DevExpress WinForms 19.1

.NET Core 3 Preview 5 Support

• In addition to DevExpress assemblies built against .NET Framework 4.5.2, there are new packages built against .NET Core 3. These packages contain the same set of DevExpress WinForms controls and allow you to test your applications in the .NET Core 3 environment even before its official release.

Data Grid

• Find Panel - Parser Kind and Filter Condition - Implemented two new options that let you fine-tune how the data-aware controls (Data Grid, Tree List, Vertical Grid) parse a search string entered into the Find Panel.
  • Parser Kind. Specifies whether the control should look for all or any of the words in the specified search string.
  • Filter Condition. Options include: Contains, StartsWith, Equals, Like.
• New Format Rules: Highlight Cell Value Changes - Highlight a cell with a custom icon or color if its value increases, decreases, or simply changes. Custom appearance settings will be reset after the specified time interval elapses.
• Animated Format Rules - If you use a Format Rule to highlight cell value changes, you can enhance the presentation using the following animations effects:
  • Fade in / out effects for icons
  • Gradual color change
  • Animated progress bars
• Repeat Fixed Columns on Each Printed Page - Added an option to repeat left-fixed columns and bands if the control is printed out or exported to a page-based format (PDF, DOCX and RTF).

Charting

• Segment Colorizers - You can now use the following segment colorizers to enhance data visualization.
  • Trend Segment Colorizer
  • Range Segment Colorizer
  • Point-based Segment Colorizer
• Center-Align Axes - The Chart control allows you to center-align axes within the plot area.
• Y-Axis Label Rotation (Polar and Radar Charts) - Polar and Radar charts now allow you to display Y-axis labels at an angle.
• Axis Label Position and Alignment - The chart control introduces the following options:
  • Display axis labels inside or outside of plot region.
  • Change label alignment relative to tick marks (Near, Far, Center).
• Histogram - DevExpress Chart control now allows you to generate Histograms. Features include:
  • Histogram aggregation function.
  • Excel-inspired histogram calculation modes (automatic, bin width, bin number).
  • Interval information display within axis labels.
  • Customizable label text for Overflow and Underflow bins.
  • Ability to align grid lines and tick marks with bins and to center axis labels.

Diagram

• Collapsible Containers - Users can now collapse and expand container content. To activate this feature, set the DiagramContainer.CanCollapse property to true.
• Export to PDF

Data Editors

• PictureEdit - Image Editor Dialog - PictureEdit now supports simple edit operations in a separate Image Editor dialog: crop, rotate, adjust brightness and contrast, etc. Live preview and undo and redo operations are available. To invoke the dialog, end-users need to select Edit from the context menu.
• Simple Button - Light Paint Style - The new Light style was specifically designed so you can create a group of borderless buttons (SimpleButton, CheckButton and DropDownButton). If this new style is enabled, buttons render their background only when hovered or pressed/selected.
• Clear Text to Reset Edit Value to Null - Users can now clear an editor's text to reset its value to null. This behavior is controlled by the AllowNullInput option and supported by DevExpress data editors with the built-in auto-search functionality (PopupBaseAutoSearchEdit descendants): Combo Boxes, Look-up Editors, MRU Editor, etc. The new behavior is enabled for in-place cell editors and disabled for standalone editors by default.

