Released: Dec 12, 2024
Updates in 24.2
Funktionen
.NET 9 Support
- DevExpress WPF component libraries now support .NET 9.
New Template Kit
- v24.2 includes The new cross-IDE Template Kit for .NET (available as a Community Technology Preview). This new gallery is built atop the dotnet CLI and is available across multiple IDEs. This extension is available for Visual Studio 2022 on Windows, with plans to expand support to Rider for Windows and additional operating systems in the future.
- The new project templates address a broader range of usage scenarios when compared to The previous Template Gallery for .NET Framework (shipped as part of the DevExpress WPF distribution).
DateOnly & TimeOnly Support
- DateOnly & TimeOnly Support in WPF DateEdit
- The Date Editor directly supports DateOnly and TimeOnly types (simply set the DateEdit.MaskType property to DateOnly/TimeOnly). When you choose TimeOnly, the DevExpress WPF Date Editor automatically displays a time selection dropdown.
- TimeOnly Column Filters in Grid and TreeList
- The Data Grid now features enhanced quick filters for TimeOnly values within its Excel-inspired Column Filter. To use these filters, open the column filter popup, go to the Filter Rules tab, and select Time Intervals.
- TimeOnly Seconds Rounding in Grid and TreeList
- To simplify filtering, The WPF Data Grid control automatically rounds TimeOnly values to the nearest minute. If your data source includes TimeOnly values that differ by seconds or milliseconds, these values will be combined into a single filtering entity. On the UI side, DevExpress have simplified interval-based criteria (to improve usability) within both the Filter Panel and AutoFilter Row.
- DateOnly & TimeOnly Editors in Grid, Tree List and Property Grid
- The WPF Grid, TreeList, and Property Grid controls now automatically use an appropriate data editor (with relevant settings) when an edited object uses DateOnly or TimeOnly properties. Data editors are assigned to data cells, filters, and conditional formatting dialogs.
- New TimeOnly Functions
- This release adds new TimeOnly-specific criteria functions to The criteria language and WPF Grid-based UI controls (Data Grid, TreeList, PropertyGrid).
Grid Control
- Multi Cell Editing
- Microsoft Excel allows you to select multiple cells and apply text changes by pressing Ctrl + Enter (instead of Enter). DevExpress have added a similar feature to the WPF Grid control, allowing users to apply identical values to multiple cells simultaneously. To enable this functionality, set GridControl.SelectionMode to Cell and GridControl.MultiCellEditMode to FocusedColumn/AllColumns.
Map Control
- Azure Maps Support
- The DevExpress WPF MapControl can now display Microsoft Azure Maps data. Use the AzureMapDataProvider provider to obtain raster image tiles.
PDF Viewer
- Obtain Pages Selected in the Page Thumbnails Panel
- The new PdfViewer.GetSelectedThumbnailPageIndexes method allows you to obtain the indexes of the pages selected in the Page Thumbnails panel. You can extract, delete, or export selected pages within the DevExpress PDF Viewer.
Reporting
- WPF Report Designer - Dimension Notations
- To simplify the report design process, this update introduces dimension notations within the WPF Report Designer. When you resize controls, the designer provides precise visual feedback and displays dimension notations based on a specified ReportUnit property value (such as inches, centimeters, or pixels).
Rich Text Editor
- SmallCaps Formatting
- The DevExpress WPF Rich Text Editor supports Small Caps character formatting. Word documents with Small Caps formatting can be previewed, printed, and exported to PDF.
- Page Borders
- The WPF Rich Text Editor now supports page borders. Word documents with page borders can be saved without content loss, previewed, printed and exported to PDF.
- DevExpress also implemented APIs designed to manage page borders in code. Borders can be set for each document section individually. Use the Section.PageBorders property to access and modify borders for a specific section.
- Paragraph Borders API
- DevExpress implemented new APIs to manage Word document paragraph borders in code. With these new APIs, you can add borders to document paragraphs, change border style, color, and thickness for each border type (Top, Left, Right, Bottom or Horizontal) individually, or remove border formatting. Additionally, it is possible to manage paragraph border settings for paragraph styles and list levels in numbered lists.
- Alt Text for Tables
- Table.Title and Table.Description properties allow you to specify alternative, text-based representations of the information contained in a Word document table. Table title and description are also used when you export a Word document to an accessible PDF format.
- AI-powered Alt Text Dialog for Images
- v24.2 ships with a new AI-powered Alt Text dialog. The Alt Text dialog allows you to set accessible descriptions for shape objects in Word documents or mark non-informative document graphics as Decorative (this setting allows screen readers to ignore decorative graphics when scanning documents). In addition, you can use the Alt Text dialog to generate the meaningful descriptions for document images using the power of AI.
- Macros API
- The Document.VbaProject property allows you to programmatically access a VBA project stored in a macro-enabled Word file. Use the VbaProject.Modules collection to obtain information about VBA project modules (the number of modules, their names, and binary data) or remove a specific module from the project. If the current document format does not support macros or a macro-enabled document does not contain macros, the VbaProject.Modules collection is empty.
