Download Silverlight Help Documentation – v2010 vol 1

The Silverlight documentation is now available for the DXperience 2010 volume 1 release.

Download the v2010.1.4 help file installer here:

DXperience Help Installer v2010.1.4

You can also get the latest help file installer from your client center account or here.

Note: The Silverlight documentation will be uploaded to the help.devexpress.com website soon.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Documentation, DXperience, Silverlight, v2010.1

HELP! It’s all new!

We just launched a new documentation website!

The DevExpress online help documentation website got a big makeover for the DXperience v2010 volume 1 release.

The redesigned help website features a number of useful improvements for you.

help.devexpress.com

The online documentation is now available at the following 2 URLs:

• http://help.devexpress.com/
• http://documentation.devexpress.com/

The online documentation is also integrated in to the DevExpress search engine:

• http://search.devexpress.com/ – Best way to find answers quickly!

For Visual Studio local help, download the help installation files at the bottom of the DXperience download page.

Benefits

The new documentation website uses the DevExpress ASPxSplitter control in the base design:

This change brings several benefits for you:

• Visual Studio 2010 Format – The new layout matches the new look and feel of Visual Studio 2010’s help system
• Same as local help - – The online documentation is now the same as the local installed documentation
• No IFrames – By removing the iframe and using the ASPxSplitter, you’ll notice that:
  • URLs are updated when clicking between help topics
  • the splitter allows you to resize the 2 navigation and content areas
  • uses callbacks – the help content pane on the right side is updated using an Ajax callback

Powered By DevExpress ASP.NET

The new documentation website is built with just 3 DevExpress ASP.NET controls:

• ASPxSplitter
• ASPxTreeList
• ASPxHyperLink

In Beta ?!?

You’ll notice at the top right of the documentation website the red ‘beta’ label:

There are some minor issues still to be resolved like printing and a known issue with the IE8 back button. Rest assured that the documentation team is working hard to resolve the issues as soon as possible.

Feedback

The new website brings you several benefits, however, it’s still a work in progress. So if you have suggestions on how we can improve it then please leave a comment below.

Thanks!

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Documentation, DXperience, Features, v2010.1

Tooltip Support For ASP.NET Image Controls – v2010 vol 1

Tooltip property has been added to DevExpress ASP.NET image controls!

Starting with DXperience v2010.1, all DevExpress ASP.NET image controls like the ASPxImage have a new property called: Tooltip.

What’s a tooltip? Wikipedia defines it as:

The tooltip is a common graphical user interface element. It is used in conjunction with a cursor, usually a mouse pointer. The user hovers the cursor over an item, without clicking it, and a tooltip may appear — a small "hover box" with information about the item being hovered over.

Tooltip are great way to show a subtle hint to the user when they mouse over an image.

Online CodeCentral Demo

Check out this online CodeCentral demo which shows the image tooltip property in action:

Implement the Image Tooltip Property

Click here to see the code for the demo.

Drop me a line below with your thoughts on the new tooltip property. Thanks!

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, ASPxGridView, DXperience, Features, How-To, v2010.1

New DevExpress Web.Config Settings

Starting with DXperience v2010.1, we’re making a small and useful change. We’re adding a new section to the web.config file for settings used by DevExpress ASP.NET controls.

New Section

Here’s the default section that you’ll find at the bottom of a new web project using DXperience v2010.1 release:

<devExpress>
  <compression enableHtmlCompression="false"  
               enableCallbackCompression="true" 
               enableResourceCompression="true"  
               enableResourceMerging="false" />
  <themes enableThemesAssembly="true" />
  <errors callbackErrorRedirectUrl="" />
</devExpress>

Upgrading Simplified

Your current website will not break due to this new section. We’ve added backward compatibility for our previous settings. Therefore, if there are any old DX appsettings in your web.config file:

1. They will work without any issues.
2. They will be replaced/updated with our new config section when you open your ASPX page in designer mode. Of course, your previous settings and values will not change, they will be simply moved to the new section.

Even with backwards compatibility, I recommend updating to the newer settings. This can be done easily by opening one of your ASPX pages in the designer mode.

Settings Explained

The <compression> settings relate to the 4 settings introduced last year that help increase your website’s performance:

From 4 Settings To Improve DevExpress ASP.NET Performance blog post:

• enableHtmlCompression – Compresses HTML output to the client browser including AJAX callbacks (false by default)
  • To compress individual pages, use the DevExpress.Web.ASPxClasses.ASPxWebControl.MakeResponseCompressed() method.
• enableCallbackCompression – Compresses AJAX callbacks (true by default)
• enableResourceCompression – Compresses scripts and CSS files (true by default)
• enableResourceMerging – Combines all scripts in one file (from different assemblies) and merge all CSS-files in one file. Reduces server requests. (false by default)

The <themes enableThemesAssembly=”true” /> setting means that you’ll get better performance from our enhanced ASP.NET Themes DLL.

