Subscriptions

What's New in v2009 vol 2

eXpressApp Framework

EasyTest Community Technology Preview

With this release, the eXpressApplication Framework ships with EasyTest - a test framework designed to perform functional testing on XAF applications. The main idea behind EasyTest is to create acceptance tests using simple syntax so that your users can understand and use it.

Application Framework - Integrated Functional Testing

Navigation System Improvements

Previously, the navigation structure of XAF based applications could only have two levels - navigation groups and the items within them. Now, the navigation adopts a tree structure that can have an unlimited number of nesting levels. If a tree item has the ViewID property set, then clicking the item will navigate to the corresponding view. Otherwise, the corresponding item in the navigation control acts as a tree node.

Application Framework - Multi-level Module Navigation

You can now choose different navigation control styles. The NavigationItems node and its child nodes have attributes which define the navigation control's appearance.

Navigation Control Style in .NET App Framework

XAF's navigation system now supports contextual navigation. An extensibility point has been added to allow modules to affect the process of generating the navigation items in the navigation control. For example, the View Variants module can add children to items which point to Views that have predefined View Variants. This functionality is disabled by default, but can be enabled via the Application Model. You can also implement custom contextual navigation.

Contextual Navigation in .NET Application Framework

TreeListEditors Module Improvements

Previously, the TreeListEditor module worked only in Windows Forms applications. In this release, we're introducing the ASPxTreeListEditor, an ASP.NET List Editor that displays tree-like data structures.

ASP.NET Tree List Editor in .NET Application Framework

A class implementing the ITreeNode interface can now support an additional ITreeNodeImageProvider interface to supply node images. This functionality is supported by both Windows and Web Tree List Editors.

Application Framework - Tree Node Images

Both these editors can now implement an interface to support conditional formatting.

.NET Application Framework - Conditional Formatting in Tree List

An Outlook style Column Chooser window is now available for WinForms XAF applications.

Tree List Column Chooser - Application Framework

A new data loading mode - deferred node loading – allows you to load only those nodes that must be displayed on screen, thus significantly improving application performance.

Windows Forms Layout Manager Improvements

Previously, resetting the customizations made to a Detail View layout required you to delete the Model.User.xafml file. The eXpressApp Framework now provides a more intuitive way to accomplish the same task. Simply right-click on a Detail View's empty space, and select Reset Layout from the context menu.

Reset Detail View Layout - Application Framework

You can now create multi-line tabbed groups by setting the Application Model's MultiLine attribute.

.NET App Framework - Multi-Line Tabs

ConditionalEditorState Module

This newly introduced module allows you to disable or hide editors in Detail Views and List Views depending on a specified rule. The rules are defined via attributes.

This functionality is available in both Windows Forms and ASP.NET applications.

Validation Module Improvements

You can now apply built-in validation rules to collection properties involved in relationships (marked with the Association attribute). In this instance, a validation rule ensures that each collection element is valid. There's a separate parameter to specify an element's property that must be checked.

Certain validation rules, such as RuleRange and RuleValueComparison, can use aggregate functions. In this instance, the validation rule doesn't check individual elements, but checks the aggregate function's value instead.

In this release, we're introducing a new validation attribute - RuleCombinationOfPropertiesIsUniqueAttribute. You can apply it to a Business Class to demand that a set of its property values is unique.

FileAttachments Module Improvements

You can now specify the file types that must appear in the Open dialog's "Files of type" box. A new attribute has been introduced for this purpose. Currently, this attribute is only supported in Windows Forms applications.

.NET Application Framework - Attached File Format

Image Library Improvements

Custom images can now be assigned to the Application Model's nodes displayed in the Model Editor.

Custom Module Images - .NET App Framework

Previously, setting images or captions for enumeration values wasn't very intuitive. With this release, you can use the ImageName and DevExpress.Xpo.DisplayName attributes to specify images and captions that will represent enumeration values in the UI.

Miscellaneous Enhancements

  • You can now undo all the changes made to the Application Model's node at runtime. For this purpose, the Rollback method has been introduced in the DictionaryNode class. The same can be done in the UI using the 'Reset Differences' action in the Model Editor's context menu.

    Reset Application Model Changes - .NET App Framework

  • Context menus in WinForms List Editors now provide a CopyCellValue Action. It allows end-users to copy cell contents in read-only mode.
  • ASPxStringPropertyEditor now supports edit masks and allows you to localize the message displayed when the input value doesn't match mask settings.
  • A lookup is now displayed instead of a TextEdit for reference properties, if the corresponding column is set to be filtered by value (not by display text).
1
2
3
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
More from DevExpress
Live Chat
Have a pre-sales question?
Need assistance with your evaluation?
We are here to help.
Chat is one of the many ways you can contact members of the DevExpress Team. We are available Monday-Friday between 7:30am and 4:30pm Pacific Time.
If you need additional product information, require pre-sales assistance, or want help with your order, write to us at info@devexpress.com or call us at
+1 (818) 844-3383.