With the v18.1 release, we've added the powerful Scheduler control for both Bootstrap versions of our controls: ASP.NET Core and WebForms.

This new Scheduler controls is packed with several major features, let's take a look.

Various view types

The Bootstrap Scheduler control has several types of view that provide different arrangements and formats for scheduling and viewing appointments:

Day

The DayView enables end-users to schedule and view user events by day.

Demo

Agenda

The AgendaView enables end-users to list appointments by day.

Demo

Full Week

The FullWeekView enables end-users to schedule and view user events for the entire week.

Demo

Work Week

The WorkWeekView enables end-users to schedule and view user events by the working week (Saturdays and Sundays are not displayed).

Demo

Time Line

The TimelineView displays appointments as horizontal bars along the timescales and provides end-users with a clearer overview for scheduling purposes.

Demo

The MonthView enables end-users to schedule and view the user events in a month.

Demo

Grouping

The appointments within the current view can be grouped by dates or resources to facilitate an appointments management.

Group by resources

Appointments are grouped by resources.

Demo

Group by dates

Appointments are grouped by dates.

Demo

No Group by

Appointments with out any grouping.

Demo

Edit Form Customization

The Bootstrap Scheduler provides a ViewModel-driven customization API. This allows to remove, replace, or modify existing form parts or add a new UI parts to the edit forms without re-creating the entire form from scratch.

It provides API methods like: GenerateDefaultLayoutElements, InsertBefore, InsertAfter, FindLayoutElement, and more that allow you to modify the existing layout with ease.

For example:

// generates default layout elements to work with
dialog.GenerateDefaultLayoutElements();
var resourceContainerGroup = dialog.LayoutElements.CreateGroup("resourceContainer", (g) => {
   g.LayoutElements.CreateGroup("resourceGroup", (resourceGroup) => { resourceGroup.LayoutElements.Add(dialog.FindLayoutElement("ResourceIds"));
   // moves existing ResourceIds to the created group
   });
   g.LayoutElements.CreateGroup("resourceDetailGroup", (detailGroup) => {
      detailGroup.LayoutElements.CreateField(m => m.Phone);
      detailGroup.LayoutElements.CreateField(m => m.Photo);
   });
});
dialog.InsertAfter(resourceContainerGroup, dialog.FindLayoutElement("StatusKey"));// inserts group before existing layout element

Demo

Reminders

Scheduler provides a capability to create reminders. Reminders are used to send alerts at specified time periods before an appointment's start time.

Standalone controls

Some parts of the Bootstrap Scheduler control's UI are available as standalone controls, which can be used side by side with the scheduler control.

Here is the list of standalone controls and check out their demos:

• BootstrapSchedulerDateNavigator -Demo
• BootstrapSchedulerResourceNavigator - Demo
• BootstrapSchedulerViewNavigator -Demo
• BootstrapSchedulerViewSelector - Demo

Adaptive layout

Last, but not least, the Bootstrap Scheduler provides adaptive features out-of-the-box! That means looks great on desktop and mobile browsers!

Like it?

We'd love to hear your feedback about the new Bootstrap Scheduler control. Drop me a line below, thanks.

Email: mharry@devexpress.com

Twitter: @mehulharry

With the v18.1 release, we've added a helpful wizard for Visual Studio that makes working with the DevExpress ASP.NET Core Bootstrapcontrols easier. Let's take a look.

Insert DevExpress Bootstrap Core Control

The Insert Bootstrap Core Wizard helps by adding a fully functional DevExpress ASP.NET Core control to your project. It generates the code for you which saves you time. Any of the DevExpress Bootstrap for ASP.NET Core controls can be used.

To invoke the wizard in Visual Studio, right-click the design area of a view and select the 'Insert DevExpress Bootstrap Core Control' option:

Then from the dialog, select and customize the Bootstrap control you'd like to add to your view and click Insert:

Now the wizard will generate the necessary code and insert it into your View at the cursor position.

Take a look at this video that shows how to add a DevExpress Bootstrap Grid for ASP.NET Core using this new wizard:

Like it?

We'd love to hear your feedback about the new 'Insert DevExpress Bootstrap Core Control' wizard. Drop me a line below, thanks.

Email: mharry@devexpress.com

Twitter: @mehulharry

Now that the DXperience v18.1 release is available, let's dive into the new features of our Bootstrap Form Layout control.

The DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap Form Layout control helps you to build efficient and adaptive form layouts using the Bootstrap grid system.

Layout Groups

Let's start with the new 'Layout Groups' and 'Tabbed Layout Groups'. These Layout Groups serve as containers for Layout Items and allow you to create well organized forms that look great.

Tabbed Login Form

For example, you can easily create a "Login and Register" tabbed form with the Bootstrap Form Layout control. All you need is one tabbed layout group in the control’s Items collection with two layout groups: 'Login' and 'Register'. These groups contain layout items (with editors) to input typical data that's required to login or register for a website. Here's the sample code outline:

<dx:BootstrapFormLayout runat="server" ID="BootstrapFormLayout1"><Items><dx:BootstrapTabbedLayoutGroup><Items><dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup Caption="Login"><Items>
						...</Items></dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup><dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup Caption="Register"><Items>
						...</Items></dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup></Items></dx:BootstrapTabbedLayoutGroup></Items></dx:BootstrapFormLayout>

Adaptive

The Bootstrap Grid system provides classes for different screen sizes. The DevExpress Bootstrap controls help you to leverage these features of the Bootstrap Grid system.

To help you make your layouts more adaptive, some of the layout items support BootstrapLayoutItem.ColSpanXl / ColSpanLg / ColSpanMd / ColSpanSm / ColSpanXs properties. This allows you to define different values depending on the current screen resolution. For example, here the layout changes column count based on the width:

Non-tabbed

Non-tabbed layout groups are useful to visually separate and group a form's sections without using tabs.

