Released: Dec 12, 2024

24.2 中的更新

特性

Microsoft .NET Core / .NET

• .NET 9 Support
  • DevExpress WinForms component libraries now support .NET 9.
• WinForms .NET Core Designer - Enhanced Performance
  • DevExpress have optimized the way they load DevExpress NuGet packages/Skins and improved form load performance within Visual Studio's .NET/.NET Core WinForms Designer. Startup load time has improved by 20-35% (compared to v24.1).
  • Additional design-time improvements and capabilities include:
    • Add Behaviors using a smart tag menu.
    • Change View type in the WinForms Data Grid.
    • Create JSON and MongoDB sources using the Data Source Wizard.
    • Customize the ExcelDataSource component using the designer.
    • Configure print settings in the DevExpress Designer.
    • Open a collection editor by clicking the ellipsis button.
    • Improved design-time support for Chart, Layout, Navigation Frame, Navigation Pane, and Step Panel controls.
    • Improved smart tag menu in DevExpress WinForms UI controls.
  • New Project Template Gallery
    • The Visual Studio Template Gallery includes new project templates for .NET 8+ (not available for projects targeting .NET Framework). The Template Gallery allows you to create projects that target .NET 8 (the default target in v24.2) or .NET Framework 4.6.2 (or higher).
    • 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 and Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on Windows, with plans to expand support to Rider for Windows and additional operating systems in the future.
    • New project templates cover a broader range of usage scenarios when compared to The previous Template Gallery for .NET Framework (shipped as part of the Unified Component Installer). New project templates support hybrid app development and new technologies such as Blazor Hybrid, .NET MAUI, and MVVM.
  • Support for Microsoft CommunityToolkit for MVVM
    • v24.2 supports Microsoft's CommunityToolkit.Mvvm package, allowing developers to create MVVM-powered Windows Forms applications with a choice of two powerful MVVM frameworks: The DevExpress MVVM framework or the CommunityToolkit MVVM framework.

TimeOnly Support

• TimeOnly Support in the WinForms TimeEdit
  • The WinForms TimeEdit control now supports the TimeOnly data type and incorporates a TimeOnly mask within the Mask Settings Editor.
• New TimeOnly Functions
  • DevExpress added new TimeOnly-specific criteria functions to the criteria language and Grid-based UI controls (Data Grid, Vertical Grid, TreeList).
• TimeOnly Range Filter within the Filter Popup
  • The Excel-Style Column Filter ships with a new Time Range Editor (by default). In addition to traditional date filtering options, users can now filter records based on specific time intervals (such as hours, minutes, or custom time ranges).
• Minute Rounding for TimeOnly Values
  • Across all DevExpress Filter UI elements (including Column Filter Popups and the Filter Editor), TimeOnly values are rounded to minutes, ignoring seconds and milliseconds.

AI-powered Extensions

• AI Assistant
  • DevExpress WinForms MemoEdit, Rich Text Editor, and Spreadsheet controls now support NLP-powered text transform extensions (behaviors). AI-powered extensions allow you to enhance the way users interact with and manage text-based content. These DevExpress extensions leverage advanced natural language processing (NLP) technologies and provide automated, intelligent text editing capabilities directly within your DevExpress-powered Windows Forms application.
• AI Chat Control
  • The new AI Chat Control allows you to incorporate an interactive, Copilot-inspired chat-based UI within your WinForms application. This control leverages BlazorWebView to reuse the DevExpress Blazor AI Chat component (DxAIChat).
• Smart Autocomplete
  • The AI-powered "Smart Autocomplete" Extension intelligently predicts and suggests words or phrases based on user input within the DevExpress WinForms MemoEdit and Rich Edit controls.
• Smart Paste
  • Smart Paste is an AI-ready feature that transforms traditional copy-paste operations. Designed to improve productivity, Smart Paste analyses copied content and intelligently assigns correct values to appropriate fields/row cells in the DevExpress Data Grid and Layout Control-powered forms.
• Smart Search
  • DevExpress WinForms Ribbon and Accordion controls now support AI-powered search. Smart Search works alongside traditional search algorithms to deliver a more powerful and user-friendly search experience.
• Explain Formula
  • The AI-powered "Explain Formula" Extension generates a detailed explanation of the formula used in a worksheet cell (clarifying its purpose and function).
• Describe Picture
  • The AI-powered "Generate Image Description" Extension allows you to generate meaningful descriptions for document images within both the DevExpress WinForms Rich Text Edit and Spreadsheet control.

