WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML v2014.2 Maintenance Releases

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 at 10:55am

20142MaintReleaseBlogPostBanner

New maintenance of the 2014.2 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls have been released and are now available for download.

Major new features are described below.  See the announcement posts for the detailed list of enhancements and updates, including many items not listed below:

ProductHeadingGenericEditors

ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 Codes Added (WPF, WinRT only)

The Country class, which contains ISO country data and is utilized by our CountryComboBox control, now also includes the 3-character alpha code data for each country.

CountryComboBox

This is in addition to the existing data of 2-character alpha code and name.

ProductHeadingGenericPropertyGrid

Handling of Root Objects Improved (WPF only)

We've improved how the PropertyGrid handles properties on the root SelectedObjects that have a custom type converter.

Handling of Immutables Improved (WPF only)

We've also improved support for handling immutable objects and determining how to interact with their properties.

Custom Factory Sample Updated (WPF only)

The Custom Factory sample has been updated to show a property with a non-string type.

PropertyGridCustomFactorySample

This is a great example of showing how to implement a custom data factory and merge properties from various object sources.

ProductHeadingGenericRibbon

Backstage Tab Navigation Improved (WPF only)

We've improved keyboard navigation in the TaskTabControl control, which is generally used within Backstage tabs.

Contextual Tab Layout Refined (WPF only)

The logic for the sizing of contextual tab groups and their tabs always has had some minor issues when resizing the containing window to be thinner.  The issue didn't often manifest itself unless multiple contextual tab groups were displayed.

RibbonContextualTabs

We spent a while tracking these issues down and fixing them so that all layout sizing is now perfect, as seen in the screenshot above.

ProductHeadingGenericSyntaxEditor

Read-Only Regions Added

We've added support for read-only regions of text via the new IReadOnlyRegionTag tag.  This feature has been highly requested by customers, so we're happy to deliver it.

SyntaxEditorReadOnlyRegion

There is a ReadOnlyRegionTag implementation class that supports classification so that read-only regions can be rendered with an alternate background, such as gray in the screenshot above.  A new Read-Only Regions QuickStart that demos the new features is now in the Sample Browser.

Move Selected Lines Up/Down Commands

Another highly-requested set of commands for moving the selected lines up (via Alt+Up) and down (via Alt+Down) have been added.  The SDI Editor demo's menu has been updated to show off the new editor commands.

IntelliPrompt Completion Performance Enhancements

We did a lot of performance profiling related to IntelliPrompt completion lists and we able to make numerous performance enhancements in the areas of item matching and filtering.  These enhancements will really help performance when displaying large completion lists.

Drag and Dropped Text Reselection Option Added (WPF only)

A SyntaxEditor.IsDragDropTextReselectEnabled property has been added that can be set to false to prevent reselection of dropped text.

Data Binding Change Scroll Behavior

Views have been updated so that text changes from a data bound source (such as view model) don't scroll the view back to the first line on each update.

Line Commenter Updated

The line commenter has been updated to improve how line comment and uncomment features affect selection.  The logic that gets activated by the LineBasedLineCommenter.CanCommentEmptyLines property also has been improved.

Bi-Di Text Caret Movement (WPF only)

We've made several improvements to caret movement when editing bi-directional text.

Better Separation of UI/Document Models

All of the event ties between the UI and document models have been changed to use weak events.

.NET Languages Add-on

The ability to resolve references to nested types has been improved.

Web Languages Add-on

A completion item for closing the nearest open ancestor element, if any, has been added.  (WPF only)

SyntaxEditorCloseTagCompletion

Ctrl+Space after an end tag start delimiter will also auto-complete the matching start tag's name.  (WPF only)

We've also improved the editing experience when typing to not affect outlining nodes as much.

ProductHeadingGenericShared

Wave and ZigZag Shapes Added

New primitive shapes have been added that can be used to create some interesting user interface elements in your apps.  The Wave shape renders a wavy line.  The ZigZag shape renders a zig-zag line.

ZigZag2

The Shapes QuickStart has been updated with examples showing usage of the new shapes.

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PropertyGrid Improvements and Custom Property Editors

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 12:02pm

PostBannerWPFControlsDevNotes

Our WPF PropertyGrid control is an extremely powerful way to edit the properties of any object.

Custom Property Editor Sample

While a lot of PropertyGrid usage is for basic properties such as numbers, strings, dates, etc., properties can be of any custom Type as well.  In our most recent release of the WPF controls, we created a new custom property editor sample that shows how to easily add a custom property editor for a certain Type.

