As you already know, the DevExpress WinForms Data Grid ships with a collection of multi-purpose Data Views, allowing you to present information to your end-users in the most efficient manner possible.
With this release, we’ve extended the capabilities of our Grid with a new Windows 8 inspired Tile View – designed to augment the capabilities of our existing Card View and deliver yet another unique UI presentation option for your next WinForms application.
Card Views vs Tile Views
If you’ve used our Data Grid in the past, you are likely familiar with the Card View, a compact way to display information within the grid’s container:
Our new Tile View (pictured below) is a perfect complement to traditional Data Cards. Inspired by Windows 8, the Tile View combines the ease-of-use you’ve come to expect from our Grid with modern tile UI elements such as tile checked states.
How it Works
The easiest way to think about this new Data View option is to think of a Windows 8 style Tile Control that can be bound to any data source. The View displays data within the grid using a Modern UI metaphor and does not require that you build individual tiles manually. With our integrated designer, you simply design a tile template once and apply it to the data within the grid. Like other DevExpress Data Views, the Tile View provides a rich set of options to customize every aspect of individual tiles. The View Designer displays a list of all columns generated from your data source. With just one click, you can add a tile UI element bound to this column.
Tile UI elements are able to display text and/or images, which in turn are used to build your tile layout (this concept will be familiar to those of you who've used our Windows 8 Tile Control). With this new View option, you will be able to quickly build intuitive user experiences that are optimized for both touch devices and traditional Windows desktops.
As always, we welcome your comments and feedback. Let us know what you think.