WPF Controls 2016.1 Released

A major new version of the Actipro WPF controls is now available.  This version contains massive new features for our best-of-breed Docking/MDI product, and aligns its feature set with many advanced docking window features found in Visual Studio 2015.  Themes adds 14 new themes, 7 in various Office 2016-like Colorful theme colors and 7 in various Office 2016-like White theme colors.  Your WPF applications can now render exactly like Office 2016.  SyntaxEditor adds new Metro light and dark image sets that can be used within IntelliPrompt for a more modern appearance.  Many other minor tweaks and improvements have been made across the product range as well.  Please be sure to read the "Converting to 2016.1" topic in the documentation since there are several breaking changes, all of which are explained in detail through that topic.

Detailed Update List

Docking/MDI

• Completely rebuilt product internals to be optimized and support next generation features.
• All UI control styles/templates rebuilt from scratch to be simpler and easier to customize.
• Quick subtle animations updated and added throughout the product to give it a more vibrant feel.
• New AdvancedTabControl control that extends the native TabControl while adding many new features (appearance customization, animation, multiple tab kinds, new tab buttons, etc.), and is used as the primary UI mechanism within the ToolWindowContainer and TabbedMdiContainer templates.
• Layout logic updated to try to adhere to optional new desired, minimum, and maximum docked size hints on docking windows when space is available.
• Set minimum/maximum size hints the same to suggest a fixed size.
• When a layout is sized very small, then grows larger again, the original docking window sizes are restored.
• Splitters can now appear above non-hosted popups.
• Docking windows now are styled as simple presentation wrappers for their content that is displayed in UI, and no longer are styled to appear as tabs.
• Several DockingWindow members added to designate preferences for initial dock location when opened, such as with other windows in a group, on a specific side, or at a dynamic location based on an event handler's logic.
• New DockingWindow property that allows tab text to optionally be different (generally shorter) than its title.
• New DockingWindow properties added to support flash effects that can be applied to a tab.
• New DockingWindow property for setting its tab tooltip content.
• New DockingWindow property to provide a unique ID for layout deserialization that matches layout data to a window in place of the Name property.
• New DockingWindow property that can be set to false to prevent the window from being included in layout serialization.
• New DockingWindow property that returns the last time it was active, which is useful for sorting windows by most-recently-used.
• New properties for specifying custom docking window-specific context content like status indicators or even buttons that can be displayed in various tab and title bar locations.
• Several DockSite events such as WindowsClosing renamed and now can pass multiple windows, which is useful when the Close All Documents and Close Others menu items are used since a single dialog with all windows listed can be presented to the user to check whether to close the windows.
• Tool windows tabs can be closed on middle-click.
• Tool window and tabbed MDI tabs can be moved to any side (left, top, right, or bottom).
• New ToolWindowContainer properties for setting the title font family and size.
• New keyboard shortcuts to show the active window's context menu and tabbed MDI documents menu.
• Non-hosted auto-hide popups now fully track with the dock host when crossing over screen edges.
• Auto-hide popups now close when another docking window is activated instead of blindly watching for pointer clicks.
• New event that allows for customization of the side upon which one or more tool windows will auto-hide.
• Drag/drop of objects over an auto-hide tab opens the auto-hide popup.
• Various new auto-hide related properties added to DockSite and DockHost.
• Floating windows rearchitected to fully support Windows Aero snapping.
• New property added that determines if float previews should be used when dragging windows instead of instantly creating floating windows.
• New properties added for setting the title and icon of floating window title bars.
• New property added that determines what minimum amount a floating window must be visible to avoid being snapped to screen.
• Partially-visible floating windows will now snap to this minimum threshold as appropriate.
• New event added that can alter and limit a floating window's initial size.
• Dock guides and previews restyled with a more modern appearance, and display with subtle animations.
• Tabbed MDI has three modes of tab display (normal, pinned, preview) that are now available via a new DockingWindow property.
• Built-in 'Close Others' and 'Close All Documents' context menu items.
• Built-in 'Pin Tab' context menu toggle item to toggle between a pinned and normal tab.
• Built-in 'Keep Tab Open' context menu item that converts a preview tab to a normal tab.
• Ability to show a new tab button in tabbed MDI, and handle an event in response to its click to show a new tab.
• New TabbedMdiHost property added that allows a custom DataTemplate to be displayed when there are no visible documents.
• New TabbedMdiHost property that can show a pin button on normal tabs.
• Dock guides now show over standard MDI so that dragged windows can be dropped into it.
• Context menu now available when clicking a standard MDI window's icon or right-clicking its title bar.
• Support for automatic size-to-content when adding a docking window to standard MDI.
• Easier access to docking window standard MDI layout properties.
• New DockSite property for easily selecting MDI kinds.
• New DockSite property and event for tracking the primary (last-focused) document.
• DockingWindow.IsOpen property can be set to true to open the window without activating it.
• DockingWindow.IsActive property can be set to true to activate the window.
• DockingWindow.IsSelected property can be set to true to ensure the window is the selected tab within its container.
• DockingWindow.State property can be set to change the window's state (docked, auto-hide, or document).
• MVVM implementation improved to be more straightforward since docking windows are now the actual container of their content.
• In MVVM usage, unregistered windows will automatically attempt to remove themselves from the appropriate DockSite items source property if a new related option property remains true.
• Docking windows can be defined in XAML and have their IsOpen property set to false to close them on initial dock site load, but leave behind a breadcrumb for future restoration.
• Standard switcher UI improved to a new, more modern user interface that animates on display and supports scrolling when there is overflow.
• Multiple new standard switcher properties added to allow for full customization of its appearance.
• Refactored and centralized focus handling and setting logic.
• Refactored magnetism handling.
• All UI works with mouse, touch, pen, etc.
• Rewrote UIA to ensure better compatibility with Coded UI Test.
• Numerous other minor API adjustments and renamings.
• Prism sample updated to use Prism 6.1 and includes all source for Prism integration right in the sample instead of in a separate interop assembly.
• All samples updated/improved, and new samples added to concisely show features.
• See the 'Converting to 2016.1' documentation topic for details on all breaking changes and on upgrading to the new version.

