We are hoping to finalize our 2019 Roadmap in the coming weeks. Your feedback will help us prioritize activities and ensure that our resources are allocated effectively.
Note – The DevExtreme 2019 Roadmap Survey is divided into four separate blog posts.
Performance Enhancements
Improved Code Splitting
The popular Code Splitting technique helps web developers improve app performance. To help maximize the benefits associated with Code Splitting, we hope to organize DevExtreme into smaller/functionality specific
modules (for instance, we want to give you the option to use a read-only Data Grid without bundling any of its data editing features).
We also want to make our CSS modular. You’ll be able to bundle only those styles/features being used in your app.
Virtual Scrolling and Lazy Loading Everywhere
The vast majority of DevExtreme users work with large datasets (from thousands to millions of records). These datasets are rendered as lists within our controls. Our DataGrid supports virtual scrolling with lazy data loading. We’d like to make this feature available everywhere. This feature can be applied to the following list of widgets:
- TreeList
- TreeView
- Scheduler
- PivotGrid
- Lists
- DropDowns & Lookups
- Header filters
- Column choosers
You can read more about virtual scrolling
here.
DataGrid & TreeList
Excel-Like Editing Mode
We announced
this feature in our 2018 Roadmap but it wasn’t ready to ship when v18.2 was released. We have received useful feedback on this feature and are going to ship it in v19.1.
Accessibility Enhancements
In v18.2, we improved the DataGrid’s keyboard navigation capabilities with our ‘focused row’ feature. We now want to address remaining accessibility gaps. We will make it possible to navigate to and work with any existing DataGrid and TreeList element (such as grouping, sorting, paging) via the keyboard.
Record Reordering
We’ll give you the ability to reorder DataGrid rows and change TreeList parent-child node relationships via drag-and-drop.
Cross-Component Drag-and-Drop
Some business scenarios require that users move items from one collection to another or from one hierarchy to another. We hope to support cross-component item drag-and-drop operations.
TreeList
Remote Data Paging
At present, if you expand a node, the TreeList loads all child nodes and then paginates them locally. We want to give you the option to load nodes individually. This feature will work with both the pager control and through virtual scrolling - Just like our DataGrid.
New Filtering Modes
We’ll hope to extend the filtering capabilities of the TreeList with the following features:
- Enable search only through tree leaves.
- Include filtered nodes children into filter results.
Scheduler
Adaptivity & UX Enhancements
We want to enhance our Scheduler to look and behave better on small screens (mobile devices). You can find some examples of this adaptive behavior in its ASP.NET counterpart
here. If you’ve encountered specific usability issues with DevExtreme Scheduler, please share them with us.
Performance - Virtual Scrolling
To help improve overall performance and usability, we hope to add a new virtual scrolling mode to our Scheduler widget. When enabled, only visible appointments will be rendered.
Standalone Recurrence Editor
We have a recurrence editor that is a part of the Scheduler appointment form and can’t be used separately. We expect to ship the Recurrence editor as a standalone control in 2019.
HTML/Markdown Editor
Multiline Toolbar
At present, Toolbar items are hidden within a dropdown menu on small screens. If the number of items is large (as it is in the
HtmlEditor) the menu gets too long and becomes difficult to use. We’ll introduce one more adaptive mode that will create a second horizontal line of toolbar items instead of creating a dropdown menu.
Tables Support
We’ll give you the ability to insert and edit data tables.
Mentions Support (via @)
‘Mentions’ allow you select users or user groups by typing @ when composing rich text content. It’s widely used in team collaboration tools and project management applications.
Inline Formatting Toolbar
You’ll be able to reveal an inline formatting toolbar when selecting content that requires formatting.
Resize of Media Blocks
We’ll give you the ability to resize images and video blocks via the mouse.
Upload Images via Drag-and-Drop & Copy/Paste
You will be able to embed images as base64-formatted content or upload it to a web server via drag-and-drop or copy-paste actions and reference it as a URL.
TreeView
Node Reordering
Change parent-child relationships of TreeView nodes via drag-and-drop.
Cross-Component Nodes Drag-and-Drop
Move a node from one hierarchy to another using drag-and-drop.
Data Editors
Additional Action Buttons
Extend built-in editor action buttons with custom actions. You can find some examples
here.
Data Form
Dynamic Updates Without a Full Re-render
We recently added partial update support to several DevExtreme widgets. This update can also be applied to the Form widget (for those who dynamically update forms and do not want to initiate a full form re-render).
New Drag-and-Drop Utilities
We want to create a drag-and-drop utilities library so you can construct custom drag-and-drop functionality outside of our UI widgets. One such usage scenario involves list sorting. We’ll make it extremely easy to implement such functionality.
New Kanban Board Widget
Kanban Board has become an essential control for task and project management in modern business web applications.
New Dropdown Button Widget
A button with a built-in dropdown menu. You can find this kind of widget in many modern web applications. Please, refer to the Bootstrap implementation for an example.
New Floating Button Widget
The concept of a
Floating Button began with Material Design guidelines. We’ll support a simple Floating Button and a Floating Button with a pop-up menu.
Data Export
Export to PDF
Export to Excel in TreeList
We want to give you the option to export the contents of the TreeList control to XLSX files. You’ll be able to choose whether to export all or only selected records.
Export to Excel Customization Enhancements
We recently
enhanced our Export to Excel feature with cell appearance customization. Which of these additional export customization capabilities do you need (pick up to 3 items)?
WYSIWYG Export to Excel
If you create conditional format rules within the DataGrid, you may want it applied to exported sheets as well. You can now achieve this manually. We want to introduce WYSIWYG export capabilities in 2019. You'll have a single customization point for the data-aware control UI and the corresponding exported Excel sheet.
Data Layer
OData v4 Support
OData v4 support enables remote grouping and summary operations within DevExtreme controls - improving performance when using large datasets.
GraphQL Support
Seamlessly bind DevExtreme controls to your GraphQL API end-points.
Themes
Element and Font Size Customization
DevExtreme includes a ‘compact’ and ‘regular’ theme sets. Our users find the ‘compact’ themes very useful when generating a highly dense, data-intensive UI. We've received a number of requests for a compact Material theme. What are your thoughts?
IE11 Support
IE11 support consumes resources – resources that can be allocated to new features and products. Would you have any objections if we were to drop official support for IE11 in 2019?
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.