The <errors callbackErrorRedirectUrl=””> helps you to redirect to another URL when an error occurs within a callback. To learn more, check out the “Redirect Callback using an ASPxHttpHandler Module” video.

Why The Change?

To ensure that DevExpress settings are not confused with standard Visual Studio web.config settings, we’ve decided to separate the settings into our own section.

Also, many of the above settings relate to our special ASP.NET HttpHandler module, the ASPxHttpHandlerModule. This section also contains other settings like the callbackErrorRedirectUrl. And we have plans to use this section for other settings in the future.

Having our own IntelliSense support in the web.config would help to avoid typos, which is why we’ll be adding IntelliSense for our web.config settings in a future release. Unfortunately, there’s a bug in VS2010 that prevents us from adding it but we’ll add it as soon as the bug is resolved.

Your Feedback Matters

Of course, this was originally a customer suggestion, so thanks for the feedback, Crono.

To recap:

• New ASP.NET projects using DXperience v2010.1 and beyond will use the new <devexpress> web.config section to manage global settings of your web sites and applications.
• The change should be seamless on new projects.
• Our older web.config settings are backwards compatible.
• You can easily upgrade our older settings by opening one of your project’s ASPX files in the Visual Studio designer mode.

Drop me a line below with your thoughts on this change?

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, DXperience, Features, How-To, performance, v2010.1

ASP.NET Data-Aware Reporting: Getting Started Video

Check out this very useful XtraReports getting started video that shows you how to create your first data-aware web report:

Even if you’re an XtraReports pro-user now, I recommend watching the video. Why?

As promised, this is one of the first re-recorded videos that uses Visual Studio 2010 as well as DXperience v2010.1 release. Not only that, the screencast reflects some of the newer elements and features of XtraReports starting with the DXperience v2010.1 release.

Check out the video and then drop me a line below with your thoughts. Thanks!

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, DXperience, screencast, v2010.1, Video, VS2010), XtraReports

How To Get JavaScript IntelliSense With DevExpress Client-Side Objects – v2010 vol 1

Check out this how-to guide that helps you get IntelliSense support for DevExpress client-side objects in Visual Studio.

Add IntelliSense Support

Follow these 3 easy steps to add IntelliSense support to your project:

1) Install the latest DXperience v2010.1 release. (Currently, the DXperience v2010.1 beta is available to DXperience subscription license holders).

2) Click the ‘Add Existing Item’ in your project menu. Then add the ASPxScriptIntelliSense.js file to your project which should be located in the following folder:

%DevExpress Install Folder %\DevExpress2010.1\Components\Sources\DevExpress.Web.ASPxScriptIntellisense\ASPxScriptIntelliSense.js

For example, on my local machine the ASPxScriptIntelliSense.js file is located here:

C:\Program Files\DevExpress 2010.1\Components\Sources\DevExpress.Web.ASPxScriptIntellisense\ASPxScriptIntellisense.js

3) Type the following code in the page <body> section in the page that you want to enable JavaScript IntelliSense:

Note: It's important to check the “if(DesignMode)” statement because it helps to avoid additional round trips to the server for the ASPxScriptIntelliSense.js file. It also helps to prevent mixing up the IntelliSense schema classes and production scripts classes.

That's it - you now have full IntelliSense support for DevExpress client controls in BLOCKED SCRIPT

New Cast Methods

We’ve also added special static Cast methods which enable you to cast the DevExpress control's client object and then get the client object’s properties, methods and events via IntelliSense.

(e.g. ASPxClientButton.Cast(obj), ASPxClientTreeList.Cast(obj), etc.). You can use these methods with event arguments:

These new cast methods also accept the ClientInstanceName of the client object. Therefore, to get a client object with IntelliSense support, simply pass the ClientInstanceName as a string to the Cast method:

Cast Sender Object

You also get JavaScript IntelliSense for the gridInstance variable. For example, this method shows how you can cast the sender object and get JavaScript IntelliSense:

Fig.1:

Fig.2:

Fig.3:

Standalone JavaScript File Support

If you want to enable IntelliSense for our controls in a standalone JavaScript file then simply add a reference to our ASPxScriptIntelliSense file at the top:

Please note that this feature is only available in Visual Studio 2008 and 2010.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Client-side, DXperience, Features, How-To, v2010.1, VS2008), VS2010)

Installer Preview: Smarter, Faster And Sexier – v2010 vol 1

Check out the images below of the updated DXperience v2010.1 Unified .NET Installer. First let’s review some of the changes:

Smarter

• This installer will work for both Visual Studio 2008 and 2010. Because some of the features and products will only work in VS2010, the installer will automatically enable and disable the products based on the IDE and .NET frameworks installed. More on this below.
• The installer now uses Visual Studio’s built-in “ASP.NET Development Server” to simplify using our ASP.NET demos.

