.NET News

Gain Instant Feedback with Tailored Rating Controls

May 2, 2025
Rating controls offer enhanced user engagement and precise data capture for customer satisfaction through customizable designs.

Rating controls in data editors provide a visually intuitive and standardized method for capturing subjective assessments. Users can interact with visual scales like stars, sliders, or thumbs to express opinions or evaluations on a predefined spectrum. These controls can also be precisely tailored with options like half-star ratings or continuous sliders, allowing for nuanced feedback beyond basic scales and providing a clearer understanding of sentiment that leads to more insightful analysis and better decision-making.

Several .NET WPF data editor collections provide rating controls including:

  • Actipro Editors for WPF offers customizable rating controls, enabling intuitive subjective data capture with flexible scales for detailed user feedback analysis.  
  • ComponentOne WPF Input and Editors (part of ComponentOne Studio WPF by MESCIUS) provides versatile rating controls, facilitating consistent collection of nuanced opinions.
  • Telerik UI for WPF Data Editors (part of Telerik UI for WPF) lets you capture user sentiment with an intuitive, customizable rating control supporting stars, shapes, and precision.
  • DevExpress WPF Data Editors (part of DevExpress WPF) features interactive rating controls, allowing subjective data collection with adaptable scales for enhanced clarity.

For an in-depth analysis of features and price, visit our .NET WPF Data Editors comparison.

Compare .NET WPF Data Editors Components

Diagnose Network Issues with ICMP Support

May 2, 2025
Use ICMP messaging to perform real-time network checks and improve diagnostics directly within your .NET application.

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) support within .NET components, provides developers with essential functionality for diagnosing and managing network connectivity within applications. By enabling interaction with ICMP messages - such as echo requests and replies used in the popular "ping" utility - developers can implement robust network health checks, latency measurements, and reachability assessments. This capability is especially valuable in enterprise environments, where real-time monitoring and diagnostics are crucial for maintaining service reliability and performance.

Several .NET communications and messaging components offer ICMP features including:

  • IPWorks .NET Edition by /n software lets you implement ICMP echo functionality, enabling applications to verify network connectivity and measure round-trip times between hosts. ​
  • SocketTools .NET Edition by Catalyst Development Corp. facilitates sending and receiving ICMP echo datagrams, allowing developers to assess host reachability.
  • Clever Internet .NET Suite for C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET allows you to perform ICMP operations, such as pinging remote hosts, to determine their availability and response times.

For an in-depth analysis of features and price, visit our comparison of .NET communications & messaging components.

Compare .NET Comms & Messaging Components

Boost Security with Support for Strict Key Exchange

April 30, 2025
PowerTCP SSH and SFTP for .NET V8.0 enhances protection against Terrapin attacks by adding support for OpenSSH's "strict kex" mode.

PowerTCP SSH and SFTP for .NET by Dart Communications is a robust component suite designed to simplify secure file transfer and remote shell access within .NET applications. Tailored for developers building enterprise-grade solutions, it offers a comprehensive implementation of the SSH (Secure Shell) and SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) standards. With a focus on reliability and performance, the library supports advanced features such as asynchronous operation, persistent connections, and full control over session parameters. Whether you're automating secure file exchanges or integrating remote server access, PowerTCP SSH and SFTP provides the flexibility and security essential for modern .NET development.

The PowerTCP SSH and SFTP for .NET V8.0.0.0 update introduces support for OpenSSH's "strict kex" (key exchange) extension. This change directly addresses the security vulnerability exploited in Terrapin attacks - where weaknesses in the SSH protocol’s key exchange could be manipulated. By enforcing stricter key exchange validation, this enhancement ensures that the connection negotiation process is more resilient to tampering, significantly improving the overall security of SSH and SFTP sessions in .NET applications.

To see a full list of what's new in version 8.0.0.0, see our release notes.

PowerTCP SSH and SFTP for .NET is licensed per developer and is available as a perpetual license with 12 months subscription (product updates and priority email support). See our PowerTCP SSH and SFTP for .NET licensing page for full details.

PowerTCP SSH and SFTP for .NET is available individually or as part of the following products:

Precisely Control Azure Speech Authentication

April 30, 2025
Chant Developer Workbench can configure Azure Speech services with tailored authentication for any deployment scenario.

Chant Developer Workbench is an integrated development environment (IDE) designed to streamline the creation, testing, and deployment of speech and natural user interface (NUI) applications. It supports a wide range of speech recognition, synthesis, and grammar technologies, allowing developers to build, debug, and tune voice-enabled features with minimal overhead. The Workbench provides tools for managing grammars, tuning speech recognition, and simulating speech interactions, offering a unified interface that simplifies development across multiple speech engines and platforms. This makes it particularly valuable for developers working on applications that require robust voice control or conversational interfaces.

Chant Developer Workbench supports Azure Speech Services through expanded authentication options. It includes innovative ways to configure authentication - beyond the standard subscription credentials. Several constructors - FromAuthorizationToken, FromEndpoint, FromHost, and FromSubscription - offer precise control over how apps authenticate and communicate with Azure services. These features are available across all supported languages and platforms, significantly improving integration flexibility for developers using Azure speech capabilities.

Chant Developer Workbench is licensed per user and is available as a perpetual license with 1 year subscription (upgrades, new features and support). See our Chant Developer Workbench licensing page for full details.

For more information, visit our Chant Developer Workbench product page.

Render Complex Scripts in PDFs

April 30, 2025
XFINIUM.PDF enhances multilingual document rendering with support for Arabic, Devanagari, Thai and other complex scripts.

XFINIUM.PDF is a comprehensive software library designed to empower developers with robust tools for integrating PDF functionalities into their applications across a wide range of platforms. This library enables the creation, editing, and manipulation of PDF documents with a single codebase. This cross-platform approach eliminates the need for platform-specific development, significantly reducing development time and effort while ensuring consistency in functionality and user experience across devices. Ideal for applications that require advanced document workflows, digital signatures, form handling, or PDF generation, XFINIUM.PDF offers a solution for businesses and developers seeking to deliver PDF capabilities across diverse environments.

The latest version of XFINIUM.PDF significantly expands its text rendering capabilities by introducing support for complex scripts. This enhancement enables accurate representation of right-to-left and context-sensitive scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, and more intricate Indic scripts including Bengali, Devanagari, Tamil, Thai, and Khmer. By incorporating these languages, XFINIUM.PDF now offers developers a more versatile and globally inclusive PDF generation toolkit, making it an excellent choice for applications requiring multilingual support and precise typographic control in diverse linguistic contexts.

XFINIUM.PDF is licensed per developer and is run-time royalty free. All licenses include a 12 month subscription which provides all major and minor product updates and technical support. See our XFINIUM.PDF licensing page for full details.

XFINIUM.PDF is available to buy in the following products: