The ASPx Blog - Mehul Harry's DevExpress Blog

Check out this 10 minute TechEd video interview with Miguel Castro. Miguel is an ASP.NET MVP and the wizard behind the DXAirways real world application videos.

At TechEd 2009, Miguel gave a talk called “ASP.NET: Under the covers” and I was lucky to grab him and talk about some current ASP.NET topics.

In the video, we discuss:

• Miguel’s motivation for learning ‘ASP.NET under the covers’
• What’s changed from ASP.NET 2.0 to 4.0
• Http handlers in ASP.NET pipeline
• Miguel’s passion for http handlers
• Real world use case of a http handlers
• Microsoft’s Velocity Project for distributed caching

[Keep an eye out for Amanda on the Segway around the 6:43 mark]

You can follow Miguel on his geekswithblogs.net blog: ICaramba and also on twitter as @miguelcastro67. Thanks Miguel!

Check out this in-depth LINQ integration with ASPxGridView video. This video updates an older LINQ video and is probably the best LINQ video evar!

Because of your comments (and questions) in the blogs, forums and TV site, the video is now packed with technical goodness. It’s broken down in 3 major levels to address the needs of different developers:

The LINQ support with Server mode technology gives you superior performance gains for your projects. Btw, all products are included in DXperience.

Click the image above and watch the ASPxGridView and LINQ integration video. This by no means is the last LINQ video … Will you help me improve it by adding your voice to the comments?

Check out this list of new controls and features for ASP.NET editor controls in the DXperience 2009 volume 2 release.

First, the common ASP.NET editors like the textbox, combo box and others are finally get their due respect. Yes, these ASP.NET editors, or ASPxEditors, will have their very own demo section in the DXperience 2009 volume 2 release! Preview the editors online or send out direct links to management as you convince them about how much you need these features.

We needed the new demo because the ASPxEditors packs so much functionality with new controls and exciting features:

New ASP.NET ColorEdit Control!

This slick new control displays a set of colors so that you and your users can customize website pages.

Here’s technical breakdown:

• ASPxColorEdit has the Color property whose type is System.Color
• Client-side methods available: GetColor / SetColor
• ASPxColorEdit works with both color codes(#ff00ff, #D8D8D8) and standard colors (red, green, silver)! The standard colors are converted into color codes
• ASPxColorEdit is a text editor with a dropdown window

The power of suggestion! The ASPxColorEdit was implemented from your suggestions in the support center. Thanks and keep em coming.

New ‘Drop-down Edit’ Control !?!

Another new control in 2009 volume 2 is the ASPxDropDownEdit. The DevExpress ASP.NET team have created a new derived editor to support custom popup windows. These custom popup windows allow you to easily embed things like the ASPxGridView.

DropDownEdit vs ComboBox

The ASPxDropDownEdit is not a combo box control. Instead, it's really a textbox with a dropdown window template. Place just about anything into this window template. For example, by using the ASPxDropDownEdit, create an extended lookup control (with editing) using the ASPxGridView or implement a folder selection dropdown using the ASPxTreeList.

Styles for NullText and Focused Event

By adding the NullTextStyle and FocusedStyle properties, you’ll have more control of your ASPxEditors’ look and feel at runtime.

Display Format for all ASP.NET Editors!

All the ASPxEditors now support the DisplayFormat property including the combo editors! Here’s the full control list: (ASPxTextBox, ASPxButtonEdit, ASPxMemo, ASPxSpinEdit, ASPxDateEdit, ASPxComboBox, ASPxDropDownEdit)

Multiple-Selection List Box and Combo Box!

The ASPxListBox control will now provide three selection modes:

• Single – Allows end user to select only one item
• Multiple - End users can select several items at once by using the mouse and keyboard keys: Shift (to select a range of items) and Ctrl (to add an item to a current selection)
• Check Column - provides multiple selection by using a specific checkbox column (end users don't need to use the Ctrl and Shift keys).

Using the new ASPxDropDownEdit control and the multiple selection list box, you can easily create a dropdown(combo box style) check list box of your own.

With all these sweet new controls and features, I’m very excited about the DXperience 2009 volume 2 release. Which of these controls and features are you most excited about?

I'm hijacking Mehul's blog today and I hope he'll forgive me. The reason is that I have something to say about our ASP.NET products: they are going to be the first to be covered by a course in our new training program!

I have been working on this first course for a while - you wouldn't believe the efforts that go into something like that, especially the first time round. Now we're finally (almost) there, and the title of our first course is this:

Business Applications with DXperience ASP.NET

We will shortly put more details online, syllabus, cost and all that. The gist of it is that this is a two-day training course which provides an overview of several of our ASP.NET products. Within those two days you will learn to use the products to create a web application with an external, public-facing part and an internal management part. As the title says, we'll view these topics from the perspective of a developer creating a business application, so it'll be about presenting data, allowing data input, analysis, reporting, ... and of course using all those "glue" elements that make a web site complete. This is training, so it's all about learning - seeing things demonstrated, sure, but also trying everything yourself and getting questions answered.

