data on the server side with the aid of the Filter Editor:

In essence you create the parameters you want and then add the filters using the filter editor. Then at design time (and runtime) you can populate the parameters to push the filtering to the server.

This can be achieved by clicking in the dashboard title area (the question mark to the right of “Dashboard”) and typing in the desired parameter value.

Better API

Here’s another thing a lot of developers were itching to get their hands on!

We have added a number of events to the dashboard viewers that should allow programmatic control over the most important aspects of your visualization. Here are a couple:

1. DashboardViewer.MasterFilterSet – control what happens when a master filter is set
2. DashboardViewer.MasterFilterCleared – control what happens when a master filter is cleared
3. DashboardViewer.DrillDownPerformed – control what happens when a drill down is performed
4. DashboardViewer.DrillUpPerformed – control what happens when a drill up is performed

For each event, there event parameter (e.DashboardItemName) that will identify exactly which dashboard item raised the event as well as other important ancillary information such as selected values, ranges, drill-X path’s, level’s, etc. In short, complete control.

Conclusion

This is not everything of course. We have also added new map dashboard items (I will go in depth on these later), multi-selection in master filters, and much more. This is shaping up to be an exciting release!

As always, if there are any comments and/or questions, feel free to get a hold of me!

Seth Juarez
Email: sethj@devexpress.com
Twitter: @SethJuarez