The new HTML5-based Web Dashboard Control - both a Viewer and an End-User Designer in one - will be officially released with v16.2. During the last release cycle it was available as a Community Technology Preview and we want to thank everyone who shared their feedback with us. That communication is one of the reasons why we finally decided to rename the class. The new "Dashboard Designer" is now "Web Dashboard Control", which better articulates its ability to manage the entire Dashboard lifecycle.
If you haven't tried the new Web Dashboard yet, I suggest that you review the following Getting Started video. Although it doesn't reflect the most recent naming changes, it will give you a good overview. Universal Subscription owners can also download v16.2 Beta 1 from their account and review the latest demos now included into the Demo Center.
What's Included and Which Part of that Is New
If you’re new to our Web Dashboard Control, then all you need to know is that v16.2 is a fully functional HTML5-Based editor and viewer. Anything you can design with our other Dashboard designers – WinForms Control or Visual Studio Integrated Designer – you can now also design on the Web. All interactivity features of other viewer controls are avialable as well.
If you’ve been following our CTP and Beta releases, then here’s the list of new features you’ll find in v16.2 – just to confirm that they made it to the release.
- New UI that manages colorization tables and rules.
- New UI that edits conditional formatting rules.
- Full support for localization (works with DevExpress location service).
- Dark theme.
- New API designed to match the old control’s capabilities.
Notes on WebForms and MVC Support
From the start, we announced that our WebForms control was not really WebForms-based and the control’s architecture and API reflected recently-emerged web development techniques. Your comments during our testing phase made us see how this can add a degree of discomfort, so we’ve adjusted our approach and on the surface the control now acts exactly as ASP.NET WebForms developers would expect. You can control everything via properties and events, as the platform dictates.
(The newer architecture and API are still there, waiting for those willing to take advantage of them.)
If you’re developing for MVC, you can now pre-configure a service instance and pass it on to the controller constructor. This means you can now easily provide different dashboard layouts for different user types. If there’s no such task though, you can continue working as you have: a singleton service instance will be used by default.
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.