We are currently planning the first two dates for this course, so I can't tell you those yet. The rough timeframe is "end of August 2009", and one of the classes is going to be in Las Vegas for people in the US, the second one in Amsterdam for those in Europe. I'm hoping to see lots of you there - meanwhile, if you have any feedback to give, leave it here please!

The ASPxHTMLEditor component lets you easily drop a high quality editor into any page. The next major DXperience release will add HTML Table support to the ASP.NET HTML Editor, the ASPxHTMLEditor.

Featuring a toolbar icon to create, edit, and delete table items, the ASP.NET HTML Editor easily manage tables through the front-end.

If your users are more comfortable with HTML then there is also the HTML source view option.

The ASPxHtmlEditor is part of the DXperience ASP.NET Subscription. You can start playing with the table support feature when the DXperience 2009 volume 2 released in a few weeks.

If you’ve been waiting around for a good WinForms Rating control, then you’re in luck with the current release of DevExpress WinForms Gauges. The XtraGauges Suite.

Featuring the ability to connect with several input controls like a radio group or a slider, the Rating control has sharp graphics and versatility.

The image above shows the rating control in action. You can see this demo by:

1. Opening the ‘DemoCenter’ application in the DevExpress folder and
2. selecting the ‘New Presets’ option of the ‘XtraGauges Main Demo’
3. [General folder location]: C:\Program Files\DevExpress 2009.1\Components\Demos\DXperience\Bin\

Full source code for the rating control demo is also available in your local DevExpress folder (see item #3 for typical folder location). Available in the DXperience 2008 volume 3 release (and above) you can get your hands on the WinForms Rating control right away.

Thanks to the loyal readers who commented by asking about a WinForms Rating control on the recent ASP.NET Rating control announcement!

One of the reasons I’m excited about the upcoming 2009 Volume 2 release of DXperience is the new ASP.NET Rating control which allows your website visitors to rate content on your site, just like rating a movie on Netflix.com or Blockbuster.com:

You’ll also love the fact the ASP.NET Rating control also comes packaged with all the gorgeous DevExpress themes. For example, here’s the Red Wine theme:

The ASPxRatingControl is not yet released but it will be part the DXperience ASP.NET Subscription. You’ll get to play with the new rating control when the DXperience 2009 volume 2 release is dropped in your client center account. (July 2009-ish timeframe).

Don’t those stars just make you want to add this feature to your websites right now?

Looking for a WinForms Rating control? Check out the Rating control available in the XtraGauges suite. Thanks to the loyal readers who commented and brought up this great question.

Check out these four DevExpress customers videos below. In the videos, the smart devs discuss their projects and why they use DevExpress tools. 

	David Romig, CTO The Computer Solution Co. David's software helps catch the bad guys. TSCS's software runs in forensic laboratories across America. In the video, David discusses how his company leveraged the knowledge and experience building a smart client application and used it to create a web version.
	Massimo Galati, Development Manager http://www.cineplex.com Massimo works for Cineplex, one of the largest movie theater chains in Canada. Massimo is not a DevExpress customer. But he is interested in ASP.NET tools for SharePoint. And in the video, he discusses why he's looking at DevExpress SharePoint tools and how he goes about choosing a 3rd party vendor.
	Ian Vink, Software Architect For his day job, Ian has architected a WinForms application that uses the DevExpress CAB framework. And in this video, he discusses the DevExpress components as he begins to migrate the application to ASP.NET. Ian also manages Tufula.com which is a very complex app that runs both as a pure AJAX web app and a WinForms one. Both versions use DevExpress and: Provide the same feature set Push the limits of what DevExpress can do  Sprout from the same core projects
	David Nolf, System Architect http://computerworkware.com/ David is very familiar with the DevExpress products. So when his company started porting WinForms apps to ASP.NET, the vendor choice was easy. In the video, David talks about some reasons why he has stayed a loyal customer. Thanks David!

One of the best things about events like TechEd is the chance to meet and talk with smart developers. A special thanks goes out to y'all who dropped by the booth to watch one of my ASP.NET demos or even just to say hi.

Click the images above and watch all four videos. What feature of your software have you improved that DevExpress should showcase?

Check out this great Amazon Web Services session that Joe Kunk was kind enough to share.

After the Reporting Webinar, I got a chance to record this very cool session with Joe. Usually, Joe presents this talk at various developer events.

In the 20 minute video, Joe discusses several aspects of cloud computing on Amazon Web Services. He covers items such as pricing, features, and even the competition like Microsoft's Azure.

Click the image and watch the video. Then do me a favor and thank Joe by leaving a comment below.

Check out this great Dustin Campbell TechEd video interview. In this video, Dustin and I discuss:

• What a C# MVP does
• How he became the Visual Basic Program Manager at Microsoft
• CodeRush Origins (he was one of the early heroes who created the product!)
• Using Visual Basic XML literals for ASP.NET MVC development
• CodeRush performance in the latest release

Dustin is also very funny. To see what I mean, click the video image above and watch the full Dustin Campbell video interview.