Spreadsheet
- Dynamic Array Formulas
- DevExpress enhanced the formula calculation engine and integrated dynamic arrays into the WPF Spreadsheet UI Control. Unlike standard array formulas, which return a single value for each cell with a formula, dynamic array functions return a dynamic array of values (this array of values automatically spills into neighboring cells).
- Embed Images in Cells
- The WPF Spreadsheet Control supports images embedded directly into worksheet cells (Microsoft Excel's "Place in Cell" option). You can import documents with images embedded in worksheet cells and save them to the XLSX format (without the content loss).
- DevExpress also ship new APIs designed to manage cell embedded images in code. Embedded images are stored as cell values. To determine if a cell has an embedded image, use the CellValue.IsCellImage property. Use the CellValue.ImageValue property to obtain cell image value as an OfficeImage object (allows you to check image format or obtain image bytes). To insert an image in a cell, assign it to the CellRange.Value property.
- Additionally, DevExpress implemented options to specify image Alt Text (a meaningful description) values and the ability to mark a cell image as decorative. These settings are available via the Cell.ImageInfo property.
- AI-powered AltText Dialog for Images
- The new AI-powered Alt Text dialog allows you to set accessible descriptions for shape objects in Excel documents or mark non-informative document graphics as Decorative (this setting allows screen readers to ignore decorative graphics when scanning documents). You can use the Alt Text dialog to generate meaningful descriptions for document images using the power of AI.
- Justify & Distributed Vertical Text Alignment
- v24.2 adds support for Justify and Distributed vertical alignment types within Spreadsheet cells. Excel files with these alignment options can be previewed, printed and exported to PDF.
Keyboard Navigation & Screen Reader Enhancements
- WPF Data Grid - Column Header Navigation
- Users can now focus column headers in the Data Grid and execute all header-related actions with the keyboard. To enable header navigation, set TableView.AllowHeaderNavigation to true. This allows you to focus the header panel using arrow keys.
- WPF Data Grid - Shortcuts to Expand & Collapse Detail Rows
- You can now use the Ctrl + Plus and Ctrl + Minus shortcuts to expand and collapse detail rows in the WPF Data Grid.
- WPF Data Grid - Shortcuts to Switch Detail Tabs
- When multiple tabs are added to row details, you can switch between them using the Ctrl + 1 through Ctrl + 9 shortcuts.
- WPF Card View - Expand & Collapse Shortcuts
- DevExpress added Ctrl + Plus and Ctrl + Minus shortcuts to expand/collapse cards within the WPF Card View.
- WPF ButtonEdit – Focus Editor Buttons
- You can now focus buttons within ButtonEdit descendants and trigger associated actions. To enable this functionality, set ButtonEdit.AllowFocusEditorButtons to true.
- Column Chooser - Keyboard Navigation
- The WPF Data Grid Column Chooser supports keyboard navigation. Use the Space key to select/deselect columns.
- WPF ImageEdit - Toolbox Button Navigation
- Users can now navigate toolbar buttons within the ImageEdit and trigger associated actions using the keyboard.
- WPF HyperLinkEdit - Visible Focus State
- In previous versions, the WPF HyperLinkEdit did not display a focused state. Users can now see when the control is focused and activate an associated action using the Space key.
- WPF Data Grid - Screen Reader Enhancements
- The DevExpress WPF Data Grid ships with the following new capabilities:
- Update buttons (when using Edit Entire Row mode) are now detectable and can be read by screen readers (you can display these buttons by enabling the TableView.ShowUpdateRowButtons option).
- Alt text for images exported to Excel. As you know, in The previous update, DevExpress added in-place image Excel export support. This release extends the XlsExportOptionsEx.CustomizeCell event, allowing you to set alt text for exported images.
- Text within group rows is now pronounced when you navigate to a group in a detail grid.
AI-powered Extensions
- DevExpress AI-powered APIs allow you to integrate the following AI services into your DevExpress-powered WPF application:
- OpenAI.
- Azure OpenAI.
- Semantic Kernel.
- Ollama.
- AI-powered WPF Text Processing
- NLP-powered text transform extensions (behaviors) allow you to enhance the way users interact with and manage text content. These extensions leverage advanced natural language processing (NLP) technologies to provide automated, intelligent text manipulation capabilities directly within your DevExpress-powered WPF application.
- WPF Text and Memo Edit - Text Predictions
- You can now display smart text suggestions in the Text and Memo Editors. Pressing the Tab key will apply a suggestion, allowing users to enter information faster, avoid spelling errors, etc.
- AI Chat Control
- Thanks to Blazor Hybrid technology and BlazorWebView, you can incorporate the new Blazor AI Chat (DxAIChat) component within your WPF application.
- WPF Rich Text Editor & Spreadsheet - Alt Text Dialogs
- DevExpress added new AI-powered Alt Text dialogs for The WPF Rich Text Editor and Spreadsheet Control.
- The Alt Text dialog allows you to set accessible descriptions for shape objects used within Word and Excel documents. You can also mark non-informative document graphics as Decorative (when this setting is used, screen readers ignore decorative graphics when scanning documents). In addition, you can use the Alt Text dialog to generate meaningful descriptions for document images using the power of AI.