Smaller

The installer size has been reduced! The latest DXperience beta build that I got my hands on is v2010.1.2 and it includes:

• All .NET binaries for our products
• Source code (if you have the paid option)
• And no documentation.

For example, this latest DXperience beta build is now approximately 193mb.

Faster

Because documentation files were moved to a separate installer, the time to install is also reduced.

Sexier

Check out this walkthrough of installing DXperience v2010.1 in to my local development virtual machine. Click any image to see a larger version:

Step 1 – Launch the installer, enter my Client Center credentials and Verify the login details:

Step 2 – Select the DevExpress products you wish to install:

Step 3 – Agree to the EULA:

Step 4 – Select destination folder:

Step 5 – Wait a few minutes for the installer to extract and install the necessary files:

Step 5 – Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed the installation!

Optional step 6 – If the ‘Launch DemoCenter’ check box was left checked then you’ll see our slick DemoCenter application popup. It’s a very handy way to see all the new demos and highlighted features of our products:

And that’s it! You’re now installed DXperience v2010 volume 1.

Happy Coding!

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, DXperience, Features, How-To, v2010.1, VS2008), VS2010)

ASP.NET Combo Box – Incremental Filtering Using ‘Contains’ – v2010 vol 1

The ASPxComboBox editor now supports searching for items using the new ‘contains’ filter mode when using the ‘incremental filtering’ feature.

Find As You Type Filtering

Based on the text that’s typed into the editor's input box, the ASPxComboBox will incrementally filter on the client side. The following filter modes are available for you:

• None - Filtering is not applied to list items.
• StartsWith - The editor is filtered for list items that begin with the search string.
• Contains - The editor is filtered for list items that contain the search string. The found search string is highlighted within items for usability purposes.

Check out this image that shows the Contains filter in action:

DXperience v2010.1 Releasing…

Very soon! Ok, a beta for DXperience subscribers will be available as early as next week. We’re just waiting for the released version of VS2010 in order to do some last minute testing.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, ASPxEditors, DXperience, Features, v2010.1

Simplifying ASP.NET Demos By Switching Web Server – v2010 vol 1

Starting with the DXperience v2010.1 release, our ASP.NET demos will no longer use the IIS web server. Instead, we’re switching to use the built-in ASP.NET Development Server (formerly known as Cassini web server).

Why The Change?

During the ASP.NET European training tour, we learned that many developers had issues with their IIS installations. While some were easy to fix and some were more, um, challenging, it's still a roadblock to appreciating our ASP.NET demos. The easiest fix is to use a simple web server when not in a critical environment like production.

Therefore, to make it easier for everyone to get our demos up and running without the need for a proper IIS installation, we’re switching to the “ASP.NET Development Server”.

Seamless Change

There are 2 ways to run our online ASP.NET demos on your local machine. By running them in Visual Studio or as a standalone website.

When running as a standalone website, our ASP.NET demos will use the built-in ASP.NET Development Server.

Because we package all of the demos source code in our installation, you can also open the demo projects in your Visual Studio. This allows you to explore the demos source code and learn more about how the features work. And, if you’d like, you can also change the default server to IIS.

Folder Location Changed

To allow the built-in ASP.NET Development Server proper read and write access, the demos will have to be relocated from the “Program Files/DevExpress” folder to the “User” folder. For example, on my Windows 7 machine, they new directory is located here:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\DevExpress 2010.1 Demos

To recap:

1. This change is mostly transparent for you.
2. Helps you because you don’t have to worry about any IIS installation issues.

Drop me a line below with your thoughts on the exciting changes in the DXperience v2010.1 release.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, DXperience, Features, v2010.1

Reports In Visual Studio 2010, WPF & Silverlight – v2010 vol 1

The DevExpress Reports team has been busy preparing for the DXperience v2010.1 release. I’m happy to report that they’re hard work has paid off and the new items for v2010.1 look fantastic:

Complete Support for Visual Studio 2010

The XtraReports Suite now fully supports the new Microsoft IDE providing the same feature set as for the previous Visual Studio versions:

• Create new reports using templates available through the ‘Add New Item’ dialog
• Use fully-integrated report designer with native toolbars and service windows
• View HTML output and print preview within the IDE

Report Viewer for WPF

You can now integrate reports created with the XtraReports Suite into your WPF application. Simply use the new Report Viewer for WPF:

Report Viewer for Silverlight

Silverlight applications developers can also display reports created with the XtraReports Suite. How? Just use the Silverlight Report Viewer that has a common code base with the WPF version.

Since Silverlight applications provide a different data access model, we've also introduced a new Report Data Provider service that transmits report data to the client applications' Report Viewer.

When Is It Available?

I’m glad you asked. The DXperience v2010.1 release will be available this month in April 2010. But a beta should be available sooner to DXperience customers.

Drop me a line below with your thoughts on these exciting announcements for the XtraReports Suite.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, DXperience, v2010.1, VS2010), XtraReports