Accessibility

• Keyboard Navigation between Toolbars
  • Users can now switch between toolbars using the Ctrl+Tab keyboard shortcut.
  • When/if a Main Menu is not included in an application, set the Bar Manager's AllowFocusBarWithoutMainMenu property to true to enable keyboard navigation between toolbars.
• Alt Text Dialog
  • v24.2 includes a new AI-powered Alt Text dialog for The WinForms Rich Text Edit and Spreadsheet controls. The Alt Text dialog allows you to set accessible descriptions for shape objects within Word and Excel documents or mark non-informative document graphics as Decorative (this setting allows screen readers to ignore decorative graphics when scanning documents).
  • You can also use the Alt Text dialog to generate the meaningful descriptions for document images. To activate the Alt Text dialog, select a document shape, image, or chart, open the context menu and click the "View Alt Text" context menu item.
• Expand/Collapse Nodes Using the Keyboard
  • DevExpress enhanced keyboard navigation within The WinForms TreeList control (for a more a more intuitive user experience). Users can now focus the first cell within a node and press the Right or Left Arrow key to expand/collapse the node (no need to hold Ctrl).
• PDF Viewer Accessibility Enhancements
  • v24.2 brings a set of accessibility improvements to the WinForms PDF Viewer, designed to create a more inclusive user experience.
  • Screen Reader Support for the document: The PDF Viewer now supports document reading via screen readers, enabling visually impaired users to navigate and access content more easily. The reader can now read the document line-by-line, word-by-word, letter-by-letter and read an alt text of the image inside the PDF document.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigation Pane: DevExpress have introduced new keyboard shortcuts to access panels within the Navigation Pane quickly. These shortcuts also appear in tooltips when hovering over panel items, making them even easier to discover and use. These enhancements ensure a more accessible, user-friendly interaction with documents for all users. See the following article to learn about supported shortcuts: Keyboard Shortcuts for WinForms PDF Viewer.
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
  • When UI automation is enabled, DevExpress WinForms Data Editors obtain accessible names from "neighboring" UI controls.
  • The IsKeyboardFocusable property returns true or false if the UI element can be focused.
  • Improved UI element focus order within TrackBar, RangeTrackBar, and ZoomTrackBar controls when Windows Narrator Scan Mode is active.
  • Lookup editors include accessibility information for their items. Screen readers and accessibility tools read lookup items - announcing their actual values.

Data Grids

• Duplicate Conditional Formatting Rules
  • Duplicate Rules allows you to duplicate existing conditional formatting rules at both design and runtime (to simplify reuse or modify rules without recreating them from scratch).

Map Control

• Azure Maps Support
  • The DevExpress WinForms Map Control can now display Microsoft Azure Maps data. Use the following classes to incorporate mapping capabilities in your DevExpress-powered apps.

Dialogs & Messages

• Async API
  • In concert with Microsoft's decision to add new asynchronous APIs for the Windows Forms platform, v24.2 includes a new ShowAsync method to both the WinForms Message Box (XtraMessageBox) and Dialog (XtraDialog) UI component. This method will be invaluable for solutions sharing MVVM ViewModels or business logic built around asynchronous operations across projects targeting WinForms, WPF, WinUI, or .NET MAUI.

PDF Viewer

• Annotation Enhancements
  • In v24.2, DevExpress introduced new UI elements for adding Callouts and Free Text annotations to PDF documents. The new "Callout" and "Free Text" buttons are now available in the Comment ribbon tab. You can also change appearance settings (text, colors, opacity, font size) for newly added or existing document annotations through the expanded Annotation Properties dialog, accessible via the Properties option in the annotation's context menu.
• 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.

Rich Text Editor

• SmallCaps Formatting
  • The DevExpress WinForms 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 WinForms Rich Text Editor now supports page borders. Word documents with page borders can be saved without content loss, previewed, printed and exported to PDF.
• 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.

Scheduler

• Reminder Form - New 'RemindersFormAction' Event
  • v24.2 ships with a new WinForms Scheduler RemindersFormAction event. The event occurs when a user clicks the Dismiss, Dismiss All, or Snooze button on Reminder Forms (or if the user closes the form).
  • Use the e.ActionType event parameter to obtain the user action that triggered the event. For example, you can display personalized notifications when users take specific actions, or you can cancel the default action by setting the e.Handled parameter to true (and execute custom logic as necessary).
• Resources Tree - Auto-Populate Columns
  • Once the Resources Tree component is added to a Form that includes a DevExpress Scheduler control, the Resources Tree component automatically generates columns based on resource mappings configured in the underlying data storage. This enhancement reduces manual setup and ensures that the Resources Tree immediately reflects the resource structure defined for the schedule.
  • v24.2 includes a "Generate Columns" command in the Resources Tree's smart tag menu. This command allows you to quickly refresh columns. It clears existing columns and repopulates them based on resource mappings.
  • To enhance runtime flexibility, DevExpress also added a PopulateColumns method. This method auto-generates Resources Tree columns. The PopulateColumns method clears the ResourcesTree.Columns collection, creates new columns, binds them to corresponding data fields, and adds columns to the collection.
• Customizable Appointment Flyouts with HTML/CSS Templates
  • You can now use HTML/CSS templates to customize an appointment flyout. This new capability gives you full control over fields displayed (for example, you can display additional fields) and layout within the flyout.

Spreadsheet

• Dynamic Array Formulas
  • DevExpress enhanced the formula calculation engine and integrated dynamic arrays into the Winforms 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 WinForms 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, preview these documents and save them to the XLSX format (without the content loss). Printing and export to the PDF format are also available.
  • 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.
• 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.

Gallery Control

• New CustomDraw Event
  • You can now use the GalleryControl.CustomDraw event for more precise control over gallery rendering. This new event 'replaces' the existing CustomDrawEmptyBackground event, providing additional capabilities (including DefaultDraw~ and DrawHtml~ methods).