Before the v18.1 release, you would need several Form Layout controls to create non-tabbed layout groups. Now, you can add the required groups or another layout group’s Items collection to the control:

<dx:BootstrapFormLayout runat="server" ID="BootstrapFormLayout1"><Items><dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup Caption="Registration form"><Items><dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup Caption="Authorization Data"><Items>
						...</Items></dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup><dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup Caption="Personal Data"><Items>
						...</Items></dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup><dx:BootstrapLayoutItem ColSpanXs="12">
					...</dx:BootstrapLayoutItem></Items></dx:BootstrapLayoutGroup></Items></dx:BootstrapFormLayout>

Take a look at all of the new features of our Bootstrap Layout control here: ASP.NET Core & WebForms Bootstrap – Layout Control Enhancements (v18.1)

Like it?

We'd love to hear your feedback about the new features of the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap control. Drop me a line below, thanks.

Email: mharry@devexpress.com

Twitter: @mehulharry

Writing for the web these days is very different from that a few years ago. The same goes for our control suites for ASP.NET: over the past decade we've evolved our original WebForms subscription in many different directions, and currently have five different suites, each different from each other, each providing slightly different capabilities:

• DevExpress ASP.NET Classic WebForms Controls
• DevExpress ASP.NET Classic MVC Controls
• DevExtreme MVC Controls (for ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core)
• DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap for WebForms
• DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap for ASP.NET Core

Of course, these choices don't even factor in the other parts of our DevExtreme product that cater to the pure client-side development community.

In essence, it has become more and more complicated and difficult for us to recommend a particular web control suite for new and existing customers. It is past time to simplify things.

We've taken a good long look at what we have, what is being installed and developed with out there, what feedback we have received from customers, and what would make the most sense to change. As a result we have come to the decision to retire the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap for ASP.NET Core suite.

Rationale for the decision

So why simplify? The first reason: less confusion.

In providing two major libraries for use with ASP.NET Core, it was confusing for you, our customers, which library was the best choice. And similarly, confusing for us to make a recommendation. (The main difference between the two products boils down to the DevExtreme MVC controls providing client-side rendering and the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap controls being server-side. As it happens, client-side rendering works extremely well with the ASP.NET Core framework.)

We therefore decided that we will focus on what we believe is the one best solution for ASP.NET Core: DevExtreme MVC Controls for ASP.NET Core.

Second, and more boring perhaps, is the resources problem. Simple and obvious enough to state: by maintaining one product instead of two means that we'll free up development and support resources so that we can introduce new features more quickly and with more impact to you, our customers.

Third, and perhaps more contentious, is that we believe the DevExtreme MVC Controls provide a much better alternative than the Bootstrap suite. For example, the DevExtreme MVC Controls work both with ASP.NET Core and ASP.NET MVC. They leverage modern web approaches by using client-side rendering (JavaScript) and supporting REST API. By having separate data services (Web API), it allows for:

• Decreased maintenance costs
• Improved scalability
• Decoupled server and client (each can be modified independently)
• Use of the same data API from mobile apps (native or hybrid)
• Future-proof (client can be replaced with some new modern technology without rewriting the server-side)
• Improved performance and user experience

This allows the DevExtreme MVC Controls to work better with the new ASP.NET Core framework than do the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap for ASP.NET Core controls. And, of course, the DevExtreme MVC Controls also include support for Bootstrap themes.

Time for maintenance mode

In conclusion, from this point forward, we are placing the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap controls for ASP.NET Core into maintenance mode. Maintenance mode means that the code will continue to work as is, the documentation and demos will stay online, the product is still supported, we will fix bugs when we (or our customers) find them, however, we will not be introducing any new features. Additionally, we have removed the option to purchase or renew the product.

In short, if you're using these controls today, then by all means continue to do so. We do not, however, recommend starting any new projects with this suite, and would ask that you consider switching to our other controls for ASP.NET Core: DevExtreme MVC Controls.

Migration?

The two suites are different enough that unfortunately a direct migration is not possible. If you are already using the Bootstrap-capable controls, here's what I recommend:

• Just continue using them; after all, even in maintenance mode, they are still supported. Just be aware that you will not get any new features.
• Start using the DevExtreme MVC controls in your projects (you can use both types of controls in one project), and slowly replace the Bootstrap controls you've used with the DevExtreme MVC controls.
• For new projects, just use the DevExtreme MVC controls

Future Plans

We'll continue to grow these existing DevExpress ASP.NET offerings:

1. DevExtreme MVC Controls (for ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core) - This is a robust library that works great for both ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core. If you want to use ASP.NET Core then use DevExtreme MVC Controls.

2. DevExpress ASP.NET Boostrap for WebForms - Currently, we only offer 35+ controls for Bootstrap (WebForms). We plan to increase this number and bring over the major office controls too (Spreadsheet and RichEdit). In general, if you use our classic controls ASP.NET WebForms then you should consider using the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap controls for ASP.NET WebForms instead.

3. DevExpress ASP.NET Classic WebForms Controls - This amazing library of controls offers over 100+ controls and several great features.

4. DevExpress ASP.NET Classic MVC Controls - The ASP.NET MVC version of our Classic WebForms Controls, this library is another popular choice for developers. Learn more about our MVC controls offerings here.

Feedback

We'd like hear your feedback about this topic:

1. Have you used DevExtreme MVC Controls with the ASP.NET Core framework yet?
2. What prevents your from using DevExtreme MVC Controls?
3. What controls and/or features are you missing from DevExtreme MVC Controls?

Thanks.

Email: mharry@devexpress.com

Twitter: @mehulharry

We've created two beautiful new themes and, not only that, we've made them open source so you can download them for free! These themes were expressly created for websites that were built using Bootstrap v4 or later.