Filtering UI

• Breadcrumb Style Filter Panel - The Filter Panel now supports a new visual style displayed in the image below. In this format, end-users can easily differentiate between colorized filter items, modify or clear individual filter conditions. This style is available in DevExpress WinForms Data Grid, Pivot Grid, Tree List, and Vertical Grid controls.
• Filter Editor: New Display Style - This release introduces a new display style for standalone and integrated Filter Editors. The new style renders filter conditions in an easy-to-read format and uses skin-defined colors to clearly distinguish between operands and operators.
• Expression Editor Customization - When end-users apply criteria-based format rules, they use the built-in Expression Editor. Now you can handle the 'FormatRuleExpressionEditorCreated' event to access and customize the this dialog. This event is available in the Data Grid and TreeList controls.
• Find Panel - Highlight Result Enhancements
  • The Find Panel integrated into the Data Grid, TreeList and Vertical Grid now highlights results in cells, even if cell text is formatted using HTML tags (RepositoryItemHypertextLabel).
  • If a search string contains two or more words, all found words are highlighted (even if found within the same cell). In previous versions, only one word was highlighted.
• Custom Functions - You can now create custom filter functions. Custom functions will be available to end-users in Excel-Inspred Filter Dropdowns and in "Custom Functions" menu in the Filter Editor. To add a custom function, enable the 'ColumnView.OptionsFilter.ShowCustomFunctions' property and handle the 'ColumnView.QueryCustomFunctions' event.
• New default editor for operands and operators Filter Builder dialog - Operands and operators in the GridControl's Filter Builder now use scrollable combo boxes as default editors.

Layout and Navigation

• New Toolbar Form - Inspired by the Visual Studio 2019 UI, the new ToolbarForm allows you to add bar items (buttons, editors, labels, submenu items) directly into the form's title bar.
• New TablePanel and StackPanel Controls - Two new lightweight panels allow you to build simple data entry forms without employing the Layout Control.
  • Stack Panel - inspired by the standard WPF StackPanel container, this panel arranges all of its child controls in a single column or row. Any control placed inside this panel can stretch to occupy all available space.
  • Table Panel - allows you to create a grid, where each cell can host a control. The grid supports column and row spans, meaning that a control can occupy several consecutive cells. Columns and rows support three sizing modes: absolute, relative, and auto-size.
• Compact Layout Mode - A new Project Settings option reduces padding and/or margin values for all controls that support DevExpress skins/themes. Use this option to display more information on screen in data-intensive applications.
• Layout Control - Acrylic Effect Support - The Layout Control now supports Acrylic accent (partial transparency) when it is placed on a DevExpress form.
• Office 2019 Ribbon Enhancements
  • Ribbon buttons can be displayed within the tab header area.
  • Users can search for Ribbon commands by their names using the Search item.

Map Control

• The DevExpress Map Control ships with the following new features:
  • Ability to specify a custom zoom step.
  • Item attributes can be exported to KML.
  • Map items can be exported to WKT.
• The Map Editor includes:
  • A new notification event (MapEditor.MapItemEditing): Allows you to track actions executed during map shape edit operations.
  • Ability to cancel item creation (see the MapItemCreatingEventArgs.Cancel option).
• Geometric Measurements - This new API allows you to compute various geometric values based on geo coordinates:
  • Areas
  • Distance between two points
  • The center of two points
  • Perimeter
  • Angles
• Simplify Map Shapes - You can now simplify high detailed vector shapes before displaying them on a map. This makes the Map Control load and visualize shapes faster, and helps users to get a better experience by reducing CPU and memory consumption without losing map quality on low zoom levels.
• Shapes with Custom Images - You can set a geo-referenced raster image as a map polygon's background. The Map Control can show these images together with image tiles provided by a map provider (Bing or OpenStreetMaps).

PDF Viewer

• Predefined CMaps for CID Fonts Support - The DevExpress PDF Viewer supports CID fonts with predefined CMaps (used for CJK characters). The PDF Viewer displays these fonts when DirectX rendering is enabled.
• Skinned Save/Open File Dialogs - DevExpress WinForms PDF Viewer now supports skinned 'Open File' and 'Save File' dialogs. Use the 'WindowsFormsSettings.UseDXDialogs' option to enable these dialogs in your application.

Pivot Grid

• DirectX Support - You can now enable DirectX render in the WinForms PivotGrid Control.
• Performance Enhancements - The DevExpress in-memory data processing engine is now used by default.

