Thinking Out Loud

PDC 2008 - Embarcadero and Delphi

2008-10-30T17:32:00Z

Events like PDC are great at many levels - among them is catching up with old friends. Over the last few days, we spent a fair amount of time with Nick Hodges, Michael Swindell, Anders Ohlsson, and Allen Bauer.

Clearly, everyone at Embarcadero is excited about the future of Delphi and we are looking forward to seeing the progress the product makes under Embarcadero's leadership. We are also excited about the opportunities this affords companies such as ours and by extension our loyal customers.

Needless to say, we will be putting our heads together to make sure to offer the Delphi community the very best and most innovative tools possible as we proceed forward.

The Pumpkin Application Skin - Coming Soon to a Theater Near You...

2008-10-27T04:00:00Z

Ten days ago, Jeff and Amanda published a video describing some of the skins we ship with our Application Wide Skinning Engine (http://tv.devexpress.com/SkinsPromo1.movie). In that video, she previewed our upcoming Pumpkin Skin. As always, people can't wait to get their hands on our new skin designs and have been requesting more info on what it's actually going to look like...

And...I know, we are a bit late on this one. Even though the skin wont be released in time for halloween, the skin is fun and your end users just might like using it in November...

RichText (RTF) Control for Windows Forms - PDC 2008 Preview

2008-10-26T01:39:00Z

First and foremost, my apologies to those customers who are not attending PDC and are feeling a bit frustrated that we are not previewing some of our upcoming releases on video but instead at PDC. A few of you have voiced your concern to me via Email...please rest assured that we will have videotaped coverage of activities at our booth and will be publishing them on the same day just as we did at TechEd this year. In addition, we will be producing numerous introductory videos and tutorials of DXperience v2008 vol 3 prior to product launch.

Ok, with that said - perhaps one of the most anticipated product releases from Devexpress is our RTF (Rich Text) control. Tony and his team have been busting their behinds and are pushing as hard as they can to deliver the very best product they possibly can.

Here are a few images of our PDC demo application...Enjoy

Rich Text Editor with the DevExpress Ribbon Control

RTF Control Find and Replace

RTF Control with integrated Spell Checker Control

P.S. If you are going to be at PDC, dont forget to be at booth 501 at 7pm on Monday night...surprises await you....

Change the World - Video Preview in Production

2008-10-24T18:50:00Z

Everyone here in our LA office is scrambling to get presentations ready for PDC 2008. To take our mind off all the hassles involved with being the major sponsor of a developer conference as big as PDC 2008, we spent some time today working on the product launch video I've been blogging about the last few days.

Here's a photograph of Julian and Mark recording the video. I had to modify the image so as not to let the cat out of the bag since the background includes the physical product box we'll be shipping when you purchase it.

Enjoy

PDC 2008 - Jimmy Page Previews the Event

2008-10-23T17:28:00Z

A short preview of our plans at PDC 2008...

http://tv.devexpress.com/PDCtalk01.movie

If you are coming to the event, make sure to be at our booth at 7pm on Monday night - you'll be kicking yourself if you miss it.

We will have a conference room all to ourselves at the convention center, so if you would like to chat with us privately - discuss issues you want us to address - or want to share your story with the development community, please send Kevin (kevinw@devexpress.com) or I (rayn@devexpress.com) an email.

Change the World - Successful Tests Continue...Video Launch and Preview from PDC 2008

2008-10-22T18:57:00Z

With our prototypes built and working successfully, we are anticipating an early product launch.

For those attending PDC 2008, make sure to be at the DevExpress booth at 7pm sharp (monday night reception) - the launch presentation is expected to take about 30 minutes.

For those not able to make it to PDC, Jeff will be publishing a preview video on the DevExpress Channel at tv.devexpress.com on Monday as well.

Change the World - Change the Way in Which We Interact with the Computer

2008-10-17T18:57:00Z

We all know that improving the way in which people interact with their computers and applications is essential as complexity continues to creep into our daily lives.

