Chart Features - Axes

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Monday, April 15, 2013 at 9:31am

BlogPostBanner

The recent 2013.1 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT XAML controls added full-size charts products.axis1

One feature of our new Charts products are axes. Axes allow you to visualize the value range of your chart by labeling values.

Minimum and Maximum Values

Changing axis values such as Minimum and Maximum will determine what data displays on your chart and where. Here is the same data displayed in two charts. In the first, Minimum and Maximum are determined automatically.

axis2

In the second one, they are set manually to arbitrary values.

axis3

Axis Positioning

We have several capabilities to help you achieve the right look and feel for your application. The first is axis positioning, where you can place axes on either end of the chart.

axis4

Tick Intervals

Next is the ability to set the tick intervals. Here, we see two of the same chart. In the first, tick intervals are set to one month.

axis5

In the second, tick intervals are set to three months.

axis6

Grid

You can show major and minor ticks, and our grid feature allows you to extend those ticks behind the chart surface.

axis7

Styling Ticks

You can also style ticks to match your application.

axis8

Axis Labels

Axes can show labels on each major tick, and also a title. The angle of the labels is adjustable for when you need to put long labels on a small chart.

axis9

Summary

These are just a sample of some of the options available. There are a ton more. Download the trial and check it out!

TaskDownload TaskLiveDemo TaskBuyNow

WPF Controls 2013.1 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro) - 2 comments
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 12:04pm

BlogPostBanner

Actipro WPF Controls 2013.1 have been released and is now available for download. This version adds a new full-size Charts product, a Metro Dark theme, a complete reimagining of the Sample Browser's UI, and some great new SyntaxEditor functionality.

Major new features are described below.  See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

ProductHeadingWPFCharts

Our new full-size Charts product has been added, allowing you to create stunning charts for your apps.  See this announcement post and this first look post for a couple other chart screenshots.

Line Charts

LineChartType_thumb[1]

A line chart renders quantitative data as a series of points connected by line segments. Lines can be straight, curved, or stepped. Markers can optionally be displayed based on type (such as first/last, high/low, negative, etc.).

Scatter Charts

ScatterChartType_thumb[1]

Scatter charts render data points where each point is represented by a marker. Markers can use numerous built-in shapes or can be set to use custom shapes.

Area Charts

AreaStackedChartType_thumb[1]

An area chart is a derivative of a line chart, where the area between the line and axis is filled in. As with line charts, areas can also be rendered using straight, curved, or stepped lines

Bar Charts

BarStackedChartType_thumb[1]

A bar chart displays rectangular bars with lengths proportional to the values they represent. Bar spacing can be set and the bars can be changed to render horizontally instead.

ProductHeadingWPFSyntaxEditor

Indicators

IndicatorsBreakpoints_thumb

A rich object model for supporting indicators has been added.  Indicators are special "tagged" regions of text that optionally display a glyph in the indicator margin and optionally highlight the text range with special styles.  Built-in indicators include bookmarks, breakpoints, and current statement indicators.  Custom indicators can easily be created as well.

See this bookmark indictors post and this debugging indicators post for much more detail on indicators and examples of functionality.

Line Terminator Backgrounds

When a style that has a background encompasses a line terminator, it now will render the background of the line terminator's virtual character.

A new property BackgroundSpansVirtualSpace property has been added to highlighting styles that when set to true, will extend the background over a line terminator to cover all the way to the right edge of the view.

Trim All Trailing Whitespace

A new edit action has been added to trim all trailing whitespace in the entire document, regardless of the current selection.

CollectionTagger<T> Enhancements

The CollectionTagger<T> class has received a large number of new methods that make it easier than ever to manage a collection of tagged regions.

.NET Languages Add-on - Text Formatting

Text formatters have been added to the C# and VB languages in the .NET Languages Add-on, which beautify code by adjusting whitespace and making it more readable.