Check out the new themes:

DevExpress Purple

DevExpress OfficeWhite

We strive to create beautiful themes for our controls and these new Bootstrap themes are no exception.

The new DevExpress OfficeWhite and Purple Bootstrap themes are designed with the same clean aesthetic as our modern ASP.NET themes like 'Mulberry', and 'Moderno'. In fact, the OfficeWhite theme was inspired by our 'Office365' ASP.NET theme.

Demos: https://devexpress.github.io/bootstrap-themes/

GitHub

Download, or clone, the themes from the open source GitHub repository here:

https://github.com/DevExpress/bootstrap-themes

Open Source (MIT)

We're making these two new Bootstrap themes available under the MIT open source license. This license type allows you to:

• Use the themes for free
• Modify the themes too

It's rare but occasionally we'll provide some of our open source projects under the permissive MIT license.

So why are these new DevExpress Bootstrap themes available for free?

Spread the word

Since launching the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap Controls for ASP.NET WebForms, we've been thinking about how to get the word out about these fantastic controls.

The Bootstrap framework is widely used and offers a rich ecosystem of themes. We want your help in spreading the word about the DevExpress ASP.NET Bootstrap controls.

So download the free themes, use them in your Bootstrap enabled websites, and then tell a friend.

Feedback

Which theme do you like better, DevExpress OfficeWhite or Purple? Drop me a line below, thanks.

Email: mharry@devexpress.com

Twitter: @mehulharry

Check out this list of upcoming v18.2 release features that we're working on for our ASP.NET line of controls. We've also prepared a special v18.2 CTP with online demos that you can see in your browser now.

If you are an active Universal subscriber and would like to test our most recent features prior to official release, please email our support team at support@devexpress.com or create a private support ticket in the DevExpress Support Center. Once we verify that you own an active Universal Subscription, we'll get you access to the v18.2 CTP. Feel free to test any of the following features and share your feedback with us!

WebForms and MVC

ASP.NET Spreadsheet and MVC Spreadsheet Extension

Pivot Table

Pivot Tables allow end-users to calculate, categorize and analyze data within a worksheet. Our ASP.NET and MVC Spreadsheet's pivot table displays a summary table that breaks the data into categories and calculates subtotals without entering any formulas.

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/preview/ASP/ASPxSpreadsheetDemos/PivotTables.aspx

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/MVC/Features/PivotTables

Cross sheet formula editing

End-users can now use cell values from other sheets to create formulas for the active sheet.

ASP.NET Rich Text Edit / MVC Rich Text Edit Extension

Simple View

Our new Simple View mode displays documents while ignoring the page's layout. In this mode, the control adjusts the document so that it occupies the control's entire content area.

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/preview/ASP/ASPxRichEditDemos/SimpleView.aspx

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/MVC/BarsAndUI/SimpleView

ASP.NET Calendar and ASP.NET DateEdit / MVC Calendar and DateEdit Extensions

Month-Year Picker

You can now specify which control view (days, months, years, centuries) an end-user can use to navigate and to select dates.

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/preview/ASP/ASPxEditorsDemos/MonthYearPicker.aspx

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/MVC/Editors/MonthYearPicker

ASP.NET Bootstrap

FormLayout

Data Binding

Each layout item contains a DevExpress data editor that allows users to edit values of the corresponding field type. If no items are specified explicitly, the Form Layout control automatically generates layout items with suitable editors for each data field.

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/Bootstrap/Layout/FormLayout.aspx

New Bootstrap File Manager control

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/Bootstrap/FileManager/Default.aspx

New Bootstrap Ribbon Control

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/Bootstrap/Navigation/Ribbon.aspx

Bootstrap GridView

Scrolling and Paging

Our upcoming release will include a number of highly popular scrolling/paging modes:

• Vertical scrolling

• Horizontal scrolling

• Virtual paging

• Endless paging

• Fixed columns

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/Bootstrap/GridView/ScrollingAndPaging.aspx

Bootstrap CardView

Scrolling and Paging

Like our Bootstrap GridView, our CardView will be updated to support the following scrolling/paging modes:

• Vertical scrolling

• Endless paging

• Endless paging on Page Scroll

    Available for CTP:

https://demos.devexpress.com/Preview/Bootstrap/CardView/ScrollingAndPaging.aspx

Features We'll Release in November

WebForms and MVC

ASP.NET GridView / MVC GridView Extension

Callback Support in Batch Edit mode

Callbacks won't cause unsaved data loss in Batch Edit mode. End-users need not save data to execute sorting, filtering, paging, grouping and similar operations. For example, end-users can edit cells on several data pages and then update data within a single callback.

Preview Changes in Batch Edit support

Inserted, edited and deleted rows can be previewed and modified before data is saved in Batch Edit mode. The GridView displays only modified rows in Preview mode. This mode is useful when multiple modified rows exist across different data pages.

Improved Adaptivity in Fixed Table Layout Mode

MinWidth and MaxWidth properties will be added to ASP.NET GridView columns to improve column adaptivity when fixed table layout mode is enabled.

ASP.NET CardView / MVC CardView Extension

Grouping

End-users can group CardViews by one or multiple data columns.

ASP.NET Scheduler / MVC Scheduler Extension

Performance Enhancements

Based on customization settings and the current view, performance has been improved by 1.25 – 2.8 times in Edge, 1.1 – 2.6 times in Chrome.

Appointment Tooltip for Mobile

To use screen space more efficiently, an appointment tooltip will be displayed at bottom of the screen on mobile devices.

View Visible Interval Navigator Adaptivity

This will improve the View Navigator's customization and adaptivity features. Take a look at this image to see a mockup.

Floating Action Button

This button provides quick access to the most popular Scheduler user actions. The actions in the button differ based on current context (a selected appointment, a view).