PropertyGridCustomEditor

The screenshot above shows how a custom enumeration named OnOffAuto was created.  The object being edited in the PropertyGrid has several properties that are of that type.  We defined in XAML a custom template that uses our HorizontalListBox control to allow for easy selection of the options.

In the case of the Security Alarm property, we made a further customized property editor template that only shows two of the options instead of all three.  This specialized template is configured to only apply to that one specific property.

While this sample shows how to make a custom property editor for an enumeration type, the same concepts can be applied to any custom type.

Other Recent PropertyGrid Improvements

In recent builds, we have further improved the editing experience when using PropertyGrid.  We added built-in property editors for font-related properties.  We added support so that double-clicking a property name will cycle through any standard value options that the property has.  In the event that the property doesn't support standard values, double-clicking the property name will attempt to focus the related editor instead and select all text if possible.

Summary

Download the latest build of our WPF controls to see this new sample and obtain the latest editing features.

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WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML v2014.2 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Friday, September 12, 2014 at 8:08am

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The 2014.4 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls have been released and are now available for download.

Major new features are described below.  See the announcement posts for the large detailed list of enhancements and updates, including many items not listed below:

Note that the 2014.2 version of the WinRT/XAML controls came out last month, introducing our Editors controls, but a new maintenance release is available today adding other new features.

ProductHeadingGenericCharts

We've added six new built-in chart palette options, including Retro and Sand:

ChartPalettes

ProductHeadingWPFDocking

Docking/MDI received numerous updates, including a new option for rafting windows to not hide when in scenario where their owner DockSite is hidden, such as if it's nested in tabs itself.  Many updates to focus handling were made, especially in relation to interop controls like WinForms/ActiveX.

ProductHeadingGenericEditors

Updated the Country and Currency classes with the latest ISO data.

WinRT/XAML Only

As announced in recent blog posts, our WinRT/XAML controls now have some really unique and universal (Windows Store / Windows Phone) controls for accepting input of common data types.

ColorEditBoxOpened
See our Edit Boxes Overview for a summary of the controls and some links to additional posts describing their functionality.

ProductHeadingGenericMicroCharts

A new segment chart has been added that allows for visual display of an integer value within a total..

SegmentChartType

This sort of chart is great for use on dashboards, and also as an indicator of steps or progress achieved.

Another new control is the arrow indicator displayed on the left side of the stock chart below.  It's called a trend indicator and alters its UI to reflect whether a numeric value is greater than, the same as, or less than an origin value.

StockChart

Six new built-in chart palettes have been added as well, including IceCream and Melon.

MicroChartPalettes
ProductHeadingWPFPropertyGrid

We've created a new custom property editor sample that shows how to easily add a custom property editor for a certain Type. 

PropertyGridCustomEditor


Double-clicking a property name has been improved such that if the property doesn't support standard values, it will attempt to focus the related editor instead and select all text.

ProductHeadingGenericSyntaxEditor

Quote auto-completion support has been added to the DelimiterAutoCompleter class, with double quote completion enabled by default.  As the user types a start quote, the related end quote will be auto-entered after the caret.  The C#, VB, Python, JavaScript, and JSON languages in our premium add-ons have been updated to support quote auto-completion.  It can easily be added to any custom languages as well.

We've added some nice new features like a ScrollIntoView method that can ensure that a text position is visible within the view, improved caret/selection movement around and delete/backspace of multi-byte characters, and improved backspace to move to the previous tab stop when auto-convert tabs to spaces is active and the caret is before the first non-whitespace character on the line.

.NET Languages Add-on

We've had a lot of requests for showing how to support ASP-style server tags, where the C# within the tags has automated IntelliPrompt.

SyntaxEditorServerTags
We're happy to deliver a new full source sample (seen above) that shows how to harness our .NET Languages Add-on within server tags.

Python Language Add-on

Today's releases contain the first version of our Python Language Add-on, a new premium add-on that supports both v2.x and v3.x syntax.

PythonIntelliPrompt
We'll blog about the language in more detail soon, but you can download and start using it today.

ProductHeadingGenericShared

A new triangle shape can be used in UI such as breadcrumbs, tabs, etc. 

Triangle
This shape can auto-size to its container and supports strokes and fills.

WPF Only

We've added a ZoomLevelToTextFormattingModeConverter class, which can switch from Display to Ideal text formatting mode when the zoom level is increased, thereby keeping text clear in any scenario.

