PHP as a data source for Flex applications

  A whole lot of people seem to be moving from web page development to building RIA-s these days. But while the emergence of the new client side technologies is easy to notice, with names like Flex, Silverlight or JavaFX appearing...

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Features

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

Behavior Modification for Developers

  Have you ever found yourself avoiding rolling your mouse over part of the screen, knowing that something was going to pop up under your cursor that would keep you from getting on with what you were trying to do? Conversely,...

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, design, Features, psychology, userexperience

Top security threats to Flash/Flex applications and how to avoid them – Part 2

  Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a vulnerability that allows attackers to inject client-side script. XSS stands for many of the attack we see on the Web today. Attackers find some kind of a creative way to inject script into web pages, which than allow them to expose the user to many security risks

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, crosssitescripting, Features, flashxss

New Layout Features In ASP.NET and WinForms Scheduler Reporting – v2010.1

 

Check out these 2 new features of the ASPxScheduler and XtraScheduler that helps you improve appointment layout and display.

Quick recap: Our Scheduler controls use the powerful XtraReports Suite for exporting and printing. This gives you added benefits for more flexibility, control and features. Read the 'ASP.NET Calendar Scheduling…New DevExpress Reporting Integration' post to learn more.

CanShrink And CanGrow

The 2 new layout properties are called CanShrink and CanGrow:

• CanShrink - allows you to avoid empty space wasted by cells with no appointments.
• CanGrow - can be used to resize a cell to show all appointments instead of printing the ‘More items’ link.

Online Demo

To see the new features in action, check out this ASPxScheduler online ‘AutoHeight’ demo:

Usage Scenario

When building a report, you want to use the most area to display your information content and use the page space in the most efficient way. While the Scheduler Reporting does has a VerticalLayout option (Fit/Tile), it may not be enough to help.

Scheduler Reporting now has two additional options for the HorizontalWeek and TimelineCells controls, namely CanShrink and CanGrow. They enable you to modify the layout as required for the cell size to fit the content.

To show how these options can be used, consider the monthly report scenario. Each month, you’re required to print each resource on a separate page while the displayed information is maximized.

To achieve this, use the HorizontalWeek control. It represents a month, so we set its height to the page height of the working area. Then set VerticalLayoutType option to Fit. In this mode, all weeks are fit in the visual border of the control (as it is set in Designer).

The CanShrink and CanGrow options can be switched on to allow the control to re-arrange its cells to maximize the number of appointments displayed. Note that the total height of the control remains the same. It is the same height that we set in the Designer mode. These 2 pictures below illustrate the report before and after CanShrink/CanGrow options switched on:

 

Download DXperience v2010 vol 1 now and test drive the new CanShrink and CanGrow features. Then drop me a line below with your thoughts. Thanks.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, ASPxScheduler, Features, v2010.1, WinForms

AIR On Android Overview

  At GoogleIO Adobe announced that Flash Player 10.1 and AIR for Android will be released for Android 2.2. However that wasn’t the only thing they announce. As of the 20th anyone can download the AIR Prerelease and begin testing...

Tags: - Virtualization, adobe, air, Android, Application Packaging, Features, flash

ASP.NET Menu, NavBar And Pager Performance Improvements – v2010 vol 1

 

Check out the improvements we’ve made to some of our ASP.NET controls in the DXperience v2010.1 release.

We changed the rendering of our ASP.NET AJAX Menu, Navigation Pane and Pager controls. The controls now use semantic rendering combined with advanced CSS styles, which results in a dramatic decrease of HTML output, improved performance and a reduction in the server’s workload.

Also, several of our other ASP.NET controls like the ASPxGridView and ASPxScheduler also benefit because

The primary advantages of using Semantic HTML Rendering are:

• Performance is increased because the amount of HTML output is reduced.
• Accessibility is improved because screen readers understand semantic HTML.
• SEO is improved because search engines prefer semantic HTML.

New Property

A new property, called RenderMode, has been added to support Semantic rendering. The property supports allows you to choose between:

• Classic – by default. The control uses rendering based on tables.
• Lightweight – The control uses the new rendering based on divs and lists HTML elements. Therefore, the control generates semantic and lightweight HTML code.