ASP.NET PivotGrid and MVC PivotGrid Extension

Unbound Column for OLAP Data Source

In v18.2, we will introduce an Unbound Column for Pivot Grids connected to OLAP Data Source via code. You can create an Unbound Column, assign an MDX expression string to it, and the column will be calculated via Analysis Services.

Pivot Grid In-memory Data Processing Performance

We continue to improve the Pivot Grid's in-memory data processing. The following features are now processed by the pivot grid in Optimized Mode:

• Custom Types
• Custom Totals
• UseNativeTypeForAggregates
• CustomSummary event (not available in CTP)
• CustomGroupInterval event (not available in CTP)
• Legacy TopN (not available in CTP)
• CustomUnboundFieldData event (not available in CTP)
• Case-sensitive data binding (not available in CTP)

ASP.NET and MVC Web Chart Control

Advanced Pane Layout

Diagram Pane items now support a tabular layout mode. Every Pane will include a title element and an expand/collapse button that allows you to maximize a specific chart region. With this feature, it will be easier to build dashboard-like layouts by grouping Series into separate Panes and maximize a Series group at runtime.

Crosshair Panel Improvements

It is now possible to display Indicator data in the Crosshair Panel.

ASP.NET FileManager and ASP.NET UploadControl / MVC FileManager and UploadControl

OneDrive and Google Drive Support

You can now manage files and folders in One Drive and Google Drive via our ASP.NET and MVC FileManager. Upload Control provides direct upload to both cloud storage mediums.

ASP.NET ComboBox and ASP.NET TokenBox / MVC ComboBox and TokenBox Extensions

Server Mode data source support

Both components support LinqServerModeDataSource, EntityServerModeDataSource or XpoDataSource data sources. Server Mode will function much as it does in the DevExpress ASP.NET/MVC GridView

ASP.NET Menu and ASP.NET NavBar / MVC Menu and NavBar Extensions

Collapse to images

To help reduce control width when the browser screen is too narrow, our ASP.NET Menu and NavBar hide item text and only display item icons.

ASP.NET WebForms and MVC Adaptive Project Template

All pages within our adaptive project templates now have adaptive layout. This template provides a quick start for mobile applications development.

ASP.NET Bootstrap

New Bootsrap Spreadsheet Control

New Bootstrap Rich Text Edit Control

FormLayout

Data annotation Attributes

The following data annotation attributes will be supported:

• BrowsableAttribute
• RequiredAttribute
• RegularExpressionAttribute
• RangeAttribute
• DisplayFormatAttribute
• DisplayAttribute
• DataTypeAttribute

Thanks.

The DevExpress "Office Applications (Mobile friendly)" demo showcases many of our ASP.NET controls: RichEdit, Spreadsheet, FileManager, and more. It's inspired by the feature-rich functionality of Office 365 online, however, our demo allows any ASP.NET developer to build similar features and host it locally.

The "Office Applications" is a big demo with lots of great features. Unfortunately, it's not a great learning tool. So we've created a smaller version of this demo that teaches you how to build the core parts, step-by-step, with detailed explanation.

Responsive Sample App

To encourage folks to download, test, fork, comment, question, etc., we've put the "DevExpress / aspnet-documentmanagement-bestpractices" sample on GitHub:

https://github.com/DevExpress/aspnet-documentmanagement-bestpractices

This sample application demonstrates 'best practices' when using the DevExpress ASP.NET File Manager, Panel, Spreadsheet, and Rich Text Editor. These controls are used to implement a responsive web application for managing office documents and media files (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.jpg, etc.).

Online Demo

Click or scan the QR code below to open the online example and experience the demo on your desktop or your mobile device.

In the repository, you'll find a full Visual Studio ASP.NET solution and several guides:

• Step 1: Populating the File Manager with files using a database as a file storage
• Step 2: Implementing custom filtering and applying security settings for the File Manager
• Step 3: Building a responsive layout for the file explorer using DevExpress controls and CSS styles
• Step 4: Reading and viewing office documents using Rich Text Editor and Spreadsheet controls

Download this repository and run it on your machine (details below). This sample app requires DevExpress ASP.NET controls (v18.1 or higher). Download the latest installer from the DevExpress website.

Application description

The application's main screen includes three main layout elements:

• Header with text and two navigation buttons
• Left-side collapsible menu
• File explorer

The file explorer, represented by the ASPxFileManager, displays the application's file system. End-users can manage files and folders: create, delete, copy, rename, or replace them.

The left-side menu allows end-users to display files only with specific extensions or files that were modified recently. End-users can collapse/expand the menu by clicking the hamburger button. If a browser window's width is less than 960px, the menu is collapsed when the application is started; otherwise, it is expanded.

End-users can view and edit office documents (xlsx, xls, csv, docx, doc, rtf, and txt files) by clicking the corresponding item in the file explorer. The documents are opened in view mode:

This mode is optimized for viewing documents, specifically for mobile devices:

• Pages render faster than in edit mode
• Improved readability for different devices, due to the adaptive layout
• Easy navigation through documents on mobile devices using the browser's built-in page search

End-users can to return to the file explorer or edit the document using the navigation buttons. When an end-user clicks the pen button then the document is opened in edit mode. Office documents are then either loaded in the ASPxRichEdit or ASPxSpreadsheet controls depending on their format (docx, xlsx, etc.).

End-users can edit and save documents in this mode. The back button returns users to the read-only view.

How to launch the project on a local machine

The following steps are required to create a database that stores files contained in the AppData/Files folder. These files in the new database are then used to display in the file explorer. Refer to the Populating the File Manager with files using a database as a file storage topic to see this feature's description.

Follow the instructions below to launch the project on your machine:

1. Run the CreateDatabase.aspx page in your browser.
2. Click the Create and populate Database button.
3. Wait until the button's text is changed to Database created.
4. Now run the Default.aspx page and experience the sample application.

What are you thoughts on this new well-documented ASP.NET sample app? Drop me a line below. Thanks!

