As you may know, our next major update (v24.2) will ship in December. In this post, I'll summarize some of the features/capabilities available in our early access (EAP) build. Before I begin — a quick reminder: If you are an active Universal or DXperience subscriber and want to explore upcoming v24.2-related features/capabilities before official release, you can download our EAP build via the DevExpress Download Manager. Should you encounter issues with the EAP build, please submit a support ticket using the DevExpress Support Center.
.NET 9 Support
Our new v24.2 release supports .NET 9 Preview, which focuses on cloud-native applications and performance. To explore the features of this new .NET version, you can create a new Microsoft .NET 9 web app and add DevExpress resources. If you'd like to learn more about Blazor-specific enhancements in .NET 9, please review the following Microsoft article: What's New in ASP.NET Core 9.0.
.NET 8, .NET Framework 4.6.2, Visual Studio 2019 Will Be Minimally Supported Versions for DevExpress Libraries (v24.2+)
Learn more about this global change in this announcement.
New Blazor AI Chat Component
Whether looking to assist customer service representatives with suggested replies and relevant customer data, streamline repetitive tasks such as data entry and invoice processing, or adding a versatile AI-powered virtual assistant to your next Blazor app, look no further than the DevExpress Blazor AI Chat Component.
For more information, please refer to the following blog post: New DevExpress AI-Powered Blazor Chat Component.
New Blazor Sankey
The DevExpress Blazor Sankey helps you describe flow magnitude between value sets. You can use Sankeys to display a many-to-many mapping between two domains or multiple paths through a set of stages (e.g., how Google Analytics displays traffic flow between pages on your website). The DevExpress Blazor Sankey component ships with the following capabilities:
- Configurable nodes and links
- Customizable node labels
- User interaction options (hover and clicks)
- Export and printing support
- Sankey element customization: title, subtitle, and tooltips.
To explore the capabilities of the EAP-version of the DevExpress Sankey, please review the following Tutorial.
New Buttons — DropDown Button and Split Button
The new Blazor DropDown Button and Split Button are designed to extend the capabilities of your DevExpress-powered Blazor app and address a variety of usage scenarios. They include the following capabilities:
- Customizable dropdown items or the ability to set a template for dropdown content.
- Predefined RenderStyle and RenderStyleMode options.
- Ability to specify custom button content.
To explore the capabilities of the EAP-version of the DevExpress Blazor DropDown Button, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to Utility Controls → DropDown Button. For more information, please refer to the following help topics: Split Button and DropDown Button.
New Blazor Search Box
The DevExpress Blazor Search Box allows you to incorporate a search UI/search functions to your DevExpress-powered Blazor app. The Search Box integrates well with other DevExpress Blazor components and ships with the following capabilities:
- Search delay
- Appearance customization
- Clear button and placeholder
- Custom command buttons
To explore the capabilities of the EAP-version of the DevExpress Blazor Search Box, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to Data Editors → Search Box.
Keyboard Support
To address accessibility standards and improve user experiences for those with disabilities, v24.2 adds keyboard navigation support for the following Blazor UI components:
- Tabs
- Date Range Picker
Blazor TreeList
Editing
The DevExpress Blazor TreeList now supports the following edit modes:
- Edit Form/Popup Edit Form
- Edit Row
- Edit Cell
For all edit modes, you can implement input validation via Data Annotation attributes and configure editors using EditSettings and/or templates.
To explore the EAP-version of TreeList editing functionality, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to TreeList → Edit Data.
Export to Excel
The DevExpress Blazor TreeList can now export data to Excel. With our new APIs, you can save data to XLS, XLSX, and CSV, or stream. The following methods are available:
Data export operations support sorting, filtering, and total computation. You can also pass the ‘options’ parameter to export methods. This parameter allows you to customize the exported document.
To explore the EAP-version of our TreeList Export to Excel feature, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to TreeList → Export. For additional information/examples, please refer to the following help topic: TreeList Export.
New Filter Mode — Nodes
When using our Nodes filter mode, the DevExpress Blazor TreeList displays all nodes that meet current filter criteria as a plain list. This improves TreeList performance when it is bound to a large remote dataset and is useful when finding specific records is more important than keeping the node hierarchy visible.
To explore the EAP-version of this new filter mode, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to TreeList → Filter Data → Filter Row.
Self-Reference Data Binding Enhancements
Our Blazor TreeList can now automatically detect root nodes - nodes whose ParentID values don’t point to other nodes in the source collection. For more precise control, TreeList also exposes aRootValue property. If this property is specified, our TreeList treats all nodes with ParentID values equal to RootValue as root nodes.
Expand All Nodes Automatically
The new AutoExpandAllNodes property expands all nodes when TreeList data is loaded for the first time.
Blazor Data Editors
List Box — Search
Our Blazor List Box now includes a built-in search box (allows users to filter List Box items and highlight search results). The search box is available for both single-column and multi-column modes.
To explore the EAP-version of this feature, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to Data Editors → List Box → Search Box.
Validation API
To better address accessibility standards and improve user experiences, DevExpress Blazor Editors now display validation error icons by default. To reduce visual noise, we’ve disabled our “success” validation state (previously indicated by a green border and icon). The following API members allow you to fine-tune validation appearance as needs dictate:
- ShowValidationIcon - Specifies whether to display validation icons.
- ShowValidationSuccessState - Specifies whether to show a green border and icon after successful validation.
- ValidationEnabled - Specifies whether this component should validate entered data.
All settings are available for individual editors, EditSettings, and GlobalSettings that specify the default behavior for the entire app.
To explore the EAP-version of our new validation API, simply access our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to Data Editors → Common Concepts → Validate Input.
Blazor Tabs
Close Tab Button
In v24.2, you can enable the ShowCloseButton property to control whether the tab’s header displays a Close button. Clicking this button triggers the TabClosing event, which allows you to display a confirmation dialog or implement custom logic before closing the tab.
To explore the capabilities of the EAP-version of DevExpress Blazor Tabs, navigate to our locally installed Blazor demos and proceed to Layout → Tabs → Scroll Mode.
Blazor TreeView
Performance Enhancements
We made changes to our Rendering engine (used in our Navigation suite), resulting in a notable reduction of load time - especially in the TreeView component.
We tested three key scenarios and noted consistent performance improvements. Note that each test run may show different results, but the difference between the two versions remains consistent. The following graphics illustrate internal test results (tested on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics, 32 GB RAM):
Blazor Charts
SSR Support
DevExpress Blazor Chart components ship with an updated internal DOM hierarchy and now support SSR. This allows you to visualize chart data without additional project configuration in .NET 8. When using Interactive Auto render mode, you can use SSR for initial chart rendering and CSR once the Blazor bundle has been downloaded.
Your Feedback Matters
As always, we welcome your feedback. Please take a moment to share your v24.2 EAP-related feedback in the form below: