Database Connectivity / WPF Controls (Windows Presentation Foundation Controls & WPF Components) / Embarcadero / CodeGear (Tools & Components)

What is WPF? WPF stands for Windows Presentation Foundation and is part of the Microsoft .NET Framework that helps you create Windows based forms inside your application on Windows based PCs and servers. (When Microsoft were developing WPF it was also known as project Avalon). The WPF technology can be viewed as the next step on from Windows Forms or WinForms by Microsoft and provides support for vector graphics, as such WPF apps can produce a better look and feel, particularly for high-definition imaging and graphics applications, than traditional Windows Forms. WPF is not aimed at Web site & Intranet developers as Microsoft has another .NET Technology called Silverlight. WPF is aimed at desktop app developers.

What is a WPF Control? A WPF control is a reusable software component that you can add you your WPF form to enable the user to control the application, enter data and display data on their screen at run-time. A WPF control is a piece of code that has been pre-built by another WPF developer or third party WPF controls creator that can be easily added to your WPF based app to extend the functionality fast. For example, you will find complex Gantt scheduling WPF controls on our Web site for you to add resource scheduling, planning and timetabling functionality to your WPF program, without you needing to develop and support all those basic WPF scheduling controls.

What is a WPF Component? WPF components are different from WPF controls in that they can be non-visual and can to be running hidden in the background of your app. WPF controls are a subset of WPF components, so all WPF controls are also WPF components, but not all WPF components are visible to the user. For example, you can get a WPF data compression component that runs in the background compressing and decompressing the size of data files using common data compression techniques such as ZIP, but this WPF component and its activity is not visible to the user.

In this filtered view of our complete .NET component product catalog, you will find a WPF controls gallery and also some WPF components that you can download, compare, review, try and buy, to add to your WPF app. The Windows Presentation Foundation area of the market is rapidly expanding, so if you wish to find all the latest WPF News about third party WPF products, then subscribe to our WPF News RSS feed to keep up to date.

In this filtered view of our main product catalog, you will find a selection of products that are compatible with Embarcadero Technologies products, as well as CodeGear products that were formerly owned by Borland Software. Embarcadero bought CodeGear in June, 2008, CodeGear was previously a division of Borland, making the Borland IDEs known as: Borland Delphi, Borland C++ Builder and Borland JBuilder. These products were sometimes referred to as CodeGear Delphi, CodeGear C++ Builder and CodeGear JBuilder, but are now known as Embarcadero Delphi XE and Embarcadero C++ Builder XE. Plus there is an Embarcadero developer tool suite, consisting of all .NET Embarcadero developer tools known as Embarcadero RAD Studio XE. JBuilder is also available from Embarcadero, along with other Embarcadero database tools.

This Embarcadero product gallery or CodeGear marketplace is full of products that are compatible with the Embarcadero product range, CodeGear tools and Borland dev tools. For Delphi developers there are Delphi components available as CodeGear VCL products, there are CodeGear components and Borland library products that will work with both your old Borland IDE, Borland C++ Builder and the new Embarcadero IDE environments, such as Embarcadero C++ Builder XE. The products here are compatible with CodeGear tools (formerly Borland tools) and can be evaluated by downloading the product trial from the CodeGear download page for each specific CodeGear tool or CodeGear component that you are investigating. You can then evaluate the CodeGear library or CodeGear extension downloaded, read the CodeGear reviews written and posted by other CodeGear developers about it or as a CodeGear developer you could write a CodeGear review yourself.

You will find lots of mature products that are: Borland .Net compatible tools, Borland component products, Borland tools, Borland libraries and many newer or up to date products that are: CodeGear tools, CodeGear component extensions, CodeGear tools or CodeGear libraries. Finally, for the newer and more up to date products, you can read the Embarcadero News pages, that highlight the Embarcadero product news every time a new Embarcadero compatible product is released. This Embarcadero News feed is also available as an Embarcadero News RSS data feed for you to subscribe to, so that you can keep up to date with all the latest Embarcadero product news.