The Progress Bar - DevExpress XPF Blog

This post summarizes the new features that will be introduced with the ExpressLayout Control Suite version 2. Please note that these features are subject to change prior to the official release. Many of the features presented here were introduced as a result of end-user feedback. For reference purposes, we’ve included the appropriate Support Center ID in parenthesis.

New Layout Capabilities

• Tabbed Groups (B3623). Mimic the behavior of a tab control. Standard layout groups and layout items can be represented as tab pages in the layout control. To organize within tabs, set the parent group's LayoutDirection to ldTabbed.

Appearance Improvements

• Look and Feel support (S32514). The layout control now provides the following painting/style options:
  • A style can now be applied from one of three built-in styles or from five predefined TcxLookAndFeel styles.
  • Skinning support. Important Note: The ExpressSkins Library is not shipped with the layout control, and must be purchased separately.
  • The TcxLookAndFeelController component can now be used with the TdxLayoutLookAndFeelList component to paint the layout control and its children with a common look and feel.

Customization Capabilities

• Customization Form Improvements (S31371).
  • The Customization Form contains two panes - Layout Tree View and Available Items. These panes can be displayed side-by-side or as tab pages. A layout hierarchy is represented in these panes as a tree.

• At design-time, the Customization Form displays buttons that allow expanding or collapsing a tree, item deletion, highlighting a root group, and controlling the visibility of item selectors.
• At runtime, instead of the Highlight Root and Show Design Selectors buttons the Customization Form displays buttons that allow an end-user to save or restore the layout.
• Bidirectional selection synchronization between on-form layout control's items and tree elements in the Customization Form (the corresponding elements are also automatically highlighted in the IDE's Object TreeView when working at design-time).
• Form auto-sizing (S32513). To enable this feature, set the layout control's Autosize property to True, the root group's AlignHorz property to ahLeft and the AlignVert property to avTop, the form's Autosize property to True.

Design-Time Customization

• Layout Item Selectors. For quick item access, each item is provided with a selector – a rectangle with green diagonal stripes. Item selection is enabled if the Customization Form is hidden.

Drag and Drop Improvements

• Drag and drop operations between different layout controls (S90646). Items or groups can now be dragged from one layout control to another.

• More intuitive positioning. While dragging, the layout control keeps track of the mouse pointer, and estimates the target space relative to the neighbor controls, anticipating your action. It simultaneously highlights the target container and the target location, facilitating the drop operation for you.

Miscellaneous

• Design-Time Keyboard Shortcuts Support.
  • Selected items can be deleted using the DEL key.
  • Container Hierarchy Navigation with the ESC key. By pressing the ESC key, you can navigate up the container hierarchy.
• Automatic disabling of items owned by disabled parents (B95464) - if the group is disabled (the group's Enabled property is False), captions of contained items are grayed. If the item is disabled (the item's Enabled property is False), the control it displays is also disabled.

• Control Focus (S20119). A linked control can be focused by clicking the layout item's caption. To allow this operation, activate the layout control's FocusControlOnItemCaptionClick option (this can only be used at runtime).

• Runtime Layout Persistence Support. The layout information can now be persisted from within the Customization Form.

Features Planned in the Official Release

The following features are planned in the official release. However, this list is subject to change prior to the release.

• Use of layout item selectors for selection of linked controls when the Customization Form is open.
• Target Location Selection - provides a choice of target locations for end-users when they start dragging an item.
• Support for expandable groups (DS6053). End-users can quickly hide or display group contents by collapsing or expanding groups.
• On-Form Layout Item Resizing (AS5146).
• Transparency Support (AS15337). Provides optional transparency of the layout control.
• Layout Item Settings Runtime Customization (DS4103). End-users can change settings of layout items at runtime in customization mode.
• Group Custom Buttons (S92284). Ability to display action buttons in the group's caption that can be used for custom actions.
• Item Caption Image (S31729) - along with the text, an image can also be provided for the item caption.
• Multiple Undo/Redo Support.
• Smart Layout Import. The layout control can now recognize the more advanced layout of items imported from external controls.