The question we've been asking ourselves over the last few months is whether we can deliver the technology to address today's realities - to significantly improve productivity and elminate usability barriers so common in our industry.

Well...the good news is that a few of our intrepid engineers have been burning the midnight oil and we are looking forward to unveiling our ideas next week and at PDC 2008 at the LA convention center.

Keep tuned to the DevExpress Channel and these blogs for details in the coming days.

Application Skins and Themes - What's Next in DXperience

2008-10-17T18:19:00Z

Jeff and Amanda prepared a video describing some of things you can do with our Application Skinning Engine...

http://tv.devexpress.com/SkinsPromo1.movie

Those of you who hate watching videos but love to hear what we've got in the works, might want to take a look at this one...as Amanda does disclose the next major skin in our product lineup.

Knock Knock...Delphi Developers

2008-10-01T19:59:00Z

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the impending beta of our Delphi 2009 compatible components. With about 90 replies, we figured the minute the beta hit the airwaves, we'd be flooded with feedback and comments...

...But we are still waiting.

To everyone using D2009 and beginning to port projects...we ask for your feedback - be they good, bad or ugly. Communication from you will help us refine our product line for D2009 and give us a realistic sense of the Delphi market in general.

support@devexpress.com is ready, willing and able to assist - so please, do write to us.

Tiburon Support across DevExpress VCL components

2008-09-18T18:44:00Z

Just wanted to let our loyal Delphi customers know that we are relatively close to releasing the first beta of our VCL controls for Tiburon. We expect the beta sometime next week.

If you're using Delphi and are planning to move all your projects to Tiburon, please let us know by commenting below. If you are not planning to port your projects and will not be using Tiburon, please let us know as well.

Silverlight Rich Text Editor (RTF Control)

2008-09-03T17:26:00Z

In July, I posted a few early screenshots of our WinForms RTF control and as a result, we received numerous questions about its planned feature set...it's release date, etc.

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I thought it would be a good time to post a couple of images of our WinForms RTF control's cousin - the Silverlight RTF control.

DXperience and CodeRush Awards at TechEd 2008

2008-08-12T22:26:00Z

Though a bit late in posting this, SQL Server magazine has published a short video on the awards we received this year at TechEd 2008.

The video can be viewed here: http://ittv.net/DesktopModules/UltraVideoGallery/UltraVideoGallery.swf?vId=96&portalId=0

VCL Pivot Grid - version 2 is on its way

2008-08-06T09:00:00Z

To all of our loyal VCL customers...

We are getting ready to release the ExpressPivotGrid v2 and ExpressSpell Checker controls - Pivot Table and Spell Checking for the VCL (Delphi and C++ Builder). The release is imminent and we will certainly notify everyone via Email and our blogs/forums once both of these products are ready....in the meantime, if you have yet to see a list of new features for the ExpressPivotGrid v2 - here it is:

OLAP Data Source Support
You can now use the ExpressPivotGrid Suite to display OLAP cube data. To achieve this, simply bind your control to data via the newly introduced TcxPivotGridOLAPDataSource component. Once bound, end-user report customizations will force server-side data recalculation, which allows you to analyze large amounts of data without affecting your application's performance.

Visualizing Summary Data using Charts
ExpressPivotGrid v2 simplifies data analysis by allowing you to visualize summary data using charts available in the ExpressQuantumGrid's Chart View (sold separately). To display pivot grid data in a chart, you simply need to bind one control to another using a newly introduced component.
By default, the chart displays all data from the pivot grid's current view. This works best when you have static views and fully control your report layout within code. If you provide dynamic views (i.e. allow end-user report customization) it's best to allow end-users to control which data portion should be visualized in the chart. By enabling multiple cell selection, your users can specify the data source for the chart by selecting an appropriate cell block.

Obtaining Summary Data in a Standard Dataset
In addition to its new charting capabilities, you can now display the pivot grid's data in any data aware control. The new TcxPivotGridSummaryDataSet component transforms a pivot report into a standard dataset. For each data cell in a pivot grid, the control generates a record in the resulting dataset. A record will contain the data cell value, as well as appropriate column and row values.