Since taking over the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, we at DevExpress have been committed to keeping this library stable, modern, and useful. So I'm happy to announce the availability of v18.1.1 today.

This release brings several bug fixes and an enhancement. There is also a notable community contribution that will help those of you who are using an older version and want to upgrade to the latest release. Let's take a look.

Update Your Version

Please upgrade your ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit version to the latest release. You can download our useful installer here:

Download

Or use Nuget:

ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Nuget package

Then give us your feedback on GitHub.

Notable Community Contribution

From the DevExpress team that works on the toolkit, I'd like say thank you to developer tdjastrzebski. This dev has provided the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit community with an updated AjaxControlToolkit.ScriptUserControl.

When we released the first version of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit (DevExpress edition) back in March 2015, we made several fixes and updates. One of those fixes involved removing the AjaxControlToolkit.ScriptUserControl because it was unused code and we could not validate how it worked properly. So the best decision, and correct one, was to remove it so that the release would be stable and we could provide other enhancements too.

Unfortunately, there was an issue for users who wanted upgrade their Toolkit install. Essentially, if you used the AjaxControlToolkit.ScriptUserControl then upgrading to v15.1+ meant that you would need to update your old code. There are some old ASP.NET Toolkit-based projects that still depend on this class.

Therefore, we're thankful that tdjastrzebski has developed the new version of the AjaxControlToolkit.ScriptUserControl that is compatible with the latest release of our ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.

If you've been hesitant to upgrade to the latest version then please take a look at AjaxControlToolkit.ScriptUserControl and upgrade to the latest version of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.

Features and Improvements:

Gravatar

• Item 445 - Add support for https image url on gravatar control

Bug Fixes in v18.1.1

AjaxFileUpload

• Item 435 - AjaxFileUpload custom localization does not work
• Item 437 - AjaxFileUpload does not allow files without extensions
• Item 454 - AjaxFileUpload invalid characters in file path

AutoCompleteExtender

• Item 450 - AutoComplete: TextBox.TextChanged not firing on Safari/Chrome for MAC, IPAD

HtmlEditorExtender

• Item 452 - ColorPicker HtmlEditorExtender some colors are wrong

PieChart

• Item 404 - Single series in pie chart not displaying

Try DevExpress ASP.NET

We’d like to thank you for installing the DevExpress Edition of the AJAX Control Toolkit and look forward to your feedback as you begin using it.

When we took over the fabulous ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, our goal was to reach those web developers who want to use great web user interface controls for their web projects and DevExpress ASP.NET provides that and much more.

Try the free DevExpress 30 day trial.

We've ported four major ASP.NET controls to our excellent Bootstrap line of controls:

1. Spreadsheet
2. Rich Edit
3. File Manager
4. Ribbon

These additions mean that our Bootstrap control set is close to being as comprehensive as the classic DevExpress ASP.NET control suite.

Features

These new controls for Bootstrap contain nearly all the same great features as the classic controls.

Spreadsheet

The Spreadsheet is an Excel-inspired extension that allows you to introduce spreadsheet functionality to your ASP.NET Bootstrap web applications with ease. It provides a rich UI and an extensive API to create, manage, and convert spreadsheet files.

Features:

• Images
• Formulas
• Charting
• Comments
• Worksheet Protection
• Worksheet Printing
• Worksheet Display Area
• Worksheet Freeze Panes
• Sorting and AutoFilter
• Data Validation
• Mail Merging
• Custom Data Merging
• External Ribbon
• Context Menu Customization

Rich Text Edit

The Rich Text Editor is a Word-inspired extension that allows you to introduce rich text editing functionality to your ASP.NET Bootstrap web applications with ease. Using the control's rich UI and comprehensive API, your app can create, manage, and convert rich text documents.

Features:

• Paragraph Formatting
• Styles
• Text with Images
• Bullets and Numbering
• Hyperlinks and Bookmarks
• Tables
• Floating Objects
• Document Protection
• Document Restrictions
• Export of PDF
• Sections
• Headers and Footers
• Table of Contents
• Spell Checking
• Auto Correction
• Fields
• Document Variables
• Mail Merging via Document Server
• External Ribbon
• Context Menu Customization

File Manager

FileManager represents an Explorer-like extension providing your end-users with the capability to manage files and folders. This extension allows end-users to easily upload and select files, and even change the folder structure (by renaming, moving and deleting files or folders).

Features:

• File System Providers
• View Modes
• Access Control
• Customization
• Adaptivity

Ribbon

A Ribbon control provides your ASP.NET Bootstrap web applications with ribbon functionality, i.e., a set of toolbars placed on several tabs:

Features:

• Data Binding
• Keyboard Support
• Quick Access Toolbar
• Adaptivity
• Templates
• Client-Side Events
• Client-Side Functionality

Take a look at this classic post to see some benefits of a Ribbon control.

Which of these controls have you been waiting to use in your Bootstrap websites?

The Batch Edit feature of the DevExpress ASP.NET GridView is a fantastic time-saving feature.

Essentially, Batch Edit mode allows you to modify a batch of grid data on the client-side and to send it to the server in a single request. In this mode, the GridView maintains all user changes on the client side until the user saves or discards them.

Unfortunately, the Batch Edit mode was limited because it would only work for the page you were currently on. It did not allow you to page, sort, group, or perform any callback-based operation until you accepted or canceled those original changes.

Good news, we've solved this callback-based limitation. We're also introducing a new Batch Edit preview dialog.

Preview Batch Changes

Let's start with the new feature: Inserted, edited, and deleted edits can now be previewed and modified before data is saved in the Batch Edit mode. Take a look:

Batch Callback Support

As mentioned earlier, our ASP.NET GridView now supports callbacks in batch edit mode. Therefore, the control will not lose unsaved changes when the end-user filters, pages, groups or sorts data. Batch Edit mode now works across the entire GridView.

