VCL Controls - 2020 Roadmap - Your Vote Counts

VCL Team Blog
18 December 2019

First and foremost – our deepest thanks for your continued support of DevExpress VCL technologies. We value your business and commitment to our products. This blog post is divided into two sections: the first details features we will release in 2020, and the second describes products/features that are under consideration.

New Features/Capabilities We Will Release in 2020

ExpressQuantumGrid Suite

Performance Enhancements

  • Distribute calculations to threads
  • Optimize calculation algorithms

Custom layout for data rows (T845963)

Custom layout for data rows


Popup Edit Form (T124704)

Popup Edit Form


Search and Group Panel Integration (T845991)

Search and Group Panel Integration


Filtering Enhancements

  • Ability to compare values in two fields (B1086)

    Field to field compare


  • Ability to compare a field value to an expression's result (T845993)

    Field to expression compare


  • Implement Breadcrumb Style UX for the Filter Panel (T846166)

    FilterBox Tokens

New Gantt Control

We expect to officially release a new VCL Gantt Control.

New Gantt Control

ExpressSkins Library

New Office 2019 Skins

New Office 2019 Skins


New Basic Skin

New Basic Skin

New Features/Capabilities that Require Your Feedback

The remainder of our 2020 VCL Roadmap will be shaped by a simple question – whether you want us to release a Chart Control in 2020 or not. The resources we must dedicate to a Chart Control will affect resources available for enhancements to other controls.

New Chart Control

In 2020 we can implement a new chart control that will contain all the functionality that is implemented in the Chart View of TcxGrid control, as well as frequently requested functionality that is not implemented in the Chart View, namely:

  • Ability to create an X-Y chart from two sequences of values (S91108)
  • Ability to display multiple diagrams on a single chart (AS16671)
  • Ability to add secondary axes to diagrams (DS4238)
  • Zoom support (T330130)

If you cast your vote for this new VCL Chart Control, we will not be able to introduce the four enhancements listed below. If you vote against the standalone Chart Control, we should be able to deliver all the features listed below.

ExpressPDFViewer Enhancements

  • Ability to edit interactive forms in a PDF document (T408315)
  • Add support for PDF interactive form data import and export (T845924)
  • Ability to manage pages in a PDF document and save changes (T408004)
  • Implement Single Page view mode with support for scroll and pan operations (T759079)
  • Marquee zoom mode (T653105)
  • Reduce memory consumption when a user actively navigates through a PDF document (T467673)
  • Ability to forbid select and copy operations in a PDF document (T756015)

ExpressRichEdit Control Enhancements

  • Implement a non-visual component that processes rich text documents (T375226)
  • Ability to use IME as an embedded editor (T353641)
  • Ability to load and save documents with shapes based on different geometry patterns (T320518)
  • Add support for paragraph borders (T531568)

ExpressLibrary Enhancements

  • Add support for smooth content scrolling with animation (T623629)
  • FormattedLabel enhancements:
    • Rotate text
    • Insert inline images
    • Bulleted and numbered lists
    • Display rich text formatted content in column/row headers
    • Display rich text formatted content in layout element captions
  • Add support for Fluent Design System (T846060)
  • Implement a control that replicates the DevExpress WinForms Flyout Panel (T207259)
  • Implement basic draw routines with support for DirectX rendering (for example as in T724576 ticket)
  • Update UI of all controls based upon Section 508 accessibility guidelines (AS11009)
  • TdxCloudStorage - Add support for Dropbox (T697922)

ExpressPivotGrid Suite Enhancements

  • Performance Enhancements
    • Implement multi-threaded algorithms to improve performance of summary calculations (T189818)
    • Optimize table layout calculation routines
  • Add a new 'count unique values' summary type (S90560)
  • Implement the TotalForSingleValues property for separate fields (Q404402)
  • Give end-users the ability to change summary type via a context menu (T845998)
  • Allow end-users to customize group options via a context menu (T845972)
  • New group options for date-time fields (T846012)
  • Export data to Excel with the ability to repeat group values in each expanded row/column (T325668)
  • Extend the ApplyBestFit method with the ability to size each column individually (CS56271)

