Last year, a few customers reported to us the lack of scalability in the DevExpress ASP.NET RichEdit and Spreadsheet controls. These rich controls tend to be larger in memory footprint but the real issue was that they did not work on scalable environments like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
After investigating, we figured out a great solution which we released as new feature called: 'stateless mode'. We released this feature in the v17.2 release as a CTP (community technology preview). I recommend that you read the blog post to learn more about 'stateless mode':
Scalability of ASP.NET Office Controls - Azure, Web Gardens, Farms, & Cloud Support (CTP - v17.2)
After releasing the CTP, we've received your feedback and have resolved several issues related to 'stateless mode'. Our customers also confirmed that the new feature helps to solves all the usage scenarios we targeted. Therefore, we're now taking it out of CTP and providing the final version in the v18.1 release. But wait, there's more...
Amazon Web Services
Our initial CTP only supported Microsoft Azure. I'm happy to announce that we now support both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services for scalability!
How to enable it?
To turn on the new feature, set the desired document provider in your project's Global.asax file:
void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) {
...
var provider = new DevExpress.Web.SqlOfficeStateProvider.SqlOfficeStateProvider(connectionString);
// or
//var provider = new DevExpress.Web.RedisOfficeStateProvider.RedisOfficeStateProvider(connectionString);
DevExpress.Web.Office.DocumentManager.StateProvider = provider;
...
}In the sample code above, the connectionString refers to the connection string for your storage.
GitHub Sample
To help you test this, we've created and published a sample repo on GitHub:
https://github.com/DevExpress/aspnet-office-solutions
This repo consist of several solutions and projects:
- Document state providers:
- RedisOfficeStateProvider - Redis using document state provider
- SqlOfficeStateProvider - SQL Server using document state provider
- New solutions examples for Amazon Web Services:
- AWS-SqlOfficeStateProvider-Starter - Amazon Web Services solution example using the SqlOfficeStateProvider
- AWS-RedisOfficeStateProvider-Starter - Amazon Web Services solution example using the RedisOfficeStateProvider
Learn more details on the repo's Readme file.
Logify
Last year we released a new exception logging tool called Logify. If you're using the DevExpress ASP.NET RichEdit and Spreadsheet controls in a scalable evironment like Microsoft Azure then consider also using Logify for exception reporting. We've tested our ASP.NET controls on Microsoft Azure and Logify works handles exception reporting seamlessly.
https://logify.devexpress.com/
Give Us Your Feedback
Are you excited by the DevExpress Office Controls support for scalability? Drop me a line below.
Thanks!
Email: mharry@devexpress.com
Twitter: @mehulharry