First and foremost, we hope that this post finds you and your family well.
Our next major release - v20.2 – is a couple of months away. In this post, I’ll describe what we expect to include in our v20.2 Early Access Preview (EAP) build. If you are an active DevExpress Universal or DXperience subscriber, you can download and install the EAP today. Simply, point your browser to the DevExpress Download Manager to get started.
Remember, 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 important data before installing Early Access and CTP builds.
Perhaps most importantly, this EAP does not include all features/products we expect to ship in our v20.2 release cycle. We are working hard to finalize all v20.2 features/capabilities and once we have more information to share, we’ll post updates on this channel.
WinForms Data Grid - New Fixed Columns Mode
As you may know, you can use our WinForms Grid’s GridColumn.Fixed property to anchor columns to either side of the Grid Control. Once anchored, a column remains visible when users scroll data horizontally. In v20.2, you’ll be able to apply our new "MiddleLeft" fixed mode option. When active, “MiddleLeft” columns can move freely to the right, but dock to the left when you scroll the control in the opposite direction.
The following animation helps illustrates the power of this new feature. “MiddleLeft” has been applied to both the "Country" and "Address" columns.
Documentation: Fixed Columns
WinForms Scheduler Control
Year View
In addition to classic calendar Views (Day, Week and Month), our WinForms Scheduler control will ship with a Year View display option. It’s been designed to visualize events/appoints that span multiple days and weeks.
Much like the MonthView.WeekCount property (allows you to set the number of weeks that are simultaneously displayed within the Month View), our new WinForms Scheduler Year View will include a MonthCount property. Additional View-related settings mirror those of the Month View.
Please note that we have yet to finalize the Year View’s feature set. At this point, you cannot group appointments or scroll through months (you must use the Date Navigator instead). We expect to add these (and other) features prior to official release.
New Cell AutoHeight Mode in Timeline View
The CellsAutoHeightOptions.Enabled property has been renamed to AutoHeightMode and now accepts enumeration values instead of Boolean. "None" and "Limited" values correspond to "false" and "true". A third value - "Full" - activates our new AutoHeight mode.
When AutoHeight is used, time cells ignore the ResourcesPerPage property value and resize based upon content. This also allows users to pixel-scroll the Timeline View.
Documentation: AutoHeightMode
WinForms Gantt Control - Split Tasks
In this EAP build, you can test our Gantt control’s new Split Task feature. If a partially completed task needs to be put on hold, a user can drag the unfinished portion to the left to pause the task. A task can be split into multiple segments. To merge two task segments, drag one portion into the other. This will eliminate the time gap between the two.
Users can split tasks at runtime when the GanttControlOptionsBehavior.AllowSplitTasks property is enabled. Split tasks are stored in a separate data source assigned to the GanttControl.SplitTaskSource property.
Documentation: Split Tasks
Data-bound WinForms TokenEdit Control
You can now bind our WinForms TokenEdit control to a data source and populate it with items. To set data members that store token captions and internal values, specify the DisplayMember and ValueMember properties.
tokenEdit1.Properties.DataSource = categoryBindingSource;
tokenEdit1.Properties.ValueMember = "ID";
tokenEdit1.Properties.DisplayMember = "Name";
Documentation: Token Edit Control
WinForms Diagram Control
SVG Export
The Diagram Control now supports export in vector (SVG) format.
Documentation: Printing and Exporting
Measure Units
You can enable the DiagramOptionsView.ShowMeasureUnit option to display measure units in the Properties Panel, Page Setup Window, and Bottom Panel. In addition to pixels used by default, users can specify values in other measurement units (inches and millimeters).
Miscellaneous
- We now offer a IsCompact option for the Org Chart. Set this option to false to calculate the offset for all tip-over subtrees rather than individual levels of the hierarchy. This improves readability for diagrams with extensive use of subtrees.
- You can hold the middle mouse button and drag to pan the diagram. The AllowMiddleButtonDrag option allows you to disable this behavior.
Your Feedback Matters
We realize beta-testing is a time consuming process and we are grateful to those who invest time with our preview builds. Find the current implementation lacking flexibility? Feel we've overlooked a valuable usage scenario? Does our current implementation fail to address your business requirements? Please post your thoughts in the comment section below or create a Support Center ticket. We will happily follow-up and do what we can to extend the capabilities of our new products/features.
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