Our v19.1 release is drawing closer and it is time to show off the features the
teams have been hard at work on. It’s also an opportunity to gather feedback,
make sure the voice of the community is heard and squash any last minute bugs.
All of the features described in this post will be supported for all our target
platforms:
Ready to Try
Compact Date Filter
A new Date Filter Dashboard Item date-based filtering without consuming too much
valuable screen space.
Configuration of the Date Filter Item can be a single date value (before or
after the given date), or a range filter. Users can select dates via the custom
DateBox control.
Predefined Quick Filters can be configured at design time and are available as a
buttons. Choose from Date Box, Quick Filter buttons or both.
You can check the CTP version of Web Date Filter demos
here.
Data Federation
The new Data Federation Data Source allows the binding of several existing data
sources, easily combine SQL Data (queries), Excel Data and Object Data.
Relationships can be created between them.
Data Federation Data Source can be consumed in the DevExpress Dashboard on any
platform.
Try this new feature via the Wizard in our Dashboard WinForms Designer.
While the Web Federation Data Source Wizard didn’t make it into this CTP, you
can create the Data Source using the API both in
Win
and
Web
and of course dashboards created in the WinForms Designer can be viewed in both
the Web and WPF.
An example dashboard with a simple use case of the
FederationDataSource.
This Dashboard demonstrates a single Grid bound to Object Data Source, an
another Grid bound to Excel Data Source, and – the most important thing, a proof
of concept - a couple of items which are bound to federated data, coming from
both Data Sources joined by a simple condition.
For more information, code snippets and a place for discussion see this KB
article.
Your opinion matters, please answer this survey to help determine use cases.
In the Works
State Management in WinForms
A big refactoring of the WinForms control and its data-processing architecture
is underway. The goal of this is to deliver more features that could be
implemented in the v18.2 architecture. The first of which is a long-waited State
Management feature in both the WinForms Dashboard Viewer and Designer.
Search everywhere
Currently, large data calculations are managed well, however, certain use cases
involving big lists are hard to manage in the Designer's UI. This is something
that is being improved by enhancing the UX.
Range Filter for OLAP data sources
Work has already started updating the OLAP query engine to support Range Filters
(both existing and coming) bound to OLAP data source. The plan is to finish
these enhancements and update the Designers in v19.1.
Localization Rework
Work is underway on improving the localization of the Web controls and
cross-platform translation. The goal is to reduce the number of terms to
translate as well as the amount of localization traffic to the client (which is
important for the Client Dashboard).
Starting from v19.1, the DevExpress Localization
Service will fully support downloading
translated terms in JSON format (available now to test it as a pre-release
version – just request the localization and the archive you receive will have
JSON localization included with *.resx files)
JSON Data Source & XPO Data Source
These two data sources were recently introduced in DevExpress
Reports
following feedback they will both by added to the DevExpress Dashboard suite.
If There’s Time…
Chart and Scatter Chart – Constant Lines
The R&D team discussed the approach to let end users of Dashboard Designer set
up, configure and (optionally) bind to data a Constant Lines in Chart/Scatter
Chart. So far, UI mockups have been created and discussions around internal data
architecture is underway to look at supporting this feature.
This will most likely appear in v19.2 or CTP in a maintenance release.
Calculated Fields – support Comments and Line Breaks
Some users consume large and complex Expressions for Calculated Fields and have
requested that comments and line breaks be retained (they are currently lost
after serialization/deserialization of Dashboard). Investigations are underway
on how to keep these during postprocessing of Expressions.
Web Dashboard Viewer was removed from the installation
The Web Dashboard Viewer control is no longer shipped with v19.1 or later. More
information on this is available in the DevExpress Dashboard: Migration to Web
Dashboard
Control
blog post.
Access to a Preview Release
If you own an active Universal or
DXperience subscription, you can download
the CTP build from the DevExpress Download
Manager and test the
features described in this blog post. Let us know how well the new features
address your requirements. This will help us fine-tune our code before the
launch.
If you are using a trial and want to try this feature today, you can purchase
a DevExpress Universal or DXperience license
online (this will give you access to early builds
such as this CTP). If you are ready to upgrade to Universal or DXperience from
another subscription level, email us at clientservices@devexpress.com for
preferential upgrade pricing.
Free DevExpress Products – Get Your Copy Today
The following free DevExpress product offers remain available. Should you have any questions about the free offers below, please submit a ticket via the
DevExpress Support Center at your convenience. We’ll be happy to follow-up.