|
|
What's new in this 2008 Volume 1 of NetAdvantage for WPF:
NetAdvantage for WPF 2008 Volume 1 empowers developers to build modern application user interfaces that deliver superior user experiences with its new features in this release. It has added functionality the users of your line of business applications demand with its new xamDockManager control and the additional of summary fields in xamDataGrid.
xamDockManager - NEW!
With this new docking and layout control added to the NetAdvantage for WPF control set your application can give users wide-reaching flexibility in terms of layout so they can reconfigure their user interfaces and make most effective use of their screen real estate. It delivers run time customizability of panes within your user interface that are similar to the impressive docking and layout management features you're probably familiar with from Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
Floating Content Panes
At the heart of xamDockManager is that an end user can float any content pane like the chart pane shown below by:
- Dragging the content pane with their mouse
- Selecting the 'Floating' option from the content pane's drop-down menu
- Double-clicking the header of a content pane that isn't floating
As the developer, you can also cause a content pane to float at any time by issuing the ChangeToFloatingOnly or ToggleDockedState commands. So you can give users an arbitrary UI element that they can use to cause a content pane to float. You can also impose constraints on which content panes can be made floating; each floating pane can be put into either the FloatingOnly state (the floating pane is not allowed to dock - only to float) or the DockableFloating state.
Docking Indicators
Docking indicators tell your end users where they can dock panes through the display of translucent buttons overlaying the user interface at run time. The screen shot above shows the default docking indicators. Of course, xamDockManager allows you to customize the docking indicators through a WPF control template as described in the walkthrough, Styling the Docking Indicators.
Tabbed Multiple Document Interface (MDI)
You don't only get docking functionality with the xamDockManager, but also the ability to easily display a tabbed user interface in the main client area of the xamDockManager, much like the code view or design view in Visual Studio 2008. Each content pane you add to the Items collection of a TabGroupPane appears within its own headered tab. This enables you to create tabbed MDI applications for WPF as explained in the walkthrough, Creating a Tabbed MDI Application.
Splitter Functionality
Using the SplitPane container of xamDockManager allows you to partition the end user's workspace horizontally or vertically with a splitter bar. Users can then resize the split pane's dimensions dynamically at run time by dragging the splitter bar. The walkthrough, Add Panes to xamDockManager, introduces you to working with the SplitPane container and some of its capabilities like changing its orientation and how content panes are initially located within a SplitPane.
Pane Navigator
End users are given a convenient way to switch between open pages with the pane navigator through an optional pane navigator display button, by pressing the keyboard combinations CTRL + TAB or ALT + F7, or you can control display programmatically (for instance, to respond to a different keypress) as described in the walkthrough, Show the Pane Navigator Programmatically. Having a pane navigator takes the guess work out of switching content panes because xamDockingManager will display a preview of the pane to the user beforehand.
Pinning and Unpinning
The 'pushpin' metaphor is familiar to most end users, and xamDockManager includes innate pinning support of its content panes. End users can cause a content pane to hide by unpinning it. Likewise, they can pin a hidden pane when it flies out to make it stay visible. As you would expect, it is easy for your application to programmatically pin/unpin content panes by setting their IsPinned property to true/false.
Layout Persistence
- Once your end users have configured the layout of your application the way they like it, they will expect that your application will remember their preferences and present them with this same layout the next time they run your application. Fortunately, xamDockManager has you covered with its methods for saving and loading layouts in an XML format to Stream or String (useful for retaining preferences in a database).
xamDataGrid - Enhanced
Our WPF data grid control has been enhanced in this release of the NetAdvantage for WPF controls with new row aggregation support through summary fields that support several built-in mathematical calculations out-of-the-box.
Add Summaries to any Field
When you enable the row summary feature by setting the AllowSummaries property on a field's FieldSettings object to true, your end users will see an icon in the field headers that they can click to open a summary calculation selection box. This gives them an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for selecting one or more calculations to apply to a data field at run time.
Format Summary Appearance
You can use format strings to customize the way a calculated summary value appears. xamDataGrid permits several placeholders, which can be composed and arranged in any sequence to meet your user interface's needs:
- Actual value of the summary formatted according to its StringFormat
- Name of the summary calculator (for instance, the name of the function such as "Sum")
- Key property on the summary definition (for instance, readable text such as "Year-to-Date Sales Total")
- Name of the field whose summary is being calculated (for instance, "Sales" used in combination with the Key such as "Total Sales" or "Average Sales")
For more information on using these placeholders when formatting summaries or handling the events that let you update the format whenever a summary's value changes.
Add Custom Calculations
We can't anticipate every mathematical or statistical calculation your application might need to perform on a data grid field, so we made sure that you can provide your own summary calculator to plug-in to this feature. In many cases, the key is simply having your calculation happen within your override of the SummaryCalculator's Aggregate method, which the data grid calls when summary values need to be recalculated. You also have control over the name of your calculation that appears within the summary calculation selection box to the user, whether it applies to a given data type, and more.
Expansion Indicators
We have added a new ExpansionIndicatorDisplayMode property to the FieldLayoutSettings object. By setting this new property, you can control on your own whether expansion indiciators are shown or hidden for records which do not have any child records.
Label Text Behavior
Three new properties help you modify the behavior of label text in a Field object's label so that you don't have to create styles and templates to align, trim or wrap text in a LabelPresenter object. The new properties are LabelTextAlignment, LabelTextTrimming, and LabelTextWrapping.
See What's New in Prior Releases
Every release of the NetAdvantage for WPF controls add value and features to the previous releases. See below what we have added new in each volume release, or you can consult the "What's New" topics of the accompanying documentation.
- NetAdvantage for WPF 2007 Volume 2 added the xamChart and xamRibbon controls to our already feature-packed inaugural release.