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.
Andrey Kipcharskiy
Andrey Kipcharskiy
Hello! In addition to ExpressPDFViewer enhancements ... it would be nice to add capability to sign PDF files and view digital signatures.
18 December 2019
Denis Harms_1
Denis Harms_1
Alone the planned enhancements for ExpressLibrary let me say: There is no need for a new chart control in 2020, concentrate on expanding existing controls and delivering UI/UX features already realised in .NET/WinForms.
18 December 2019
Josef Bambousek
Josef Bambousek
I have the same PDF signing requirement as Andrey Kipcharskiy
18 December 2019
Charalampos Michael
Charalampos Michael
I'll renew only for Fluent & DirectX support! Do not disappoint me! 
18 December 2019
Marek Lieder
Marek Lieder
Indeed, PDF signing would be nice! 
18 December 2019
John Riche
John R.
I add my vote for the PDF signing feature and non-visual component to process rich text documents!
18 December 2019
Hichem BENLAGHA
HichemB
please add LockedStateImageOptions is TreeList and your futur Chart
18 December 2019
Rodrigo Coelho
Rodrigo Coelho
Include calculated fields on PivotGrid, like QuantumGrid.
18 December 2019
Fabiano Castro 2
Fabiano Castro 2
Conditional Formatting in Pivot and Chart in the SpreadSheet please
18 December 2019
Iskandar Achmad
Iskandar Achmad
Need a separated Chart Control, then it would be possible to introduce Chart in SpreadSheet Control.
18 December 2019
Mohamed Bengeloune
Mohamed Bengeloune

Hello,

Better than new chart component, I need you concentrate on optimizing grid and Pivotgrid.

Better scaling of components and forms, PDF signing is  longly awaited.

19 December 2019
STEFANO MONTERISI
STEFANO MONTERISI

I need Custom layout for data row (very useful), but not only for display but also for editing, with free positioning of other ALL cx editors (tcxbuttons, dblookups, comboboxes, listview) and also grids ( for alternative master-details)!

Another great features is ability to edit interactive forms in a PDF document; with this components I can replace my tax forms (images in background with editor over), but I need binding between pdf form fields and my Delphi datasets or Objects. Is very useful if component have events for manage when single pdf form fields are edited,or events for fill the document; so i can fill form fields with database value and update back the dataset fields when form fields are modified. Better is if I can manage properties of current selected form field (x,y, lenght, type, name, oldvalue, newvalue), so i can create on the fly a cxeditor for input current value over the pdf form field, so i can input data also using cxdblookups or other devexpress components, since the features of pdf editor are very poor.
(sorry for my bad english :-) )    

 

19 December 2019
Luke Miller
Luke Miller
Would really like a Dashboard Control a la DevExpress Dashboard for .NET
19 December 2019
Customer122621
Customer122621
Any word on FMX please?
23 December 2019
Customer97929
Customer97929
PDF signing would be nice! Pretty please?
25 December 2019
Jesus García Zarco
Jesus García Zarco
PDF signing and dashboard could be nice.
25 December 2019
Roman Ganz
Roman Ganz
PDF signing here too
26 December 2019
Scott van der Linden
Scott van der Linden

It would be good if the chart control lead to chart support in the spreadsheet control.

Alternatively, if the shape geometry matched the selection available in Excel, and allowed the spreadsheet control to support shapes.

26 December 2019
Scott van der Linden
Scott van der Linden

Not covered in the survey: it would be great to enhance The grid to support multiple dimensions. Similar to a pivot grid:

One dataset (or more) represented down the page (as normal).  One dataset (or more) across the top and to the right of the first like the vertical grid. And a third dataset in the intersection of the two.  Used for representing many-to-many joins that include data in the joining table.

The central cells of the third dataset should be complex like the vertical grid, allowing more than one editor.


I have adapted the quantum grid to do something like this, but it is terribly slow when there are large numbers of columns.

26 December 2019
Luis Madaleno
Luis Madaleno

Please add a new Chart Control and improve the Scheduler performance for real world heavy duty scenarios.

What about DevExpress Dashboard for VCL just like the .NET counterpart?


Thanks. 

28 December 2019
Luis Madaleno
Luis Madaleno
I also vote for a FlyoutPanel control.
28 December 2019
Marcos Pegoraro - F10
Marcos Pegoraro - F10

I would love to have smart filter constants like those smart input constants you have for date editors.

So we could have a filter like

DueDate < Today 

SaleDate = LastMonth

And this Filter would be saved and never have to be edited.

29 December 2019
Gary Kammeraad
Gary Kammeraad

As good as the chart control sounds, I think it would be more helpful to our users to keep investing in the PDF  (form and signing) and Rich Text editing for a little longer. And I like the idea of a dashboard.

The feature list for 2020 release also looks good!

Thanks!

29 December 2019
Gregory (DevExpress)
Gregory (DevExpress)

And I like the idea of a dashboard 


Charts are a necessary element for the implementation of dashboards. Therefore, dashboards can only be implemented after the charts.