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WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML Controls v2014.1 Maintenance Releases

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Monday, June 2, 2014 at 9:19am

20141MaintBlogPostBanner

New maintenance of the 2014.1 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls have been released and are now available for download.

Major new features are described below.  See the announcement posts for the detailed list of enhancements and updates, including many items not listed below:

ProductHeadingGenericCharts

Auto-Calculation of Tick Mark Intervals

ChartTickCalculation2

XYDoubleAxis, XYDecimalAxis, and XYDateTimeAxis have been updated to auto-calculate tick mark intervals when they aren't specifically set.  A new Axis Ticks QuickStart has been added that shows off automatic tick mark interval calculation.

Rendering Improvements

We've improved the rendering speed of data point labels, improved the rendering logic of bar charts, and updated data point labels to use a subtle border so that they don't blend in with surrounding chart objects of the same color.

Label Performance Improvements

Data point labels in pointer visibility mode now delay layouts until a pointer event occurs, thereby speeding up initial chart display.

Numeric Type Data Upconversion

XYChart now will automatically upconvert non-Double numeric type data to Double type so it can display.

ProductHeadingGenericDataGrid

Child Control Styles Applied to Some Auto-Generated Columns (WPF only)

ThemedDataGrid has been updated to style the child controls of auto-generated ComboBox and CheckBox columns.

ProductHeadingGenericDocking

Disabling Rafting Window Snap-to-Screen (WPF only)

Added the DockSite.IsRaftingWindowSnapToScreenEnabled, which can be set to false to prevent rafting windows from snapping to the closest screen when being displayed.

More Tabbed MDI Tile Options (WPF only)

Overloads to the TabbedMdiHost.TileHorizontally and TileVertically methods have been added that allow for a maximum number of columns/rows.  This permits additional tile configurations, such as a single row of tiles.

ProductHeadingGenericPropertyGrid

Double-Clicks Cycle Values (WPF only)

PropertyGridDoubleClick2

Updated double-clicks on property names to cycle through standard values if available.

CommitPendingChanges Helper Method (WPF only)

A PropertyGrid.CommitPendingChanges method has been added that forces any pending LostFocus bindings within property editors to update and ensure the data model is current.

ProductHeadingGenericSyntaxEditor

Navigable Symbols Hierarchy Support

Navigable symbols now support hierarchy levels and item indentation.  This feature was added to allow XML element hierarchies to be displayed in the NavigableSymbolSelector.

Numerous Minor Enhancements

Many minor enhancements have been made, which can be seen in the detailed update list.

LL(*) Parser Framework

A Grammar.AddChildFrom overload was added that allows for specification of a desired child index.

Web Languages Add-on

XmlNavigableSymbolProvider2

The XML grammar was reimplemented using type-specific AST nodes, thereby reducing overall AST memory usage by an average of 40%.  A XmlNavigableSymbolProvider service was added to the XML language that provides contextual element and attribute display in a NavigableSymbolSelector control.  The XML and HTML editor demos were updated to showcase the new navigable symbol provider features.

ProductHeadingGenericShared

Horizontal ListBox Control

HorizontalListBoxWinRT

The HorizontalListBox control was added, which allows for selection of items that are arranged horizontally with a uniform width.

UniformGrid Control (WinRT / Silverlight only)

UniformGrid3x3

The UniformGrid control was added, which is a Panel that can arrange content in a grid where all the cells in the grid have the same size.

RadialSlider Improvements

RadialSliderSegmented

The RadialSlider class logic for snapping values has been improved.

DelegateCommand (WinRT only)

The DelegateCommand class has been added, which is an implementation of ICommand that uses delegates.

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PropertyGrid Double-Clicking Enhancements

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Monday, May 5, 2014 at 8:29am

PostBannerWPFControlsDevNotes

Our WPF PropertyGrid control allows you to embed an object editing interface into your applications that can make use of any type of custom editor, including our own powerful WPF Editors controls.

In today's post I wanted to review a new small, but very useful, enhancement coming to PropertyGrid in the next maintenance release: the ability to double click on a name cell and cycle through available standard values.

Example Usage

Let's have a look at how this works.

PropertyGridDoubleClick1

Here we have a PropertyGrid and you'll notice that the CharacterCasing property has standard values of Normal, Lower, etc.

PropertyGridDoubleClick2

By double-clicking on the name cell, the value cycles to the next value in the standard values list. 

Summary

This new feature makes it quick and easy for end users to cycle through standard values without having to show a drop-down list.  It will appear in the next maintenance release of our WPF controls.

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