Office File API & Office-Inspired Desktop UI Controls — Year-End Roadmap (v24.2)
We thank you for your continued support and for sharing your document processing needs and requirements with us. If you’d like to discuss this roadmap in greater detail or share a business use case that our Office File API product does not address, feel free to send your feedback using the survey below or submit a Support Center ticket. We’ll be happy to follow up.
Important Changes
.NET Framework 4.6.2 and .NET 8 Support
Our development plans are aligned with Microsoft's .NET Life Cycle and as such, we'll be ending .NET 7 (ended in May 2024) and .NET 6 support (will end November 2024) with our next major update (v24.2).
The minimal .NET Framework supported target will be v4.6.2, as it is the lowest framework version supported by Microsoft.
And finally, the oldest supported version of the Visual Studio IDE will be 2019 (our surveys indicate that 2019 and 2022 are used by the vast majority of our customers).
Please refer to the following announcement to learn more about this global change .NET — .NET 8 and .NET Framework 4.6.2 Are Minimally Supported Target Frameworks for DevExpress Libraries in v24.2..
.NET 9 Support
We will support .NET 9 across our product line for v24.2 and v24.1 after November 2024.
GDI+ (Libgdiplus) — End Of Support on Non-Windows systems
As you may already know, GDI+ (System.Drawing library) APIs are now marked for use in Windows-only environments (beginning with .NET 7).
Based on plans to shift to .NET 8 this year and the release of our cross-platform SkiaSharp-based engine last year, we will refactor our source code to remove all method calls related to GDI+ for non Windows-based environments (libgdiplus).
Support Skia for Windows Environment and Prepare to Deprecate the AzureCompatibility Property
Multiple DevExpress products (specifically Reporting, Dashboards, and Office File API) ship with printing and export functionality for restricted environments such as Microsoft Azure, wherein certain GDI/GDI+ calls related to metafiles and font objects are unavailable. The AzureCompatibility.Enable property managed this capability.
With v23.2, we ended support for functionality offered by this property toggle for non-Windows environments and in our next major update (v24.2) we will continue in this direction. To achieve this, we will support Skia for non-visual Office File API libraries in Windows-based environments as well. Once complete we'll be ready to phase out the AzureCompatibility toggle.
This decision will help us focus development and maintenance efforts in a single direction and allow customers to use the DevExpress Office File API in cloud/restricted environments (for more information in this regard, refer to the following: Skia-based Cross-Platform Graphics Engine).
New AI-Powered Enhancements
We will integrate AI-Powered features into our WinForms and WPF Rich Text and Spreadsheet components. These enhancements will allow users to quickly understand the underlying essence of individual documents via Generative AI summaries and translate documents to a preferred language using AI-powered translations. In addition, we plan to give you the ability to describe images used within Office documents using AI-powered APIs.
To access these features, you will need to use your own Microsoft Azure Open AI API key or use local open-source models powered by Ollama and Onnx Runtime.
Spreadsheet Document API and Spreadsheet UI Controls for WinForms and WPF
Dynamic Array Formulas
Dynamic arrays are a modern and powerful way to work with Excel document formulas. Unlike standard array formulas, which return a single value for each cell with a formula, dynamic array functions return a dynamic array of values (this array of values automatically spills into neighboring cells). Dynamic arrays offer many advantages, including new functions (XLOOKUP, XMATCH, Sort, etc.).
We expect to enhance our formula calculation engine and integrate dynamic arrays into relevant DevExpress Spreadsheet-processing tools. Core functionality will include the following:
- Dynamic array calculations (formulas) and Spill Range support.
- New formula error type (#SPILL!).
- Spill range reference (# symbol).
- Implicit intersection operator (@ symbol) to return a single formula value instead of an array.
Embed Images in Cells
Modern versions of Microsoft Excel support a new locate image feature - "Place in Cell" (available from the Insert->Picture menu). This option gives you the ability to embed an image directly into a cell instead of placing it over worksheet content.
With v24.2, our Spreadsheet Document API library and desktop Spreadsheet UI controls (WinForms & WPF) will ship with "Place in Cell" image placement support. As you would expect, this new feature will allow you to import documents with images embedded in worksheet cells and save these documents to supported Excel formats without the content loss. Embedded cell images will be correctly displayed when you preview workbooks using our desktop Spreadsheet editors (WinForms & WPF) and when you print/export documents to PDF (and of course, we'll offer new APIs to manage embedded images in code).
PDF Document API and PDF Viewer for WinForms
Accessibility Enhancements
We will continue to enhance accessibility support for our desktop document viewers. In our next release cycle, we will introduce screen reader support for the DevExpress WinForms PDF Viewer. With this enhancement, you will be able to read contents in Accessible PDF documents (based on tagged structure).
Signature Validation Enhancements
v24.2 will ship with enhanced PDF Signature Validation APIs. New capabilities will include:
- APIs to verify certificate revocation based on Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responses.
- APIs to verify certificate revocation based on Certificate Revocation List (CRL).
- APIs to validate Long Term Validation (LTV) signatures.
- APIs to validate Document Level Timestamps.
Export PDF Documents to SVG
We will finalize "SVG Export" options for our Office File API libraries and extend existing image export APIs for the PDF Document Processor library (to convert PDF file pages to SVG images). This enhancement will allow you to generate vector document previews from PDF files in both Windows and non-Windows environments.
Image Extraction API
To improve user experiences when extracting PDF content and analyzing document structure, we plan to enhance our image extraction APIs for the PDF Document API library. With our new APIs, you will be able to obtain additional information about PDF page images and determine image size and location on a page.
Word Processing Document API and Rich Text Editors for WinForms and WPF
Page Borders
Our Word-processing components will support Page Borders within Word documents. You will be able to import and save documents with page borders to supported Word formats without content loss. Page borders will be properly displayed when you preview the document, print it, or export it to the PDF. APIs to manage page borders in code will be also available.
Small Caps Formatting Support
With v24.2, our Word processing tools will support Small Caps character formatting. Small Caps formatting will be applied when you preview the document inside the UI control and when you print/export to PDF. We will also introduce API settings to manage Small Caps formatting in code (and enhance the Font dialog for our desktop Rich Text Editors (WinForms & WPF) to apply formatting via the UI).
Barcode Generation API
New Barcode Types — Aztec & Micro QR Code
v24.2 will allow you to generate two new barcode types: Aztec and Micro QR Code.
Aztec barcodes provide a compact and efficient way to encode large amounts of data without requiring a quiet zone, making them ideal for space-constrained documents.
Micro QR Codes offer a smaller alternative to traditional QR Codes, suitable for scenarios where space is limited and only small amounts of data need encoding.
Libraries - Resolve Missing Fonts
We plan to introduce a new API that will detect fonts used in documents but are missing in your application’s hosting environment (such as various Docker images, Azure App Service, etc.). This feature will allow you to identify and resolve missing fonts by adding them to the DXFontRepository before document generation begins. With this enhancement, you will be able to identify and address document appearance issues, ensuring that your documents appear as designed, regardless of the hosting platform.
Your Feedback Matters
We thank you for taking the time to review our year-end Roadmap. Please take a moment to answer the following survey question and let us know your thoughts on our plans for v24.2.
v24.1 - What's New
If you have yet to review the features/capabilities introduced in our most recent major update, please visit the following webpage and let us know what you think of this release by responding to our online survey: Explore Our Newest Features (v24.1).
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Maria Nikulina (DevExpress)