30 December 2019
A. Ton
A. Ton
I Vote for New Chart Control
1 January 2020
ROBERTO MOUCO RODRIGUEZ
ROBERTO MOUCO RODRIGUEZ
I vote for Chart and PDF signing.
2 January 2020
Aleksandrs Programetajs
Aleksandrs Programetajs
I vote for dashboard
8 January 2020
Eric Archambeau
Eric Archambeau
PDF signing would be nice!
9 January 2020
Raoulw
Raoulw

Hello,


My 2 cents:


1. Chartview is sufficient for VCL

2. Don't waste any time on dasboards for VCL. Just make sure the VCL Databases are supported in .NET Dash. People can use that designer to create dashboards. We just use .NET dashes.

3. Please update the pivot grid with all the new features that have been done for the TcxGrid, like:

- Add the 'Custom' option like in the TcxGrid (T639143)

- Dropdown filter length: (S139672)

- date filtering,

- range selection,

- Runtime  Calculated Fields

- Conditional Formatting (T590128) Actually there are more than a dozen tickets with the same question.

- Excel inspired filtering (T804181)  

9 January 2020
Raoulw
Raoulw

Hello,


My 2 cents:


1. Chartview is sufficient for VCL

2. Don't waste any time on dasboards for VCL. Just make sure the VCL Databases are supported in .NET Dash. People can use that designer to create dashboards. We just use .NET dashes.

3. Please update the pivot grid with all the new features that have been done for the TcxGrid, like:

- Add the 'Custom' option like in the TcxGrid (T639143)

- Dropdown filter length: (S139672)

- date filtering,

- range selection,

- Runtime  Calculated Fields

- Conditional Formatting (T590128) Actually there are more than a dozen tickets with the same question.

- Excel inspired filtering (T804181)  

9 January 2020
Alberto Menghini
Alberto Menghini

Vote for :

- DevExpress Dashboard for VCL

- Non-visual component to process rich text documents

- PDF Editing Field

- Flyout Panel

14 January 2020
Willem Louw
Willem Louw

1. Secondary axis on pivot grid chart

2. Dashboard 

14 January 2020
Douglas Olson
Douglas Olson

I too vote for the VCL dashboard control like you have in .NET.  



14 January 2020
Thomas Kaeswurm
Thomas Kaeswurm
Firemonkey is coming. More and more. Our customers want to use different modules on different systems and it is easier for us if we develop with firemonkey.
14 January 2020
Nhlanhla Mgoza 1
Nhlanhla Mgoza 1

I vote for;

Dashboard Control

PDF Editing and Signing


14 January 2020
Massimo Voto
Massimo Voto

I vote for

1.dashboard for VCL

2.Grid or ListView for FMX

14 January 2020
Thomas Iseli
Thomas Iseli

I Vote for New Chart Control.

The existing linechart is only suitable for economic uses. I need a Chart for scientific purposes.

14 January 2020
Udi Shoshan
Udi Shoshan
The PDF improvement is important, I just miss a function to merge two PDF files.
14 January 2020
Bobby Tucker
Bobby Tucker

1. I would love to see Firemonkey components from DevExpress.  Firemonkey is the solution for new applications.

2. I like the items you are working on for pdf support but would like to see signing capability.

3. Would like to see improvements to ExpressRichEditor including the ability to view / print text generated in ExpressRichEdit with ReportBuilder from Digital Metaphors.

4. Would like to see VCL Dashboard but not an absolute must.

The enhancements you are planning sound great.

Thanks



14 January 2020
Bobby Tucker
Bobby Tucker

1. I would love to see Firemonkey components from DevExpress.  Firemonkey is the solution for new applications.

2. I like the items you are working on for pdf support but would like to see signing capability.

3. Would like to see improvements to ExpressRichEditor including the ability to view / print text generated in ExpressRichEdit with ReportBuilder from Digital Metaphors.

4. Would like to see VCL Dashboard but not an absolute must.

The enhancements you are planning sound great.

Thanks



14 January 2020
Dirk Bräuer
Dirk Bräuer
I would very much welcome the focus on ExpressRichEdit Control Enhancements, especially the development of a non-visual component that processes rich text documents (T375226).
14 January 2020
Brad Bennett
Brad Bennett
Dashboard Control!
14 January 2020
Peter Aschbacher
Peter Aschbacher

I too would like you to concentrate on the enhancement of existing components and controls, especially the PDF viewer.

Nevertheless, I have the wish for a new control: A FLEXIBLE AND ADVANCED TEXT COMPARE control to show the differences between two texts or document files.

14 January 2020
Martin Radvansky
Martin Radvansky

Pdf signing should be great extension.

