v21.2 is a couple of months away and we wanted to document some of the features we expect to ship in November.
Before we describe these features, a quick reminder: If you are an active Universal or DXperience subscriber and want to test upcoming v21.2 features before our official release, you can download our first Early Access Preview (EAP) build via the DevExpress Download Manager.
Early Access and CTP builds are provided solely for early testing purposes and are not ready for production use. This build can be installed side by side with other major versions of DevExpress products. Please backup your project and other important data before installing Early Access and CTP builds
This EAP may not include all features/products we expect to ship in our v21.2 release cycle. As its name implies, the EAP offers an early preview of what we expect to ship in two months.
Visual Studio Report Designer for .NET 5 Apps - Release Candidate
We stabilized and enhanced our market-first Visual Studio-integrated Report Designer in this development cycle and are looking forward to your feedback on our most recent update. v21.2 related enhancements include:
- Improved startup time - at least 2x faster than v21.1.
- Improved custom type discovery (from your assemblies) for both
ObjectDataSource
and EFDataSource
.
- With v21.2, the Report Designer is enabled by default for
*.vsrepx
files.
- You can now open standard
XtraReport
class files (*.cs
) with our updated Visual Studio Report Designer. We now offer a unified design time experience for both .NET Framework and .NET (.NET Core) apps.
The following video demonstrates how our new .NET 5 Visual Studio Report Designer loads a report.
Documentation
Report Designer Enhancements
Visual Studio Report Designer
WinForms
WPF
Web
Expressions
We extended our Report Designer (for all supported platforms) and improved its user experience when defining expression bindings:
- A new button (with a formula-f symbol) is now displayed next to the selected control. This button allows you to invoke the Expression Editor instantly.
- The new Expression Editor view allows you to set up expression bindings for various report control properties directly within its dialog window. A glowing formula (f) symbol indicates that a property has an expression assigned:
- The Properties panel within Report Designers now highlights “bindable” properties with a formula (f symbol indicates that a property is bound to data:
We also replicated this user experience within the Visual Studio Report Designer properties panel:
All Report Designers (minus our integrated Visual Studio Report Designer) now feature a new two-column toolbox that displays our entire report control set simultaneously. You can expand/collapse the toolbox when using the desktop (WinForms and WPF) version of DevExpress Reports:
WinForms Report Viewer - DirectX Support
WinForms
Our WinForms Document Viewer control now supports DirectX rendering for both user interface elements and the report document. The benefits of DirectX rendering are numerous and include:
- Up to 80% faster document rendering
- Smoother scrolling experience
- Enhanced responsiveness in multi-page mode
- Enhanced glyph rendering quality thanks to DirectWrite
Enable the viewer's UseDirectXPaint property to switch from the default GDI+ rendering engine to DirectX. Use the EnableSmoothScrolling property to change the scrolling mode.
The following videos help demonstrate the power of DirectX rendering:
- Rendering speed – As you can see, DirectX is far faster than GDI
- Smoother scrolling – Like the previous example, DirectX is more efficient than GDI
Localization - Translation Strings CSV Import/Export
Visual Studio Report Designer
WinForms
WPF
You are now able to export report localization strings to a CSV file and use it to translate report elements with the help of third-party services. In addition, our Localization Editor can import translations made within a CSV file and apply it to a report.
Documentation
PDF Content - Embed PDFs into Report Pages
Visual Studio Report Designer
WinForms
WPF
Web
The XRPdfContent
report control exposes a new GenerateOwnPages
property – a property that manages operation mode. This control can act like a subreport when the property is disabled. With the help of a control placeholder, you can limit the area to scale and embed PDF files directly into your report. Refer to the following diagram for more information on our implementation:
This new mode is useful when:
- You need to embed PDF file content into a report with common headers/footers (headers/footers will be printed on PDF file pages as well).
- You need to print specific content (pictures, bar codes, page numbers, a report watermark) over the contents of your PDF file.
- You need to design a pre-printed form and use a PDF file as a watermark.
- You need to create a report document with an A4 paper kind and include a PDF file with different page dimensions.
Documentation
Parameters - Print Display Values
The Expression Editor now features a new GetDisplayText
function. This function allows you to print selected display values for a lookup parameter:
Documentation
SQL and Data Federation Data Sources - Right Outer Join and Full Outer Join
Both our SQL and Data Federation Data Source now support Right Outer and Full Outer join types:
When you create a report in code, you can use our Reporting API to construct queries with these new join types. Refer to the following help topics for code samples:
Web Report Designer Enhancements
ASP.NET Web Forms
ASP.NET MVC
ASP.NET Core
Blazor Server
Updated User Interface
Please review the following article for information related to UI enhancements introduced in this EAP: Reporting — Updated Web Report Designer UI (Coming Soon in v21.2).
To explore this new UI, be sure to check out the following online demo: Web Report Designer - Online Demo.
Cross-Tab
Our Web Report Designer ships with a new Cross-Tab report control. We’ve also included a Cross-Tab report wizard to help you create cross-tab reports with ease.
Documentation
Report Design Analyzer
The Report Design Analyzer panel (designed to help you isolate, diagnose, and address common report design/layout-related issues) has been integrated into the DevExpress Web Report Designer (v21.2).
Documentation
Breaking Changes in v21.2
Upcoming Features
Though the following features are not included in our first EAP, we expect to include them in our first beta or as part of our official release.
Parameters Panel Customization API
WinForms
WPF
Our new customization API will allow you to generate a custom parameter panel layout based on report parameters. This new API will address the following usage scenarios:
- Customizing parameter editors
- Changing parameter description labels location
- Parameter editors grouping
- Conditional visibility of parameter editors
If time permits, we'll also offer a user interface to help construct the parameter panel layout.
Report Designer - Updated Manage Queries Dialog
WinForms
WPF
We will combine multiple dialog windows (designed to manage different queries) into a single window.
The updated manage queries dialog will feature a queries list along with a dynamic region that will update content based upon selections in the list. As a result, the UI will differ for a standard SQL query, a custom query, or a stored procedure.
This enhancement will also allow you to clone queries.
Native Report Viewer for Blazor Server
Blazor Server
We will extend the capabilities of our Blazor Report Viewer with the following features:
- Export Options Panel
- Search Panel
- Document Map Panel
- Ability to resize panels
- MultiPage View Mode
Your Feedback Counts
As always, we welcome your feedback. Please post your comments below or create a new support ticket if you've beta tested our Early Access Preview.
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.