Drop me a line below with your thoughts on these DevExpress ASP.NET GridView features.

The DevExpress ASP.NET WebForms, MVC, and Bootstrap List Editors now support Database Server Mode. That means the DevExpress ASP.NET ComboBox, ListBox, and TokenBox controls can now easily bind to large data sources without the need for custom data binding.

Before the v18.2 release, we'd recommend that customers use the custom data binding approach. This involved implementing the ItemsRequestedByFilterCondition and ItemRequestedByValue events for the ComboBox control. While this approach gives full control over the data retrieval process, it also involves writing lots of code. Also, the ListBox and TokenBox controls didn't even support custom binding.

So, I'm happy to say that built-in Server Mode support is now available for the DevExpress ASP.NET List Editors. Therefore, if you bind the ComboBox, ListBox, or TokenBox controls using a server-mode enabled data source, then the control will only load the necessary items regardless of how big the data source is. I recommend reading the Server Mode section below to learn more.

Take a look at this animation to see how your end-users can benefit from this fast and powerful enhancement. In the GIF below, the DevExpress ASP.NET ComboBox is bound to a data source with 20,000 records! And with the server mode feature, you can bind to one million records or more:

How to use in ASP.NET and Bootstrap

Bind the List control to an EntityServerModeDataSource, LinqServerModeDataSource, or XpoDataSource control. Then set the EnableCallbackMode property to true.

How to use in ASP.NET MVC

Use the BindToEF and BindToLINQ methods to bind the List control to and Entity/Linq table. Then enable callbacks by setting the CallbackRouteValues property.

Full Control

However, if you have a scenario that requires full control of the data retrieval process then we recommend that you use these events

• ItemsRequestedByFilterCondition
• ItemRequestedByValue

Take a look at these ASP.NET and MVC demos to see code examples of how to use these events.

The next section gives a short explanation and benefits of the Server Mode feature. Please feel free to skip this section if you're familiar with this excellent feature.

Server Mode

When building websites, binding to large amounts of server-side data can slow down the UI. For example, data binding a standard combo box control to one million records from your SQL Server will only lead to frustrated end-users who complain about slow or unresponsive web views.

There is a good solution to binding your controls to large amounts of data on the web: make your database server do the hard work instead of your web server. Your database is better suited to handle these large expensive data-intensive operations like paging, grouping, sorting, etc. Offloading the task to your database also has the benefits of faster page loads, concurrency, and more.

While we call it Server Mode, conceptually, it's similar to 'record paging' or 'server-side paging'. However, we at DevExpress have provided 'large database support' for many years and in many of our controls.

I recommend reading this help topic to learn more about 'Server Mode'.

Have you been looking forward to the DevExpress ASP.NET Combo Box or Token Box getting the Server Mode feature? Drop me a line below. Thanks!

Check out these mobile and performance enhancements that we've added to the DevExpress ASP.NET Scheduler for ASP.NET WebForms and MVC.

Note: Several of the changes below talk about the Scheduler's visual elements. If you're not familiar with these elements then please take a look at this excellent image from documentation.

Mobile-Friendly View Navigator

We've improved the design of the Scheduler's View Visible Interval and View Navigator elements.

Specifically, we removed the 'Today' button and the calendar's icon from the default layout. This provides a more compact layout for smaller screen resolutions:

This updated design allows us to display more 'View Selector' buttons when in the adaptive/mobile mode. Compare it to the previous version:

The updated design is more compact and mobile-friendly. However, if you prefer the previous design, then we've implemented those options into the Scheduler.

Date Navigator Integration

One of the most important and useful design changes is the integration of 'Date Navigator' control inside the View Visible Interval element. Before, when you clicked on the View Visible Interval element, the Scheduler would show a popup calendar.

We've replaced this popup calendar with the versatile DevExpress ASP.NET Date Navigator control. With this control, you can easily see and navigate to your appointments:

New Mobile Appointment Tooltip

We're also introducing an informative new Tooltip. Now, when an end-user taps an appointment, the new tooltip will appear at the bottom:

This tooltip is especially useful on mobile devices.

Note: You can switch Tooltip modes by setting the OptionsToolTips -> AppointmentToolTipMode property.

Performance Improvements

The DevExpress ASP.NET Scheduler's performance has been steadily improving in the past few releases. So, I'm happy to report that we've made some big improvements in this release as well.

Take a look at the performance improvements when compared to the previous release (x represents 'times faster'):

• Google Chrome - 1.1x to 2.6x
• Microsoft Edge - 1.25x to 2.8x

These improvements reduce the time needed to process callback requests, which improves both the time required to render ASPxScheduler on the client and the overall response time for end-user operations.

What are your thoughts on the DevExpress ASP.NET Scheduler's improvements? Drop me a line below, thanks!

We've added the powerful grouping feature to our ASP.NET WebForms and MVC CardView control.

The DevExpress ASP.NET Card View (ASPxCardView) now allows you to group cards by one or multiple columns:

We've taken some of the best grouping features from our popular ASP.NET GridView control and ported them to the CardView control:

• GroupBy dropdown
• Multiple group columns
• Expand/collapse group row
• Set group interval

What are your thoughts on the DevExpress ASP.NET CardView's new grouping improvements? Drop me a line below, thanks!

