As always, thank you for your continued support and for choosing DevExpress Reports. We appreciate the faith and confidence you’ve placed in DevExpress Reports. Please take a moment to review the following year-end roadmap (v24.2) and share your thoughts with us in the survey below.
The information contained within this blog post details our current/projected development plans. Please note that this information is being shared for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY and does not represent a binding commitment on the part of Developer Express Inc. This roadmap and the features/products listed within it are subject to change. You should not rely on or use this information to help make a purchase decision about Developer Express Inc. products.
Important Changes
.NET Framework 4.6.2 and .NET 8 Support
Our development plans are aligned with Microsoft's .NET Life Cycle and as such, we'll be ending .NET 7 (ended in May 2024) and .NET 6 support (will end November 2024) with our next major update (v24.2).
The minimal.NET Framework supported version will be v4.6.2 as it is the lowest framework version supported by Microsoft.
And finally, the oldest supported version of the Visual Studio IDE will be 2019 (our surveys indicate that 2019 and 2022 are used by the vast majority of our customers).
Please refer to the following annoucement to learn more about this global change .NET — .NET 8 and .NET Framework 4.6.2 Are Minimally Supported Target Frameworks for DevExpress Libraries in v24.2..
.NET 9 Support
We will support .NET 9 across our product line for v24.2 and v24.1 released after November 2024.
JsonDataSource — Transition to System.Text.Json
In our last release cycle, we updated the source code for all DevExpress products so that they no longer reference the third-party Newtonsoft.Json assembly and completed the migration to System.Text.Json assembly/NuGet package for .NET-based products. Refer to the following announcement to learn more in this regard: .NET and .NET Framework — Migration from Newtonsoft.Json to System.Text.Json.
In this release cycle v24.2, we'll complete the migration process and finalize the transition to System.Text.Json assembly/NuGet package.
Pango-based Cross-Platform Drawing Engine End-Of-Life
With the introduction of the Pango-based Cross-Platform Drawing Engine in 2021, DevExpress products were among the first to offer document rendering capabilities for .NET apps running in non-Windows environments (such as Linux or macOS). Leveraging Pango helped us to fine-tune text drawing and measurement output produced by GDI+ , achieving pixel-perfect report printing and export operations.
Starting with .NET 7, GDI+ (System.Drawing library) APIs were designated for use in Windows-only environments.
In light of our plans to adopt .NET 8 this year,and following the release of our cross-platform SkiaSharp-based engine last year, we will refactor our source code to remove all method calls related to GDI+ in non-Windows environments (libgdiplus) and the Pango-based engine. We will discontinue availability of the DevExpress.CrossPlatform.Printing.DrawingEngine package.
Deprecation of the AzureCompatibility Property for Apps Windows Environment
Multiple DevExpress products (Reporting, BI Dashboard, and Office File API) ship with printing and exporting functionality for restricted environments such as Microsoft Azure (where certain GDI/GDI+ calls related to metafiles and font objects are unavailable). The AzureCompatibility.Enable property manages this functionality.
In v23.2, we ended support for the functionality offered by this property toggle for non-Windows environments. In our upcoming release, we plan to phase out this toggle for Windows-based environments as well. This decision will allow us to concentrate our development/maintenance efforts in a single direction, giving developers the ability to use the aforementioned products in cloud/restricted environments via our Skia-based Cross-Platform Graphics Engine.
Cloud Services Integration & Deployment
SqlDataSource — Microsoft Azure SQL Support with Microsoft Entra Authentication
We will add support for Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure Active Directory) authentication in SqlDataSource for Microsoft Azure SQL databases. This update will allow you to seamlessly connect to Azure SQL databases using modern and secure authentication methods. We will extend the MsSqlAuthorizationType enumeration with the following types (mirroring those found in .NET):
- ActiveDirectoryPassword
- ActiveDirectoryIntegrated
- ActiveDirectoryInteractive
- ActiveDirectoryDefault
The latter three options will require use of theMicrosoft.Data.SqlClient NuGet package in your application.
Automatically Resolve Missing Fonts
We expect to introduce a new built-in method or API to automatically detect missing fonts in your application’s hosting environment (such as various Docker images, Azure App Service, etc.), download them from Google Fonts, and add them to the DXFontRepository. This implementation is based on the approach detailed in the following blog post: How to Manage Fonts and Deliver a Unified User Experience when Using DevExpress Reports and Office File API. This enhancement will ensure that the reports appear as designed, regardless of the hosting platform.