Then drop me a comment here on any of the topics discussed in the video.

For reference, here's the links mentioned in the video:

• ASP.NET MVC View Engine using VB.NET XML Literals by Dmitry Robsman (Haacked Blog)
• CodeRush Xpress 9.1 Beta for C# and Visual Basic Developers
• Dustin Campbell's Blog

Ever wonder how to edit multiple rows of the DevExpress ASP.NET GridView at the same time?

To help you with the various multi-row edit scenarios, the hard working guys on the ASP.NET team have created these great CodeCentral examples:

• How to implement the multi-row editing feature in the ASPxGridView
• How to implement the multi-edit functionality with the grid that is bound dynamically
• Custom client-side logic implementation in the grid with multi-row editing
• Multi-Row Editing (Advanced sample)

CodeCentral gives you a ton of benefits:

• View source code online
• Run sample online
• Download and open sample project to your local Visual Studio

Check out this CodeCentral introduction video to learn how CodeCentral works. Then download one of the multi-row edit samples above and tell me how much you love CodeCentral.

Check out this list of XtraCharts features and suggestions available for you in the next major release:

• Series View - Add Funnel charts
• Line Series View - Scatter Line (add the capability to draw a line without sorting by point arguments)
• Data Analysis - Linear regression analysis
• Axis - Ability to show scale brakes
• DateTime scale - Provide the capability to automatically set the DateTimeMeasurementUnit and DateTimeGridAlignment for arguments, based on input data
• Chart Title - Support the WordWrap feature if its text is too long (now it is truncated)
• Custom Draw - ability to change the properties for a single AxisLabel
• ObjectHotTracked, ObjectSelected - Ability to determine particular Axis Label and Axis Title items - Hit-testing functionality works on the server and client side.

The DevExpress charts team has been busy.

ASP.NET Or WinForms

Did I mention that all the above features work in both ASP.NET and WinForms? XtraCharts is a unique product because it works in both platforms.

Web Gardens Support

Yes, now the Charts, Gauges, and the ASP.NET binary image control support IIS web gardens.

ASPxBinaryImage, ASPxGauges, XtraCharts - Support Web Gardens

What are web gardens?

A Web garden allows an application to achieve higher scalability because multiple processes are used to process requests on its behalf. Check out this great post for more information.

Web gardens are different from Web farms. A Web garden is configured on a single server by specifying multiple worker processes for an application pool. Web farms use multiple servers for a Web site. (TechNet)

Creating a Web garden for an application pool can also enhance performance:

• Robust processing of requests: When a worker process in an application pool is tied up (for example, when a script engine stops responding), other worker processes can accept and process requests for the application pool.
• Reduced contention for resources

Click the links above to see details on the upcoming features.

Check out this fun and informative video interview with David Fowler. David works on the ASP.NET team at Microsoft.

David is one of the heroes who fixed the recent Visual Studio 2008 Serialization issue.

In this video, David and I discuss:

• His role at Microsoft
• Upcoming Dynamic Data features
• ASP.NET 4.0

It was great talking with David and featuring him in a video. He's one of those hard working developers that you should be hearing more about. (David on Twitter)

Check out the short 4 minute video. Then drop me a line here on your thoughts about David, ASP.NET 4.0 or anything discussed in the video.

Check out this video interview I did with web developers Wietse Dol and John Doornbos.

Last year, Wietse and John created a website to financially manage European Union research projects. They chose DevExpress ASP.NET tools to build the website and they've been very pleased. In fact, they came by the TechEd booth to share their great story.

In the video, we discuss:

• How they built the website
• How they chose DevExpress
• What functions the website serves
• How the website has scaled with increased user load
• And what they really think of DevExpress

Because their website contains important financial data, the site access is limited to customers only.

Click on the image and watch the video interview. Then drop me a line on how you're using DevExpress ASP.NET controls.

Virtual scrolling was just released for the DevExpress ASP.NET controls and it's a great way to browse grid data without using page buttons.

By default, ASPxGridView will display the pager control for browsing grid data. The pager control is the set of buttons and links that let the user jump to the first page of data, the last page of data or a few select pages in between. The pager control works fine but if you're like me, you miss the ease and power of using a scrollbar to browse your data. Unfortunately, a standard scrollbar doesn't work well with a standard web application. 

Lucky for both of us, DevExpress ASP.NET controls now have a feature that combines intelligent algorithms with Ajax techniques to provide the ease of use of a scrollbar with desktop-like high performance, the virtual scrollbar.

Virtual scrolling is fast, easy and useful and I'll show you how to add it to your ASPxGridView in just 4 minutes. Click to watch now. 

After you watch the screencast, add virtual scrolling to your site's datagrid and drop me a comment here on how you and your users love it.

[Here is the LINQ video I mentioned in the screencast. Expect a longer and better version of this video soon.]