Over the past year, we've introduced two powerful features designed to accelerate/simplify .NET desktop development. When used together, you can create elegant/personalized user interfaces, reduce repetitive code, and of course, save time.
HTML-CSS Template Gallery for WinForms
The DevExpress WinForms HTML-CSS Template Gallery was introduced in May 2023 (v23.1). This powerful toolkit is integrated into our WinForms HTML Template Designer for Visual Studio. The gallery includes 20 predesigned HTML-CSS templates (based on templates used in DevExpress WinForms demo applications). All templates leverage the power of HTML/CSS markup and align with modern design trends.
We designed HTML-CSS Templates for maximum UI/design flexibility (you can customize templates to better address app requirements). You can create your own templates, save the templates to the gallery, and use them across all WinForms projects.
Custom templates are stored in the following folder:
%LocalAppData%\DevExpress\HtmlTemplateGallery\templates\
The templates.xml file contains general information about custom templates.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TemplateStorage xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<List>
<TemplateInfo>
<Name>Delete Button</Name>
<Description>A button with a glow effect.</Description>
<Tags>Button</Tags>
<FolderName>delete_button</FolderName>
</TemplateInfo>
</List>
</TemplateStorage>
Custom templates themselves are stored in corresponding subfolders. Copy/paste the "templates" folder to other computers to share custom HTML-CSS templates with your team.
Reusable UI Templates for WinForms
DevExpress UI Templates were first introduced in September 2022 (v22.2) and include over 25 pre-built UI components and forms for the Windows Forms platform. All UI templates leverage DevExpress WinForms controls, fully support MVVM, DirectX hardware acceleration, and DevExpress application skins. You can use DevExpress UI Templates without direct modification and seamlessly integrate them into existing WinForms projects.
Learning Materials
IMPORTANT
DevExpress UI Templates are available as a preview (EAP) (for Visual Studio 2022 and C# only). Active Universal, DXperience, and WinForms subscribers can download the EAP build from the DevExpress Download Manager.
Technical support for WinForms UI Templates is available if you own the active DevExpress Universal Subscription.