Additionally, we will include an option to log the names of any missing fonts to the application output. This feature will help you identify and resolve document appearance issues.
Note that while Google Fonts are open-source, not all fonts are free for commercial use and may require a license for distribution. We recommend reviewing the associated license agreements to ensure compliance with usage rights for your specific needs.
.NET Aspire Integration
We are exploring ways in which to utilize the .NET Aspire framework to facilitate the integration of DevExpress Reports and associated services into Aspire-based applications (to help you get started in cloud environments such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS). Additionally, we intend to transmit traces to the .NET Aspire Dashboard to monitor the health of report-related infrastructures deployed to cloud environments.
Store Exported Documents in Azure Blob and AWS S3 Bucket
We will document/illustrate how to export reports directly to Azure Blob Storage or AWS S3 Bucket. This feature will allow users to obtain a link to the exported file for straightforward distribution.
Web Report Viewer — SVG Print Preview
In our next release, we will introduce an option to enable SVG-based print preview functionality within the DevExpress Web Report Viewer. This enhancement will reduce the viewer's memory footprint when transferring report page data between the server and client (i.e., when navigating through the document, zooming the document, etc.). This enhancement will also enable users to preview reports with high fidelity using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), ensuring sharp and clear representations of report elements.
Export Enhancements
HTML Export — Preserve Rotated Text
We will introduce expanded text rotation options for reports exported to HTML. With this update, the XRLabel control in resulting HTML files will preserve the text rotation defined by its Angle property (supported angles are 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees, and their negative counterparts). This enhancement will ensure that your DevExpress Reports-powered document's text orientation is accurately maintained during HTML export, providing a consistent visual appearance across different formats.
PDF Export — Export Bookmarks
With this new feature, you will be able to simplify/enhance navigation for PDF documents generated from your reports. Bookmarks added to your report will now be preserved in the exported PDF document, allowing users to quickly jump to specific sections within large documents.
DateOnly & TimeOnly Support
We will introduce support for DateOnly and TimeOnly values across DevExpress Reports. This update will allow you to utilize the aforementioned types when:
- creating expression bindings
- report and query parameters
- calculated fields
- and when sorting, grouping, and filtering data.
Refer to the What's New in v24.1 to learn more about recent enhancements in this particular space.
New AI-Powered Enhancements
We will integrate AI-Powered Summarize and Translate features into our Report Viewer components. These enhancements will allow users to quickly understand/analyze core insights associated with a given report (using Generative AI summaries) and convert report documents to a desired language with AI-powered translation tools.
To leverage these capabilities, you will need to use your own Microsoft Azure Open AI API key or use offline open-source models powered by Ollama and/or Onnx Runtime.
Miscellaneous
Report Designer — Dimension Notations
To simplify the report design process, v24.2 will introduce dimension notations within the DevExpress Report Designer. When you resize controls, the designer will provide precise visual feedback and display dimension notations based on a specified ReportUnit property value (such as inches, centimeters, or pixels).
New Barcode Types — Aztec & Micro QR Code
Our next major update will support the following Barcode types: Aztec and Micro QR Code
Aztec barcodes offer a compact/efficient way to encode large amounts of data without requiring a quiet zone, making them ideal for space-constrained documents.
Micro QR Codes offer a smaller alternative to traditional QR Codes, suitable for space-limited output (where only small amounts of data require encoding).
Blazor Reporting Components
Text Selection and Copying to Clipboard
The DevExpress Blazor Report Viewer will allow end-users to select and copy report content.
Shortcuts for macOS
We will duplicate shortcuts for Blazor Report Designer and Report Viewer tailored for macOS users (utilizing the Command ⌘ key).
Custom Parameters Validation
A new API will allow you to implement custom validation rules for report parameter inputs, including enforcing mandatory parameters.
Incremental Search in Parameters
We will introduce incremental searching for parameters linked to data collections.
Interactive Margins
Users will have the ability to modify document margins directly within a Report Viewer interface.
React & Angular Report Viewers
Accessibility Enhancements
We expect to address a number of accessibility-related issues in our v24.2 release cycle.
React Project Templates
To help you deliver React-based Reporting applications in the shortest possible time, we will extend our Reporting Application Template gallery to include sample React projects.
Your Feedback Counts
Please take a moment to share your thoughts on the features/enhancements outlined in this post (v24.2 is set to ship in early December 2024).
What's New in v24.1
If you have yet to review the features/capabilities introduced in our most recent major update, please visit the following webpage and let us know what you think of this release by responding to our online survey: Explore Our Newest Features (v24.1).