VCL Controls - 2019 Roadmap - Your Vote Counts

First and foremost – our deepest thanks for your continued support of DevExpress VCL technologies. We value your business and commitment to our products.

Our 2019 VCL Roadmap survey is somewhat unique in that one central question shapes its direction. As you might expect, the question involves FireMonkey.

The first half of this blog post details features we will release in 2019. The second half describes products/features under consideration.

New Features/Capabilities We Will Release in 2019

ExpressQuantumGrid

Excel-inspired Filtering (v19.1)

Improved Customization Options (v19.2)
We will re-design the column/band customization dialog. The design hasn't been finalized yet and we'll use the following UI metaphors as the starting point.

ExpressBars

Right-to-Left Support (v19.1)

Office 2019 / 365 style (v19.1)

Backstage View Gallery: Keytip Support (v19.2)

ExpressQuantumTreeList

Excel-inspired Filter (v19.1)
Same implementation as shown for the ExpressQuantumGrid.

Improved Customization Options (v19.2)
Same implementation as shown for the ExpressQuantumGrid.

Immediate Post Option (v19.1)
This option makes most sense for editors where free text input is not available or secondary. If you use a check box or a combo box, enable this option to save the value as soon as a user switches the state or selects a different item. If the option is turned off, the value will be saved when the editor loses focus or when the user presses Enter.

We will also deliver a number of minor requests referenced by the following support tickets:
S31619, Q474048, S38934, S137786, Q328501, S139413, S130506, S133684

ExpressSpreadsheet

Right-to-Left Support (v19.2)

API Enhancements (v19.2)

• Implement a method to evaluate custom expressions based on formulas
• Allow to reset cell style via the IsDefault property
• Publish keyboard events
• Implement an event that fires before a comment is displayed and allows to suppress the action
• Table View worksheets - Add public method overloads that would accept cell references as strings

ExpressPivotGrid

Right-to-Left Support (v19.1)

Suggestions to be implemented in v19.1

• Add a new HitTest option to distinguish total cells from regular data cells (S20231)
• Introduce an event to customize cell hints, similar to the ExpressQuantumGrid's OnGetCellHint (S31915)
• Support text fields as data field (S135081)
• Reduce the number of exceptions handled internally when processing Null values (T158536)
• Implement the AlwaysExpand option for fields (T581605)

Suggestions to be implemented in v19.2

• Add an option to hide columns/rows that don't display data (S90729)
• Update the ApplyBestWidth logic to allow variable column widths (CS56271)
• Support DateTime values for data fields (S19399)
• Add a new summary type - unique value count (S90560)

ExpressVertical Grid

Excel-inspired Filter (v19.1)
Same implementation as shown for the ExpressQuantumGrid.

Right-to-Left Support (v19.1)

ExpressEditors Library

• Check Box: update design-time editor to allow developers to specify SVG graphics for check states (v19.1)
• Label: BBCode text format support (v19.2)
• Label: Allow to display a glyph from a referenced ImageList (v19.2)
• Image: Allow to load the image from a referenced ImageList (v19.2)
• Radio Button: Automatic size support (v19.2)
• Time Edit: Customizable display text and edit value format (v19.2)

ExpressLayout Control

Optional checkbox in item / group caption (v19.2)
For more information on this feature, please review the following support ticket: DS14371

Improved Splitter functionality (v19.1)
For more information on this feature, please review the following support ticket: S172176

Improved synchronization (v19.2)
For more information on this feature, please review the following support ticket: S33146

New OnResize event (v19.1)
For more information on this feature, please review the following support ticket: S134979

ExpressFlowChart

Allow end-users to modify shapes (v19.1)

Allow developers to define custom shapes in XML format (v19.1)

Extend the predefined collection with 30+ new shapes (v19.1)

Add new connector arrow styles (v19.1)
See the following styles below: Filled90, OpenFletch, FilledFletch, Diamond, FilledDiamond, ClosedDiamond, IndentedFilledArrow, OutdentedFilledArrow, ClosedASMEArrow, FilledDoubleArrow, ClosedDoubleArrow.

Theme support for shapes (v19.1)
The control will ship with several pre-defined themes that can be applied to shapes in code or via the built-in Ribbon UI.

Automatic shape arrangement: Sugiyama algorithm (v19.1)
This algorithm is used to draw layered networks that usually represent dependency relations. It minimizes the number of connector crossings and spreads shapes evenly.

Guidelines within the designer for easier shape positioning and alignment (v19.1)

Draw custom shapes in code (v19.1)

PDF Viewer

Attachment Panel (v19.1)

API - extract embedded file from PDF document (v19.1)

Wizard Control

Right to Left Support (v19.1)

Minor Enhancements (v19.1)

• Optionally suppress the built-in keystroke handler (T697726)
• Capability to focus a button in code (T563301)
• Capability to temporarily disable all buttons (T489385)
• Antialiasing for scaled button icons (T521200)

Design Time

Merge DevExpress VCL Ribbon Form wizards into a single dialog (v19.2)

Skins

New SVG Office 2019 Colorful Skin (v19.1)

New Features/Capabilities that Require Your Feedback

Our 2019 VCL Roadmap will be shaped by a simple question – whether you want us to release an FMX Grid in 2019. We’ve already invested significant resources in our FMX Grid, but work remains. The resources we must dedicate to FMX will affect resources available for our VCL product line. It’s important to emphasize that a full-featured FMX Grid requires that we overcome a series of technical hurdles – hurdles that are by no means easy to address.

If you vote for an FMX Grid, we’ll only deliver 5 or 6 features from the VCL list below. If you vote against an FMX Grid, we’ll be able to deliver all 11 VCL features listed below. As you will see, performance enhancements lie at the heart of our proposed roadmap.

1. ExpressQuantumGrid, TreeList - Scrollbar Annotations
   
2. ExpressQuantumGrid, TreeList, Vertical Grid - New Expression Editor and Calculated Columns
   
3. ExpressQuantumGrid - Entity Mapping Framework-based View
   This new view will leverage Entity Mapping Framework's superior data management performance. You will be able to handle large datasets as you would do in Server Mode, but without certain restrictions associated with it. For example, the new view will support data modification and Master-Detail layouts.
4. ExpressQuantumGrid - Improved Performance (calculations/drawing)
5. ExpressBars - Improved Performance (calculations/drawing)
6. ExpressSpreadsheet - Data Filtering
7. ExpressScheduler - Improved Performance (calculations/drawing)
8. ExpressNavBar - Hamburger View
   
9. PDF Viewer - Editing (populating/editing runtime fields)
10. PDF Viewer - Marquee Zoom
    
11. PDF Viewer - Two new page thumbnail display styles: vertical scrolling and two pages
    

Please cast your vote: