Before I detail our v23.1 .NET MAUI Roadmap, I would like to thank you for your interest in our product line. We appreciate your continued support and invaluable feedback.
Data Grid & Collection View CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
While CRUD operations are common to most business applications, it can take an inordinate amount of time to implement the ideal solution. To deliver the best possible mobile user experience, developers need to:
- Create an intuitive UI with detail and editing views
- Validate items locally and in the database
- Update the database and UI
- Pass all required data between views
We expect to automate many of these actions and create flexible APIs to help you deliver the appropriate interface and application logic to your customers.
Data Grid & Collection View Filtering UI
As you know, desktop and mobile users have different expectations when they click a “filter” button within a Data Grid. We hope to introduce new filter-related elements and give you the ability to simplify filter operations on mobile devices. You will be able to use these new elements on a separate page, bottom sheet, or above the Data Grid.
Data Grid - Excel and PDF Export
Some of our users have told us that they want to save certain data segments to Excel/PDF and send this information to other devices or colleagues. We expect to introduce Data Grid Excel and PDF export support in our next major release.
Office File API support
As you may know, our Office File API allows you to create/manage Word, Excel, and PDF documents non-visually. With it, you can:
- Create documents.
- Digitally sign documents.
- Convert documents to a different format.
- Merge documents and much more.
We are researching ways in which to leverage our existing File API codebase for .NET MAUI apps. We hope to share our findings with the community and look forward to your thoughts/ feedback in this regard.
New Skeleton Screen Control
Most mobile business apps do not store all data locally. With our new Skeleton Screen control, you’ll be able to communicate app state (during load operations) with users more effectively.
New Bottom Sheet Control
To help compliment your primary mobile app screen, we expect to introduce a Bottom Sheet control in our next major release (v23.1). With this new control, you’ll be able to display dialogs, filter settings, file attachment options, etc. We also expect to ship a non-modal mode option. When used in non-modal mode, users can interact with main content without closing the bottom sheet.
ComboBox Popup Show Mode
In general, a classic ComboBox dropdown is not the best mobile UI option. To help address the limitations of the ComboBox and help you deliver more effective mobile solutions, we will introduce the following UI options:
- A Popup or Bottom Sheet for small option sets
- A separate page with a search control for larger datasets
New Cell Item Controls
We will introduce new Cell Item controls to help you introduce settings, navigation, and item editing menus with absolute ease. Cell Items will allow you to:
- Automatically arrange inner elements
- Display image and separators.
- Handle taps.
- Select items from a popup, bottom sheet, or a separate page.
Data Form and Editor AutoFocus on Accept Key
A key to a user friendly mobile interface is to minimize the number of interactions required to execute a specific operation. In v23.1, your users will be able to automatically focus the next editor on screen when the Accept key is pressed.
Your Feedback Matters
If you’re targeting .NET MAUI or considering it for future use, please take a moment and answer the following survey questions.