Remember how we re-wrote the Model Editor for V2010 Vol 1? Remember how you loved all those new features: categories in property grids; the description panel, etc? Remember how you hated lack of usability features? Well we’ve made a start at fixing that with a few usability enhancements and, because of your input on the subject, we’ve decided to rush those new features to you in V2010 V1.6 which is available from the client centre now!
So, let’s take a look at what we added:
Nodes Tree Usability Improvements
You can now clone a detail view:
Doing so results in a copy of the current node, at the same hierarchy level. Note that the Id property is appended with “_Copy”, all the other properties remain the same as the original.
What’s this good for? Well, mainly for implementing view variants. Now you can quickly create several copies of the same view, and make minor changes in each of them, there is no need to scroll up to the parent node just to paste new node.
Drag-and-drop is now supported in the nodes tree:
You can move a child node from one parent node to another using drag-and-drop, convenient when moving an Action to another action container, moving navigation item to another group, modifying the Detail View layout etc.
When dragging, you can place a pointer over the target node, and it will be expanded automatically, after a small delay. To create a copy of the node instead of moving it, just hold down the CTRL key when dragging. If the target node already has a child with the same ID, the “_Copy” suffix will be added.
You can rearrange child items, of a certain parent node, using drag-and-drop, convenient when reordering list view columns or navigation items. Hold down the SHIFT key, and drag a child node up or down the list within the bounds of its parent node.
The indexes of child nodes will be automatically modified to correspond the rearrangement.
Search Panel Speed and Look and Feel
What have we changed with the Search Panel? Well, its performance is improved and a new smart search behavior is provided. Now you can type something in the search box and the search results will be updated while you type.
In the MainDemo, the delay between typing a character and updating the results is about half a second.
Custom Editors in the Property Grid
When creating complex XAF applications, you probably extend the Application Model with custom nodes and properties. Now you can bind custom editors to properties. To do this, implement the required UITypeEditor descendant and set it for the property via the EditorAttribute. If you have read the Pivot Grid & Chart List Editors post, you may notice that the PivotGridSettingsEditor is bound to the PivotSettings node's Settings property using this feature.
Well, that’s all for this post. Until next time, happy XAF’ing! :-)