The venerable DevExpress ASP.NET GridView control provides several great adaptive and responsive features. With this release, we've extended the layout customization capabilities of the DevExpress ASP.NET GridView in Fixed Table Layout mode. This brings you the following benefits:

• Improved adaptivity in Fixed Table Mode
• Better use of a column's free space
• New column width settings

Take a look at this animation to see the difference from the previous release:

Min/Max Column Width

Typically, the GridView's responsive logic will hide columns that cannot fit on the screen. However, in the GIF above, we can see several enhancements:

• the command and data columns are displayed even when the GridView's width is reduced and
• when the width is enlarged, the GridView does not increase the numerical columns either

These layout customization adjustments are possible because we've added new column settings:

• MaxWidth - The maximum width setting can be used to set up a column layout for large screen sizes like desktop web browsers. When the GridView is wide, you can limit the maximum width of certain columns

• MinWidth - The minimum width setting is useful for responsive design. As mentioned above, the GridView's responsive logic may hide columns during resizing. To help prevent column hiding during this process then please use the MinWidth property to set custom "minimum" widths. Use the AllowHideDataCellsByColumnMinWidth property to specify whether the grid should hide a column if its width is less than the MinWidth value.

What are your thoughts on the DevExpress ASP.NET GridView's improvements? Drop me a line below, thanks!

In v18.2, we've extended our spreadsheet control with pivot table support and a couple of other useful capabilities. Let's take a look.

Pivot Tables

The DevExpress ASP.NET spreadsheet control can now embed pivot tables within worksheets. As you would expect, numerous layout customization options give you total control over its user experience.

New Ribbon Command

There is a new Insert PivotTable ribbon command on the Insert tab that allows an end-user to quickly create a pivot table:

New Tabs

The built-in ribbon now has two additional context tabs – 'Analyze' and 'Design' for manipulating the pivot tables. The tabs are available when a PivotTable is selected:

New Dialog

A new Field List dialog allows an end-user to modify the PivotTable structure: choose rows, columns, filters and values from the list of available source table fields:

When the layout of the PivotTable is changed using the Field List dialog, the modifications are immediately applied to the document. This is fine in most cases, however, if the PivotTable has a lot of fields then it's better to delay the updates until the end-user has finished making their changes. Use the 'Defer Layout Update' check box on the dialog when you have many fields.

Formula Editing UI Enhancements

We've improved formula editing with this release. Previously, if an end-user wanted to insert a formula that references cells on another sheet, then they could only do so by typing their text into the cell or formula bar.

Now, we've extended the graphical interface for formula editing so the end-user can select and edit the formula cell ranges located on different sheets:

New Behavior Settings

In the last release, we introduced Behavior Settings that restrict some end-user operations: opening/saving documents, copy/paste functionality, etc.

With this release, we're extending these settings and have added several options for restricting the document's rows/columns/worksheets. Check out the full list of settings in the spreadsheet's online documentation.

What are your thoughts on the DevExpress ASP.NET Spreadsheet's improvements? Drop me a line below, thanks!

Good news, your requests for .NET Core support from our office controls have been addressed with the latest release. You can now use the powerful DevExpress ASP.NET Spreadsheet and Rich Text Editor controls with the ASP.NET Core framework v2.1 (or above).

That's right, you can now run DevExpress Office Controls within both Windows, MacOS, and Linux based environments. In this post, I'll dive into the features, limitations, future plans, and how you can start using DevExpress Office controls in your .NET Core applications.

CTP

This functionality is available as a CTP (community technology preview) in the v18.2 release. We've not finished porting all of the major features of these controls to .NET Core but, rest assured, we're working hard on it.

ASP.NET Core Rich Text Editor

Our new Rich Text Editor control is a client-side control wrapped for the ASP.NET Core framework. Therefore, all document operations (including importing and exporting the document's model to file) are performed on the client.

The control doesn't maintain the document's state on the server either. This means that the control does not need to synchronize with the server when the document is opened.

Main Features

This version might be a CTP but it's packed full of features including:

• Content Formatting Features: Character Formatting, Paragraph Formatting, Lists, Tables, Images, Floating Objects
• Content Layout Customization: Document Sections, Multi-column Layouts, Section Breaks, Headers and Footers
• Supported Formats: DOCX, TXT
• Automation Features: Fields Support
• Autocorrect
• Simple View (Web Layout)

Limitations

Since this is a CTP we still have a few features to work on before the final release. Therefore, this version does not support:

• Mail Merge
• SpellChecker
• Document protection
• RTF support
• Printing
• Export to PDF

ASP.NET Core Spreadsheet

While the new Spreadsheet control is a client-side control, it also has a server portion. The client-side UI remains light and fast because the server portion helps with heavy tasks. For example, if you have a large excel file then you don't want to process that on the client-side and ruin your end-users' experience.

The client-side UI is developed with our excellent DevExtreme library (same as the Rich Text Editor).

Features

We've included the following features in this release:

• XLSX, XLSM, XLS, CSV, TXT document formats are supported
• Formulas
• Charts
• Images
• Freeze Panes
• Comments
• Sorting
• Mail Merge
• Document Generation

Limitations

This v18.2 CTP version of the Spreadsheet for ASP.NET Core does not support:

• Dialog UI (no dialogs are currently supported)
• Formula Bar UI
• Context Menu UI
• Formula Autocompleting UI
• Reading/View modes
• Worksheet protection API
• Printing
• Export to PDF
• Global Custom Functions
• Custom In-place Editor API

Future Plans

These controls are in CTP though we'll be working hard to bring you the final release versions in 2019.

Our long-term vision is to provide a completely consistent set of features regardless of the platform (ASP.NET or ASP.NET Core), so we'd love to hear your feedback about the .NET Core Rich Text Editor and Spreadsheet support.

Please leave a comment below, thanks.

It's not every day that I'm impressed by a button control but the new DevExpress ASP.NET Floating Action Button has me intrigued.

The new button control hovers over another control to provide a quick way to access common actions. It can be used to replace context menus, toolbars, etc. This is especially helpful for mobile/touch devices.

It was inspired by Material Design that is used in popular apps like Google Calendar.