Rich Text Editor

• Track Changes Support - You can now load and export documents with revisions made via the Track Changes feature.
• RTL Enhancements - New capabilities supported for Right-to-Left text:
• Paragraph alignment (Justify Low, Justify Medium, Justify High)
• Line numbering
• UI commands: alignment, indents, bulleted and numbered lists
• Distributed Paragraph Justification for East-Asian Languages - The control now supports 'Distributed' and 'Thai Distributed' paragraph alignment options.
• DOCX and DOC File Encryption - The WinForms/WPF Rich Text Editors and Word Document API support DOCX and DOC file encryption. You can encrypt documents with standard or agile encryption.
• HR Tag Support - You can now load, print and export documents with HTML 'HR' tags (a horizontal rule).
• Skinned Save/Open File Dialogs - DevExpress WinForms Rich Text Editor now supports skinned DevExpress 'Open File' and 'Save File' dialogs. Use the 'WindowsFormsSettings.UseDXDialogs' option to enable skinned dialogs in your application.

Scheduler

• Appointment Slots for Office Hours, Meeting Availability, etc. - The WinForms Scheduler Control now supports Time Region objects that apply restrictions and appearance settings to time cells. You can use this functionality to disable individual time cells so that users cannot add new or modify existing appointments. For instance, you can block lunch hours or days off. Time Regions can be Resource-specific.
• Sort and Group Appointments Using a Custom Algorithm - New events allow you to group and sort appointments using custom algorithms:
  • CustomAppointmentGroup
  • CustomAppointmentSort
• Timeline View - Remove Time Intervals - Two new time scales are now available in Timeline Views: WorkHour and WorkDay. The base TimeScale object now provides a new method that allows you to hide unwanted time intervals from the View.

Skins and Vector Icons

• New Image Option - Colorization Mode - You can now specify whether SVG icons should be automatically colored based on the active Skin. Set the 'ImageOptions.ImageColorizationMode' property to 'None' to show vector images as in their original colors.
• Project Settings Palette Editor - You can now create and modify vector skin palettes using the DevExpress Project Settings page.
• The edit dialog displays hints that explain the purpose of every skin color in the list.
• The preview area highlights the skin elements painted with the selected color.
• You can quickly design custom color palettes even if you never used the Skin Editor before and do not have a deep knowledge of DevExpress themes.
• Visual Studio 2019 Bezier Palette - v19.1 introduces a new Visual Studio 2019 palette for the vector Bezier skin.
• SVG Image Picker - Image Validation - When you assign a custom vector icon to a control, the Image Picker dialog now analyzes the icon you've selected and displays the list of unsupported elements.
• Gradient Fills for SVG Icons - The WinForms controls can display SVG icons with linear and radial gradients.
• Design-Time Image Picker - Raster Icons - The design-time Image Picker was first introduced in November 2018 and allowed you to replace raster graphics with vector images. In v19.1, the Image Picker adds a collection of DevExpress raster icons. SVG and PNG icons are split into two tabs.
• SVG Icon Builder - Custom Icon Support - The SVG Icon Builder allows you to load and edit custom SVG icons.

Spreadsheet

• New Layout Engine - Implemented a new layout calculation engine for the Spreadsheet control. The new engine improves layout accuracy, increases render and scroll performance, and enhances printing capabilities. To switch back to the legacy layout engine, turn on the 'SpreadsheetCompatibilityOption.EnableLegacyLayoutEngine' option.
• Simplified Formula Creation - You can use cell ranges from other worksheets and select cells with the keyboard when you create or edit formulas.
• Multi-Threaded Calculations - The WinForms Spreadsheet now supports multi-threaded calculations. You can specify the number of calculation threads via the 'CalculationOptions.ThreadCount' property. To disable multi-threaded calculations, disable the 'CalculationOptions.EnableMultiThreading' option.
• Excel 2016 Functions - The WinForms Spreadsheet control now supports the following Excel 2016 functions:
  • CONCAT
  • TEXTJOIN
  • IFS
  • SWITCH
  • MAXIFS
  • MINIFS
• Rich Text Display - The WinForms Spreadsheet control can now display rich text within worksheet cells. Documents with rich text can also be printed and exported to PDF. This capability is available only in controls that use the new layout engine.
• Print / Export Rich Text Headers and Footers - The WinForms Spreadsheet control can now print and export (to PDF) documents that contain rich formatted text and inline pictures within headers and footers. This capability is only available if the new layout engine is used.
• Black and White Print Mode - The WinForms Spreadsheet control allows you to print documents in black and white.
• Custom Comment Indicators - Handle the 'SpreadsheetControl.CustomDrawCommentIndicator' event to customize a comment indicator's appearance.
• Performance Enhancements - The formula calculation engine is now nearly five times faster. Insert/delete operations within documents with numerous merged cells are almost six times faster.
• Skinned Open/Save Dialogs - The WinForms Spreadsheet control now supports skinned DevExpress Open and Save dialogs. Use the 'WindowsFormsSettings.UseDXDialogs' option to enable these dialogs in your application.
• API Enhancements - New events allow you to control the drag-and-drop and fill operations for a cell range. New events include:
  • BeforeDragRange
  • BeforeDropRange
  • AfterDropRange
  • BeforeFillRange
  • AfterFillRange