Editors

• Updated logic related to PartEditBox drop-downs.
• Updated part edit boxes to prevent mouse wheel events from bubbling up to any containing ScrollViewers when a drop-down is open.
• Fixed a bug in DateRange.GetEnumerator when the range was at DateTime min/max.
• Fixed several bugs in DateTimeEditBox and MonthCalendar dealing with the handling of non-Gregorian calendars.

Navigation

• Added the ZoomContentControl.CenterPointResolved property, which returns the true center point that is only different from CenterPoint in certain scenarios when virtual space is disabled.

Ribbon

• Buttons in the QAT, tab panel, and status bar will automatically convert images to white monochrome in appropriate scenarios for certain Metro themes. See the 'Converting to 2016.1' documentation topic for details.
• Improved the minimized ribbon popup so that clicks on buttons don't close it. Clicking to move focus elsewhere or pressing Esc will close it.
• Adjusted the ribbon rendering for Metro themes.
• Changed the RibbonWindow.IsGlassEnabled property to no longer be nullable, and to default to false.

SyntaxEditor

• Added new MetroLight and MetroDark image sets for use with IntelliPrompt. The current set can be selected via the new static CommonImageSourceProvider.DefaultImageSet property.
• Updated the TextSnapshotRange.TranslateTo method to properly handle the TextRangeTrackingModes.LineBased option.
• Added the virtual SyntaxEditorAutomationPeer.CreateTextRangeProvider method and exposed the TextRangeProvider class.
• Added the RangeLineCommenter.CommentTokenId property that can be set to the token ID of a range comment, which can assist in the comment locating logic for uncomment calls.
• Added the virtual RangeLineCommenter.FindCommentTextRange method that can be overridden to implement advanced comment locating logic for uncomment calls.
• Improved vertical scrollbar sync when the view height changes.
• Updated selection so ranges programmatically set past the document end coerce back to the document end.
• Fixed a bug introduced in the previous build where a tab couldn't be inserted on an empty last line.
• Fixed a bug where text range UI automation wasn't translating to/from screen coordinates properly.
• Refactored priority-based handling for several events.
• Improved iterative statement error handling in the Getting Started #4c/d QuickStart grammars.
• Made numerous internal code updates to improve performance.

.NET Languages Add-on

• Improved the VB resolver to support imports of types.

Web Languages Add-on

• Updated the XML grammar to allow whitespace between an attribute name and the equal sign.
• Updated the XML line commenter with improved logic for locating comments when uncommenting.

Themes

• Seven new accent color variations of the MetroLight theme added that render similar to the Office 2016 Colorful theme.
• Seven new accent color variations of the MetroWhite theme added that render similar to the Office 2016 White theme.
• WindowChrome title bar buttons in Metro themes updated to use the larger, crisper Windows 10 style.
• Metro themes merged into the Shared Library, meaning no explicit registration is now required.
• Luna (XP-like) themes split out into a separate library and must now be programmatically registered and activated.
• See the 'Converting to 2016.1' documentation topic for details on all breaking changes and on upgrading to the new version.
• Updated WindowChrome to only allow Aero glass transparency on Windows 7 and Vista.
• Updated WindowChrome to collapse the title bar icon area if no icon is specified.
• Added the WindowChrome.HasIcon property, which can be set to false to hide the icon.
• Theme Browser utility in the Sample Browser updated to view resources of the current theme, which is useful for the new Metro accented themes.

Shared

• Updated StringFormatConverter, DateTimeFormatPatternConverter, and DayOfWeekFormatPatternConverter to all use CultureInfo.CurrentCulture which is more accurate than the CultureInfo passed into the value converter.
• Improved how touch input events are handled within InputAdapter, making touch on controls like RadialSlider perform better.

About WPF Controls

WPF Studio / WPF Essentials Licensing

You can purchase our WPF controls individually if you wish however you have the option to purchase all of them in the WPF Studio bundle. Purchasing the bundle saves over 60% over purchasing all the WPF controls individually.

The WPF Essential bundle saves over 45% over purchasing its bundled controls separately.

That's some incredible savings!

WPF Studio Benefits

All WPF control licenses automatically include a free subscription for a year of free upgrades to any new versions that are released. At the end of the year, you may renew your license for another year to keep the free upgrade benefits active.

In addition, if you own a WPF Studio license, you are automatically eligible to receive free licenses for any new WPF control products added to WPF Studio that come out within your year period. This benefit does not apply to WPF Essentials customers.

Evaluation Download

You can download an evaluation of all our WPF controls from this page:

http://www.actiprosoftware.com/download/evaluations

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