GridView

Take a look at how the Floating Action Button can be used in the Grid View control:

Setup

Add the Floating Action Button to any page of your ASP.NET application and assign it to a container. Below, we set the button's ContainerElementID to the DIV element that contains the ASPxGridView:

<div id="someContainer"><dx:ASPxGridView ID="GridView" runat="server"><%--......................--%></dx:ASPxGridView></div><dx:ASPxFloatingActionButton ID="FloatingActionButton" runat="server" ContainerElementID="someContainer"><%--......................--%><Items><dx:FABAction ActionName="NewRow" /><%--......................--%></Items></dx:ASPxFloatingActionButton>

Context Specific

You can define the context of which actions are displayed when the button is clicked.

So, after declaring the control, be sure to set the custom actions for when an end-user clicks the Floating Action Button.

Scheduler

While it's available as a stand-alone control, we decided that this functionality was especially useful for the Scheduler control. Therefore, we integrated the new Floating Action Button into the Scheduler control directly.

You can create, edit, and delete appointments using predefined actions. You can also assign any custom context and specify any custom actions too.

What are your thoughts on the new DevExpress ASP.NET Floating Action Button? Drop me a line below, thanks!

Great news - our upcoming release will include a highly requested feature for both our ASP.NET DateEdit and Calendar Controls: a new mode that allow your end-users to select only the month and year portion of the date. Check this animation to see it in action:

Scenarios

There are many scenarios like "credit card expiration dates" that require an end-user to select only the month and year. The new month-year picker mode helps with these types of scenarios.

You can also use it to filter other controls like the GridView:

How to Use

To set up picker mode, use the new PickerType property. This property allows you to set one of these values: ['NotSet','Days','Months','Years','Decades'] (NotSet is the default value.)

Data Annotation Support

You can also set the PickerType property using Data Annotation attributes. Usually Data Annotation attributes are available with our ASP.NET MVC controls but now you can use them with the ASP.NET WebForms Editor controls too:

[DatePickerType(DatePickerType.Months)]
public DateTime FilterDate { get; set; }

Let's take a look at the different PickerType values:

Days View

If PickerType is set to Days then the control will display the "Days" view and you can select a specific day, for example "11/22/2018":

Months View

With the Months setting, you can restrict the control to select months only:

The Months is the minimal available view. This means that an end-user can select only the specific month, for example, "Dec 2018". You cannot select the day in this view, however, because this control will bind to a variable of the DateTime type, it will set the day value to 1, the first day of the month.

Years View

The Years value let's you restrict the date selection to years only:

Initial & Max View

We've also added two new properties that let you set the initial and maximum view of navigation between months, years, and decades:

• ASPxDateEdit.CalendarProperties.FastNavProperties.InitialView
• ASPxDateEdit.CalendarProperties.FastNavProperties.MaxView

I'd like to thank all the customers who provided us their usage scenarios for the new feature. What are your thoughts on the new month-year picker feature? Drop me a line below, thanks!

Adaptivity remains one of the most important features of a modern website. Which is why you'll appreciate the latest features that we've added to the ComboBox, DateEdit, and DropDownEdit controls:

• Scroll Picker
• Modal Drop Down

These features will enhance the usability on small screen (mobile) devices. Of course, both the DevExpress ASP.NET WebForms and MVC versions of the controls get these new features. Let's take a look.

Scroll Picker

We added a new mobile-friendly way to select dates with the DevExpress ASP.NET DateEdit control:

Enable

To enable this feature, set the DateEdit's PickerDisplayMode property to Auto, Calendar, or ScrollPicker. The default is Auto.

If the DateEdit is in modal mode, then the ScrollPicker is automatically selected. Otherwise, the standard Calendar is selected.

Demo - Scroll Picker - WebForms and MVC

Rest assured that the scroll picker mode works to help select the time section too.

Modal drop down

On smaller device screens, a popup can be difficult to see, so it's better to use a modal popup to gain the end user's attention.

Therefore, we've added a new modal drop-down mode to several of the ASP.NET Editors:

The animation above shows how much more effective it is to show the drop down as a modal popup in the middle of the screen for small screen devices. This allows end-users to easily select the necessary values from the controls with the drop-down.

This feature is available with the following controls:

• ComboBox
• DateEdit
• DropDownEdit

Settings

Set the SettingsAdaptivity.Mode property to OnWindowInnerWidth to enable this feature. Then, the control will switch to modal mode when the browser's width is less than the SwitchToModalAtWindowInnerWidth property value. Use the following settings to customize drop-down editors in adaptivity mode:

• DropDownEditBaseAdaptivitySettings (DateEdit and ComboBox)
• DropDownEditAdaptivitySettings (DropdownEdit)

Demo - Modal DropDowns - WebForms and MVC

More Editor Features

Check out some of the other great new features of the DevExpress ASP.NET Editors for ASP.NET WebForms and MVC in our latest release:

• ASP.NET, MVC, and Bootstrap - ComboBox, ListBox, and TokenBox - Database Server Mode (v18.2)
• ASP.NET and MVC Editors - Floating Action Button (v18.2)
• ASP.NET and MVC DateEdit & Calendar - Month-Year Picker (v18.2)

What are your thoughts on the DevExpress ASP.NET Editors' new adaptivity improvements? Drop me a line below, thanks!

If you've used our ASP.NET MVC GridView then you've likely experienced the integrated Filter Control. Unfortunately, due to various priorities, a stand-alone version was only available for the ASP.NET WebForms suite of controls.

Good news, the long-awaited DevExpress ASP.NET Filter Control is now available as a stand-alone ASP.NET MVC extension! The Filter Control allows your end-users to build filter criteria of any complexity and apply the filter to any data component or data model.

As a stand-alone control, you can use to filter other DevExpress MVC controls and also position the Filter Control anywhere on your MVC views.

Here's the stand-alone DevExpress MVC Filter Control with the DevExpress MVC GridView in action:

Helpful links:

• Demo
• Documentation

What are your thoughts on the new DevExpress ASP.NET MVC Stand-Alone Filter Control? Drop me a line below, thanks!