In this blog post, I'll summarize new Blazor Grid features we expect to deliver in our next major update (v22.2) this fall. Please feel free to share your feedback via the inline survey questions below.
Export to Excel
Data export is a frequently requested Blazor Grid feature. We expect to add data aware export functionality in our next major release (export to XLS, XLSX, and CSV file formats). Exported documents will retain the following grid data shaping features:
- Data Grouping — allows end users to collapse/expand groups within a worksheet.
- Data Sorting and Filtering — allows end users to display relevant data in a desired order.
- Total and Group Summaries — allows end users to modify/change formulas.
You can take a look at our WebForms demo for Excel Data Aware Export to see this feature in action. Our Blazor Grid’s export engine will offer similar capabilities.
Search Panel
The DevExpress Blazor Grid will ship with a new, built-in Search Panel. As you might expect, the Search box will allow users to search against text displayed within any visible grid cell, filter out rows that don't match the search string, and highlight search results.
Our Blazor Grid will ship with an API designed to limit search to specific columns, get/set the current search string, and configure search box visibility.
New Render & Size Mode Support
The DevExpress Blazor Grid will switch from Bootstrap to its own rendering engine. The new rendering engine will help us deliver a consistent appearance across DevExpress Blazor controls.
With this new rendering engine, our Grid will support three different size modes with improved control spacing.
New size modes will apply to all controls that use the new rendering engine (Grid, Editors, Layout components) and allow you to create "dense" interfaces with more relevant information on the screen.
In addition to size modes, we expect to add a frequently requested feature. With our next major release, our Blazor Grid can be set to a fixed height regardless of how many rows displayed within it.
Filter Rows by Display Text
Our Blazor Grid will ship with a setting that enables filtering by display text for specific columns in the filter row. Displayed text can be supplied using the following methods:
- The DisplayFormat property;
- The CustomizeCellDisplayText event.
Filtering by display text is especially useful for lookup columns that store IDs and retrieve their values from a separate table.
Focused Row
The DevExpress Blazor Grid will highlight the focused (current) row and expose an API to get/set the focused row or its index (it will also get notifications when the focused row changes).
This feature will simplify certain usage scenarios:
- where external actions need to apply to the current row
- when an app displays a detail pane next to the Grid)
Select All
At present, the checkbox in the column header only selects rows on the current page, and also ignores rows within collapsed groups. Our next major update will introduce a new selection mode. When used, the column header checkbox will select rows across all pages, in both expanded and collapsed groups, as long as they meet currently applied filter criteria.
Filter Expression API
We will implement an API to get/set the filter expression applied to the Blazor Grid and get notified when this filter expression changes. This will make it easier to implement an external filtering UI tailored to specific usage scenarios.