Obtaining Drill-Down Data
Previously, drill-down data sources could only be generated via code and could only be used with the ExpressQuantumGrid. In version 2, we've introduced an entirely new component that makes drill-down data management more flexible.
Let’s assume you place a pivot grid and a standard dbgrid side-by-side and that you wish to use the grid to display drill-down data for the pivot grid's currently selected cell. We now provide a codeless way to achieve this objective. The drill-down dataset component can be automatically updated in response to cell focus change events. Thus, the drill-down grid (or any other control) will be automatically updated when used in this manner.

Data Filtering Enhancements
The ExpressPivotGrid now provides end-users with an advanced Filter Editor dialog, Filter Panel and a most recently used filter criteria list, much like that found in the ExpressQuantumGrid.

Filter dropdowns are now available in data field headers.

Additional enhancements include the following:
• The control’s StoreTo~ and RestoreFrom~ methods now store and restore field filters and the currently applied prefilter criteria.
• You can now respond to filter criteria changes via specially designed events.
• Filter dropdown lists now display grayed check boxes for field values that are currently filtered out.

New Summary Calculation Options
Previously, totals were always calculated based on the original (drill-down) data. This could confuse end-users with totals other than sum… For instance, if you want to display a minimum value under a group of rows, end-users will see the minimum value from the underlying dataset, not the minimum value among those visible on screen. To avoid this confusion, we now allow you to enable totals calculation based on values you see in the pivot grid, not the original raw data.
One more reason to implement this feature was to allow the display of totals for OLAP cubes, since OLAP mode doesn't allow you to access drill-down data.

Instead of actual summary values, you can now show percentage of the corresponding row or column total.

Cell Selection Enhancements
ExpressPivotGrid v2 allows end-users to select multiple cells blocks while pressing the CTRL key. In addition to simplifying data transfer via the clipboard, this new feature also affects the following data analysis options:

• Visualizing pivot grid data using the ExpressQuantumGrid's Chart View.
• Obtaining a plain dataset or drill-down data and displaying the result in a data-aware control.

All features listed above require you to use special components that can synchronize their data with the pivot grid's current selection.

You can also specify whether end-users can select data cells, subtotal cells and grand total cells.

Customizable Layout Persistence
Much like the ExpressQuantumGrid, the ExpressPivotGrid v2 allows you to specify how the control and individual field properties are persisted to external data stores. This is done via a set of specially designed events, which allow you to do the following:

Customize a list of properties to be saved.
Control property value save and restore processes.
Initialize pivot grid fields that are created during restoration.

Maximum and Minimum Value Indication
You can now easily highlight maximum and minimum values within a pivot grid control, or within individual columns and rows.

Minor Enhancements
• You can specify whether grand totals should be displayed.
• A new option allows you to display totals before (above or to the left of) corresponding data cells.
• Total headers offer customizable captions.
• The TcxNavigator component can be used to navigate data rows.
• You can change grid line color.
• New events allow you to respond to field header resizing operations.

Microsoft PDC 2008

2008-08-01T18:40:00Z

PDC 2008 is less than 90 days away and we are excited to be platinum sponsors of the event. If you have not yet looked into it, visit microsoftpdc.com for more information.

PDC 2008 coincides with our 10th year anniversary and as such, we are planning some interesting things ... if you are using our tools, make sure you send Kevin an email and let him know you plan on being at the event (kevinw AT devexpress.com).

Earthquake in LA

2008-07-29T21:45:00Z

Over the years, we've tried very hard to build a sense of teamwork within this company...To convince everyone that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Up until today, I really believed we were a team unlike any other. Leave it to a natural disaster to set me straight.

As you may have heard, we had a 5.4 magnitude earthquake here in Los Angeles ... our cameras were rolling as Mark and Kevin were discussing the importance of teamwork within the IDE team...here's what happened:

http://tv.devexpress.com/DevExpressEarthquake.movie