WinRT/XAML Controls v2014.2 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 2:32pm

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The 2014.2 version of our WinRT/XAML controls have been released and are now available for download.

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

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This version makes all the WinRT/XAML controls compatible with Windows Phone, meaning that licensed controls will work in both Windows Store and Windows Phone apps!

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We've even added a nice phone-based Sample Browser app to show off usage of the controls on the phone.

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Actipro Editors is a brand new product that we've been working on for quite a while now and provides over 30 user input controls for common .NET data types such as dates, times, numbers, colors, enumerations, sizes, and many more.

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Each of the controls features unique designs that have been specifically crafted to support input by keyboard, mouse, and touch. Data entry is quick and efficient regardless of the input method utilized by the end user, which is especially ideal for universal applications.

All of the controls fully support Windows Store and Windows Phone apps, with alternate appearances as appropriate for phone usage.

We will be blogging and walking through all of the controls in the next couple weeks so keep an eye on our blog.

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We've added a new MicroSegmentChart control for use on dashboards, infographics, or as progress indicators.

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More details on this control soon too.

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Along with various minor enhancements and updates, we have added a brand new premium Python Language Add-on that supports advanced editing for Python v3.x and v2.x.  This first release includes parsing, syntax error reporting, code outlining, smart indent, delimiter highlighting/completion, and more.

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Look for another update soon featuring automated IntelliPrompt!  See this previous blog post for more details on the new add-on.

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Several other fun new controls and converters are included with this version too.

  • Added the TransitioningContentPresenter control, which uses animated fade, slide, push, and zoom transitions when new content is set.
  • Added the ContentTransitionPreview control, which demonstrates a content transition by continuously cycling two content items.
  • Added the ParallaxConverter that can be used to create a parallax background scrolling effect.
  • Added the BooleanNotConverter that can invert boolean values.

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Actipro Blog 2014 Q2 Posting Summary

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 at 10:18pm

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What We Accomplished

In this quarter, we published a very large 2014.1 version maintenance release of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls.  These versions included several new controls and some big feature enhancements for our existing controls.  Check out the release posts for more detail.

What’s Coming Next

We are in the middle of several large projects right now.  The first is one that we recently mentioned, which is a full advanced language add-on for the Python language.  As mentioned in this post, the language will support both the Python v2.x and v3.x syntax.  It will have full parsing, syntax error reporting, code outlining, smart indent, and more.  We also have begun working on automated IntelliPrompt features, which we will post about in the coming weeks.

Another area we have invested a good amount of time in recently is a new control product offering for WinRT, one that already has a counterpart in our WPF controls.  Can you guess which one?  That being said, the designs we've come up with include some new unique interfaces that are very friendly for all forms of input.  We will delve more into this in future blog posts too, once we are a bit closer to ready for release.  We're really excited to reveal these controls.

And of course we are continuing to enhance and update our existing controls, along with designing some new controls, as we start collecting updates for the future 2014.2 versions.

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Control Product Development

Control Product Releases

SyntaxEditor Python Language Add-on Coming Soon

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 4:07pm

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In today's post I'd like to formally announce that a new Python language add-on is coming to SyntaxEditor (WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML platforms) in its 2014.2 version.

What is Python?

Python is a very popular programming language that uses indenting to create blocks of code (as opposed to curly braces as in languages like C), and attempts to allow users to write code in fewer lines than is possible in other languages.  Python has a standard library of API features that has grown very large over time.

These days, Python code comes in two flavors: v2.x syntax and v3.x syntax.  Unfortunately there are breaking changes between the two syntaxes.  But we've got you covered since you can tell our PythonSyntaxLanguage class which version to use and it will parse things accordingly.

Features

Here's a screenshot of the Python language in action within SyntaxEditor:

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The first release of the Python language will have these features:

  • Support for both Python v2.x and v3.x syntaxes.
  • Syntax highlighting.
  • Abstract syntax tree (AST) generation.
  • Automatic code outlining based on AST structure.
  • Reporting and automatic squiggle display of errors for invalid syntax.
  • Mouse hover quick info for syntax errors.
  • Line commenting.
  • Smart indent.
  • Code block selection.
  • Delimiter (bracket) highlighting and auto-completion.

Beta Testers

Since this is a brand new language add-on, we would love to get your help beta testing it.  If you are a SyntaxEditor customer and would like to assist us in testing the Python language add-on, please contact us at our support email address.

Summary

This new Python language add-on will roll out in the 2014.2 version of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls.

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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

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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:

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Auto-Calculation of Tick Mark Intervals

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Double-Clicks Cycle Values (WPF only)

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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.

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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

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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.

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Horizontal ListBox Control

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

UniformGrid Control (WinRT / Silverlight only)

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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

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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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Chart Automatic Tick Calculation

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 at 10:00pm

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One great new feature coming in the next build of our Charts product for WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML is automatic tick calculation when no tick interval is specified.

If you know the range of data that will be displayed in your charts, it often makes sense to specify an exact tick interval.  This ensures that the charts render gridlines, ticks, and labels exactly how you intend for them to look.

Our current version of Charts requires you to specify the tick interval, or else ticks won't show up in many cases.  We had a lot of feedback from customers that there are many scenarios where they don't want to have to set up the tick intervals ahead of time since the data can often be very dynamic.  Our customers asked for tick intervals to be automatically calculated when not specified, and that's what we've done for the next build.

Features

The new feature will examine the minimum and maximum values of your data and determine a proper interval to apply to ticks so that they are visually spaced out in a pleasing way.

Let's have a look at how this works.  In this chart, neither axis has a tick interval specified, so the new feature kicks in on both the x-axis and y-axis.

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The y-axis has a sales dollar amount and the new logic determined that a major tick interval of $200 should be used.  The x-axis' major tick interval was determined to be 5.

Next, we have another similar example, but this chart shows how the feature even works to calculate major tick intervals for dates.

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The logic examined the minimum and maximum dates and found a certain number of days to use as the major tick interval.

Summary

The new highly-requested chart automatic tick calculation features will be available in the next 2014.1 maintenance releases of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT/XAML controls.

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