Performance

We ran some performance tests to compare the 2 rendering modes and here’s the improvement numbers:

 

Here’s the test notes: All tests were performed in Internet Explorer using the Aqua theme. The "Enable Resource Merging" feature was turned on and each control was in test a separate page.

• ASPxMenu - bound to an xml file that mirrors the structure of the devexpress.com main menu
• ASPxNavBar – bound to an xml file that mirrors navigation pane of our ASPxperience demos
• ASPxPager – using ItemCount="100"
  • Also, menus and pagers inside our "senior" controls by default use Lightweight render mode now. This automatically makes ASPxGridView and ASPxFilterControl thinner.
• ASPxGridView - bound to the Northwind.Products table w/Settings.ShowFilterRow=true and Settings.ShowFilterRowMenu=true
• ASPxFilterControl – used 2 columns
  <dx:FilterControlTextColumn PropertyName="CategoryID" ColumnType="Integer" />
  <dx:FilterControlTextColumn PropertyName="CategoryName" ColumnType="String" />
  and
  FilterExpression="[CategoryID] > 1 And [CategoryName] = 'Test'"

Now that you’ve seen the improved numbers, be sure to download DXperience v2010 volume 1 and try out the new RenderMode property in your ASP.NET projects. (A release candidate version of DXperience v2010 volume 1 is available now.)

Then drop me a line below with your thoughts. Thanks!

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, ASPxGridView, ASPxMenu, ASPxNavBar, ASPxPager, Features, performance, v2010.1

Transitioning from Flex 3 to Flex 4

  Flash Builder 4 marks a huge step forward for the Flex framework and Flash Platform in general. But with these advances come a rather steep learning curve. Basic tasks in Flex 3, like setting the Application layout, no longer work the same in Flash Builder 4. In this article, we’ll cover some of the core changes and touch on the new designer/developer workflow.

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Features, flashbuilder, flex4, spark

ASP.NET GridView And TreeList: 2 Export Improvements – v2010 vol 1

 

Two very useful export enhancements have been added to the ASPxGridView and ASPxTreeList.

Starting with DXperience v2010.1, you can change the exported column width size and export to the Excel 2007 XLSX document format:

1. Change Column Width

To change the column width before exporting, use the ExportWidth property. This property has been added to both the GridViewColumn and TreeListDataColumn classes.

2. Excel XLSX Format

Two new methods have been added to the ASPxGridViewExporter and ASPxTreeListExporter controls:

• WriteXlsx - Exports the grid's data to a specific storage (such as a stream or file) in XLSX format
• WriteXlsxToResponse - Exports the grid's data to a specific storage (such as a stream or file) in XLSX format and writes it to the Response

Both of these improvements came from customer suggestions. Your feedback has helped improve the ASPxScheduler for everyone. Thank you and keep it coming.

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

ASP.NET Scheduler: How To Implement End-User Restrictions

 

Check out this 2 step approach to prevent users from editing appointments in the ASPxScheduler:

Step 1: Choose Restriction

First decide which action in the ASPxScheduler you want to prevent. Here’s a list of the available ones:

• AllowAppointmentConflicts
• AllowAppointmentCopy
• AllowAppointmentCreate
• AllowAppointmentDelete
• AllowAppointmentDrag
• AllowAppointmentDragBetweenResources
• AllowAppointmentEdit
• AllowAppointmentMultiSelect
• AllowAppointmentResize
• AllowInplaceEditor

Step 2: Check User ID

Then just check the User ID of the logged in user in the ‘Allow’ operation. For example, this code below prevents the user “Sam” from dragging appointments to a new date and time:

schedulerControl1.OptionsCustomization.AllowAppointmentDrag = UsedAppointmentType.Custom;
schedulerControl1.AllowAppointmentDrag += new AppointmentOperationEventHandler
(schedulerControl1_AllowAppointmentDrag);

// ...

void schedulerControl1_AllowAppointmentDrag(object sender, AppointmentOperationEventArgs e) {
    if (user_id == "Sam") e.Allow = false;
}

To learn more, check out this code central example:

Example Details: How to prevent a user from scheduling appointments in the past

Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, ASPxScheduler, Features, How-To