Firemonkey

14 January 2020
Nir Nir
Nir Nir
Interactive pdf forms is the most important to me ,
14 January 2020
Matthias Neutzner
Matthias Neutzner

I support further improvements to PDF and Rich Text components.

14 January 2020
Peter Edwards
Peter Edwards
Would really like a Dashboard Control a la DevExpress Dashboard for .NET  please please
14 January 2020
Peter Edwards
Peter Edwards

Fire monkey is now looking essential


14 January 2020
James Maguire
James Maguire
Yes on Charts, could use it for sure.  Had to buy a separate component.
14 January 2020
Peter Blair
Peter Blair
Please do a Firemonkey version of the grid, there is nothing like yours out there and it would kill.  Not needed so much for the mobile apps, but for the Mac desktop for sure.
14 January 2020
Stefan Diestelmann
Stefan Diestelmann
Firemonkey is one of my wishes and speed enhancement for map control with 100000 and more items
14 January 2020
Mariusz EH
Mariusz EH

An advanced Charting Control is high on the priority list of my VCL development requirements.

The other alternative set of VCL enhancements would be nice to have, in particular the proposed ExpressPivotGrid Suite enhancements.

I also look forward to the promised new FireMonkey components - in particular the new grid component.


14 January 2020
Customer56965
ScottAtVas
If combining the group and search panel, I'd ask that my suggestion be implemented to give the user a visible search panel control to toggle filtered search on/off.
14 January 2020
Chris Kudla
Chris Kudla

PDF signing please!

And if you're working on RichText editor, we really need HTML support that can be used in emails

14 January 2020
Martin Köhrer
Martin Köhrer
Performance Optimization of Layout Control !
14 January 2020
Gert Hoogeboom
Gert Hoogeboom

No charts for me. The VCL Gantt Control is very important for me. Please also create printing capabilities in the Gantt Controll.

14 January 2020
Steffen Binas
Steffen Binas
No charts, better concentrate on the Express library.
14 January 2020
Christian Matusch
Christian Matusch

I vote for the FMX Grid, please.


14 January 2020
Emile Verhijden
Emile Verhijden
Good charts please!!!
14 January 2020
Emile Verhijden
Emile Verhijden
As I said charts, but a  DevExpress Dashboard for .NET  in VCL would be superb
14 January 2020
Peter Szollos
Peter Szollos
Embedded ActiveX in PDF.
14 January 2020
Peter Szollos
Peter Szollos
Embedded ActiveX in PDF.
14 January 2020
AK Techotel A/S
AK Techotel A/S
PDF signing here too, please...
14 January 2020
ANDREAS BREITENBERGER
ANDREAS B.
No charts, better concentrate on enhancements of the other controls.
14 January 2020
Carlos Moreno
Carlos Moreno
I would like see firemonkey controls
14 January 2020
Andrey Kipcharskiy
Andrey Kipcharskiy
DirectX for painting will be nice
14 January 2020
Anna Folch
Anna Folch
Add support for smooth content scrolling with animation and editors enhancements!!!!
15 January 2020
Jacek Iwaniec
Jacek Iwaniec
+ ExpressQuantumGrid
- Search and Group Panel Integration - is OK and long awaited option, but why not a step further? Make it's layout customizable (and the footer's as well)
- FindPanel search results - add Apply To Dataset option.
- FindPanel search - choose fields/columns to search with (despite of column is visible or not)
- Add view/column conditional formatting
I'll also be glad to see it done:
- Popup Edit Form (maybe allow custom buttons and actions here ?).
- Filtering Enhancements

+ Charts
- add radar type to existing Chart View of TcxGrid control

+ PDF
- at least show if the file is signed, and by who

+ ExpressLibraryDisplay
- allow rich text formatted content in layout element captions

15 January 2020
IMECS
IMECS

Dear Sir or Madam,

Since 8 years we requested performance improvements on master/detail unbound grids. Unless this issue is not solved, we won't invest in VCL anymore and stopped buying updates/subcriptions. For client/server applications with data and business layer this is a big problem and I remember some tickets in your system asking for the same! Very poor support!

15 January 2020
Ben van Mierlo
Ben van Mierlo
I like the options in the roadmap.
Especially the new GANTT control!
We had to do a lot of custom work to make the current one more usable.
We made several suggestions in the support center.
Please add printing options to the GANTT control as well!

I would also really like to see Conditional Formatting in the Pivot grid!

New chart control is less important for us now.
VCL dashboards in the future would be great and you would need the new chart control.
But if you have to choose, that has less priority for us.

