ASP.NET Core, WebForms, & MVC - 2021 Roadmap

Before I describe our 2021 ASP.NET Roadmap, my thanks to everyone who shared feedback and responded to our surveys last year. Your contribution is appreciated.

The following list outlines the features/capabilities we expect to incorporate into our ASP.NET Core, WebForms, and MVC components this year.

ASP.NET Core

DataGrid - Export to PDF

Last year we added a PDF Export feature to our DataGrid for ASP.NET Core (as a CTP). This year, we plan to officially release our PDF Export engine and add the following new features:

• WISIWYG cell data export
• Fit-to-page option
• Multi-page export
• Long cell text support (wrapping)
• Built-in export progress indicator
• Cell, format, and appearance customization for exported values

If you have already tried or plan to try our new PDF Export API and want to share your feedback, please refer to this discussion page.

HTML/Markdown Editor

To introduce Table support, we were forced to fork Quill v2.0 in our v20.2 release cycle. A positive outcome of this fork was IE11 support - something that survey results suggest remains important for a large number of our customers. Originally, IE11 support was dropped by the Quill team in Quill v2.0.

This year, we will incorporate the following new features into our HTML/Markdown Editor:

• Image upload
• Extended table support:
  • Manage tables via context menus
  • Add table headers
  • Multiline text within cells
  • Cell-merge operations
  • Customize table/cell appearance

If you are using the latest CTP version of our HTML/Markdown Editor and want to share your RTM requirements, feel free to leave your feedback in the following discussion pages: Upload Images and Table Support.

Scheduler - Horizontal Virtual Scrolling

Virtual Scrolling was first introduced in v20.2 and was made available in vertically grouped day and week views. Virtual Scrolling improved performance when displaying hundreds or even thousands of events/groups. In v21.1 this enhancement will be extended to timelines and horizontally grouped day and week views. We'll post an update in this thread once our implementation is ready for review.

Gantt - API Enhancements and PDF Export

We continue to address requests regarding recently released components such as Gantt and Diagram for ASP.NET Core. Most requests are related to component customization. In 2021, we'll add the following customization capabilities to our Gantt component:

• Customize task appearance via templates
• Customize behavior via a new set of events raised when a task or a dependency is added/removed
• Expand/collapse tasks programmatically
• Show/hide dependencies via a toolbox item or programmatically
• Specify initial date range to display
• Scroll to a specific date programmatically
• Support sorting by column

Another important and highly requested feature we expect to incorporate is PDF Export.

Diagram – API Enhancements

We expect to ship the following ASP.NET Core Diagram customization features in 2021:

• Customize item appearance via custom CSS styles
• Get a shape/connector model from its underlying data item key
• Iterate through all diagram shapes and connectors
• Extend diagram item events with new 'onHover' and 'onLeave' events

File Manager – API Enhancements

We will extend the ASP.NET Core File Manager and make it more customizable with the following new APIs:

• Allow custom HTTP headers in RemoteFileSystemProvider
• Customize context menu items for individual files/folders
• Show custom errors on the client side
• Show/hide Progress Panel and Folder Tree
• Add events to precisely control file/folder operations (folder creation, file upload, moving files, deleting files, etc.)
• Wrap long file names in the File Manager's detail view
• Customize icons in the Folder Tree

Material Design Enhancements

The Google team constantly updates its Material Design Guidelines. We plan to incorporate relevant changes and previously planned Editor Label Animations. If you have any specific requests about Material Theme support in DevExtreme, feel free to let us know via the feedback form below this post.

ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC

Common Enhancements

We expect to optimize many of our ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC components, including our GridView, Scheduler, Rich Text Edit, Spreadsheet, and HtmlEditor. We’ll share specific information in this regard as they become available (once an optimization has been applied, I’ll let you know here on this blog). Please stay tuned.

Gantt - API Enhancements and PDF Export

We continue to address requests regarding recently released components such as Gantt and Diagram. Most requests are related to component customization. In 2021, we'll add the following customization capabilities to our Gantt component:

• Customize task appearance via templates
• Customize behavior via a new set of events raised when a task or a dependency is added/removed
• Show/hide dependencies via a toolbox item or programmatically
• Specify initial date range to display
• Scroll to a specific date programmatically
• Automatically calculate component height

Another important and highly requested feature we expect to incorporate is PDF Export.

Diagram – API Enhancements

We expect to ship the following new Diagram customization features in 2021:

• Customize item appearance via custom CSS styles
• Get a shape/connector model from its underlying data item key
• Iterate through all diagram shapes and connectors
• Extend diagram item events with new 'onHover' and 'onLeave' events

Feedback

If you'd like to share your thoughts with our team, please comment below. If you have not responded to our survey, we encourage you to do so whenever time permits.

We expect to update this page throughout the year, so definitely bookmark this page for future reference.

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