Sunburst Control

• Item Label Layout Enhancements - Added two new item label layouts:
  • Horizontal
  • Tangent
• The Sunburst control now supports adaptive label layout. This new functionality automatically adjusts label position depending on available display area (the SunburtLabel.AutoLayout option).

Tree List

• Find Panel: Search Mode - The updated Search Panel, introduced in v18.2 as part of the Data Grid, is now available in the Tree List control. In addition to the "Filter" mode, the Search Panel can operate in the "Search" mode as well. In this new mode, the Tree List highlights matching records, but doesn't hide other nodes. The Next/Previous buttons allow users to quickly navigate between all matches found.
• Scrollbar Annotations - The WinForms TreeList control now supports Scrollbar Annotations. They mark the position of invalid values, the focused node, and rows that match the Search Panel condition.
• Repeat Fixed Columns on Each Printed Page - Added an option to repeat left-fixed columns and bands if the control is printed out or exported to a page-based format (PDF, DOCX and RTF).

Vertical Grid

• DirectX Support - You can now enable DirectX render in the WinForms Vertical Grid and Property Grid controls.
• Property Grid Control Enhancements
  • You can now paint PropertyGrid values using the UITypeEditor. Enable the AllowPaintValue option to activate the UITypeEditor's PaintValue method.
  • PropertyDescriptionControl now supports automatic height adjustment.

Miscellaneous

• Transition Manager - DirectX-based Transition Effects - Transition Manager component can now use its DirectX-powered painter to render smoother, higher-quality animation effects. In addition the previously available "horizontal" effects, this release has implemented a new "Zoom" animation. When users navigate to an application module and back, this animation creates an illusion of zooming in and out from the current screen, adding depth to your applications.
• Adorner UI Manager Enhancements - Adorner UI Manager now supports the following elements:
  • XtraTabbedMdiManager tab headers
  • DocumentManager TabbedView tab headers
  • LayoutControl group tab headers
• Data Deserialization Security Enhancements - To minimize vulnerability risks, this release introduces new data deserialization policies:
  • .NET Desktop controls now automatically detect potentially dangerous data types and block their deserialization
  • Visual Controls now (de)serialize their Tag property only if this property contains data of a primitive type, string, decimal, DateTime, TimeSpan or Guid.
  • The sort, group and MRU filter configuration is now (de)serialized in text format. The MRU filter history, if saved in previous versions, cannot be deserialized
• Thick Form Borders - XtraForm and RibbonForm can display think borders to simplify resizing operations when shadow/glow effects are disabled.
• HTML Text Formatting Enhancements (Data Grid, TreeList, and Vertical Grid)
  • You can now use HTML formatting to display images in cells (RepositoryItemHypertextLabel). Images can be added to the control's 'HtmlImages' collection.
  • Filter popups support HTML value formatting applied to data cells.
• Microsoft Office Style Resize Grip Areas - DevExpress WinForms Form controls now ship with enlarged resize grip areas in their corners.