15 January 2020
Carole ROUSSE
Carole ROUSSE
We need an HTML editor component. Is this planned with the improvement of the RichEdit component ? If Yes I vote ExpressRichEdit Control Enhancements to finally have an HTML component.
15 January 2020
Stefan Paege
Stefan Paege
Documentation and online help of Map Control and its related components is still lacking...
15 January 2020
ANDREAS YEROLEMOU
ANDREAS YEROLEMOU
Please concentrate on the Express library. 
15 January 2020
Haderach
Haderach

Vote for :

  • ExpressLibrary Enhancements + Better performance on LayoutControl (painting and customization mode).
  • ExpressPivotGrid Suite Enhancements.
  • ExpressPDFViewer Enhancements + PDF Signing.
15 January 2020
Gregory (DevExpress)
Gregory (DevExpress)
> PDF signing
everyone who is interested in this functionality can describe their needs in the following ticket: T416311
15 January 2020
Wieslaw Kozikowski
Wieslaw Kozikowski

Vote for:

  • PDF Signing
  • calculate fileds on PivotGrid, like QuantumGrid.
  • Charts

 

15 January 2020
David Brennan
David Brennan

Wow, that was a hard choice. I selected the chart view option in the end, but really my list of priorities would be:

ExpressLibrary Enhancements (particularly if DirectX rendering will improve performance of dxBars and large numbers of controls, but other items from your ExpressLibrary enhancements were also of interest)

New Chart control

Pivot Grid enhancements

The rest...

15 January 2020
Rijk Van Der Merwe
Rijk Van Der Merwe

1. Would like to see improvements to ExpressRichEditor including the ability to view / print text generated in ExpressRichEdit with ReportBuilder from Digital Metaphors.

2. Would really like to see VCL Dashboard

Thanks again, for the improvements.


Thanks

15 January 2020
Alfred Ghazzi
Alfred Ghazzi

Chart/Dashboard

ExpressRichEdit enhancements

Both Grid Enhancements

PDFViewer enhancements
 

The rest


15 January 2020
Deidy J. Eberhardt
Deidy J. Eberhardt
In my side, please consider to implement a new control for Log info with different status to show to the user (Good, Warnings, fails, etc), also with levels.
15 January 2020
Robert N Harris
Robert N Harris
Ediors & grids are most important for me. Finishing "beta" software so it can be used in production software would be nice. I would love to see a dashboard such as in the .NET libraries. This seems to have dropped off the roadmap altogether. Lastly the pivot grid, I wish I could use it but due to lack of end user customizations I cannot. Is there any plans in the pipeline for adding some features such as in other products?
15 January 2020
Dirk Illenberger
Dirk Illenberger
Can you please add an HTML component? This has been on the wish list for years now. We live in an HTML century and we don't get an HTML component from DevExpress. This component is sorely missed.
18 January 2020
Peter Aschbacher
Peter Aschbacher
I have a very big wish: Export PDF file to DOCX, RTF, PPT. This would be FANTASTIC!
18 January 2020
Roman Eisendle
Michael Szirch
Is it posible to add a filter row like TcxGridTableView to the TxcDbTreeList component for filtering? Our customers asked for this benefit very often.
19 January 2020
Alex Morgan
Alex Morgan
This chaotic wishlist should be narrowed down
  • to the list
  • of several
  • distinct
  • items
and re-published as a multi-choice poll. Then just count choises and select winners)


The poll should be titled "Which VCL features do you need so badly that ready even to buy a VCL subscription in 2020-2021?"
19 January 2020
CRM-5bb6d3f8-28d2-11e6-80d3-00155d62480b
Mads Boyd-Madsen

Can we have generic methods on interfaces please.
Lambda expressions with type inference would also be mighty nice.

20 January 2020
Jianfei Xu
Jianfei Xu
Dashboard and FMX
21 January 2020
John_S
John_S
The PDFViewer enhancements are very important to us.  Thanks.
21 January 2020
IvanNO
IvanNO
TreeMap for VCL. Am I the only one?
3 February 2020
CRM-cd6e181e-7bbd-4f6e-8242-6c3ce72c3e7a
Customer82683

Hi,

we'd like to have QuantumGrid Suite Full FMX support as we're starting to R&D with Android on ChromeOS.

3 February 2020
Pavel Fiser
Pavel Fiser
VCL Dashboard please.
16 April 2020
CRM-7de73022-5ca5-4d74-8e0c-92e70e077409
OkanS

Don't you find the improvements you made for Delphi funny? I think you spend all your energy on Microsoft.

Why are there still no report designer and dashboards for Delphi?

2 November 2020

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