TextFormatting_thumb

See this C# text formatter post and this VB text formatter post for more information and examples of the formatting results.

.NET Languages Add-on - Attribute IntelliPrompt

AttributeIntelliPrompt_thumb[1]

Full automated IntelliPrompt while editing C# and VB attributes is now included.

.NET Languages Add-on - Implicit Variable Type IntelliPrompt

Automated IntelliPrompt quick info now displays when hovering over var in C# or Dim in VB.

ImplicitTypes_thumb

See this blog post for some more information and screenshots.

ProductHeadingWPFThemes

Metro Dark Theme

A Metro Dark theme has been implemented that renders similar to Visual Studio 2012's dark theme.  This new theme affects all controls and even can apply to native WPF controls.

MetroDark

Actipro Themes for WPF now provides implementations of all system themes, three Office themes, and three Metro themes!

See this blog post showing several screenshots of the new Metro Dark theme in action.

TaskDownload TaskLiveDemo TaskBuyNow

WPF Controls 2012.2 Build 574 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Friday, March 15, 2013 at 10:52am

BlogPostBanner

Today we published new maintenance releases of our WPF control products.  The maintenance release contains numerous tweaks and bug fixes across the various WPF control products.  It is highly recommended that if you are on v2012.2, you download and switch to this new build.

See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

We are finishing up and doing a final review of v2013.1 now.  We hope to publish it next week!

TaskDownload TaskLiveDemo TaskBuyNow

First Look at Charts - Financial Dashboard Demo

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 4:26pm

BlogPostBanner

We've just about wrapped everything up for the 2013.1 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls and hope to have them out next week.

As mentioned in a previous post, this new version introduces a new full-size Charts product to complement our existing Micro Charts controls product.

In this post I'd like to show a screenshot of one of the demos that comes with Charts:

Financial

This demo shows a simulated financial dashboard where the charted values refresh and scroll every few seconds.  You can click on a stock on the left side to view its detail in the large chart on the right.

The new Charts product, this sample, and many more QuickStarts are coming soon in the 2013.1 version!

SyntaxEditor - Debugging Indicators

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 1:42pm

BlogPostBanner

Last week we blogged about how indicators are coming to the WPF and Silverlight SyntaxEditor controls in their 2013.1 versions.  Indicators are special "tagged" regions of text that optionally display a glyph in the indicator margin or highlight the text range with special styles.

In that previous post, we showed off bookmark indicators.  Today, I'd like to show off the other two built-in kinds:  breakpoints and current statement indicators.

Visual Debugging

A new QuickStart we are adding is a simulated debugging experience.  It allows you to set breakpoint indicators on various C# lines and then enter a debugger break state when executing the code.

Debugging1

You can see how three breakpoint indicators have been added.  Our implementation of breakpoint indicators includes an IsEnabled property.  When set to false, the indicator renders differently to reflect its disabled state.

Breakpoints in this sample can be added via the Toggle Breakpoint toolbar button.  Or alternatively, you can click the indicator margin (where the glyphs appear) to toggle a breakpoint.  We include the full source code for showing how to interact with that margin by intercepting mouse events.

Let's click the Run button.

Debugging2

The first breakpoint is located and we set a current statement indicator.  This kind of indicator uses a yellow arrow glyph and renders the background of its contained text in yellow.  It is set up to be higher in z-order than breakpoints.

This screenshot also shows how content providers for quick info can be set up for when the mouse hovers over a glyph.  The displayed quick info content can be generated on-demand.

Let's click the Run button again.

Debugging3

The current statement indicator uses the built-in indicator search API to locate the next enabled breakpoint.  It skips over the one in the middle that is disabled and lands on the third breakpoint.

Summary

Although the debugging experience here is simulated, by hooking up these indicator features to a debugger for your language, you can easily implement a full debugging UI for your code editor.

These new features and sample will be in the 2013.1 version.

TaskDownload TaskLiveDemo TaskBuyNow