ComponentOne 2024 v2 Preview

The second major release for ComponentOne this year is scheduled for December 5th, 2024. We’re busy at work on many new features and improvements across the .NET stack. This may be one of our biggest releases to date!

Take a look at what we are planning to introduce below. Please keep in mind these features are tentatively planned, and things are still subject to change.

.NET 9 Support

With Microsoft planning to officially release .NET 9 later this year, you can expect our following release to be fully compatible with .NET 9. If you are eager to start working with the .NET 9 libraries, keep an eye out shortly after its release, as we’ll be releasing a preview to nuget.org.

WinForms

More Complete Office 365 Themes for WinForms

In our 2024 v1 release, we introduced the Office 365 Themes for most WinForms controls as a preview. We’ve invested a lot into this feature, as this release adds more support for more WinForms controls, as well as for all WPF controls.

FlexChart for WinForms Enhancements

• Built-in Zoom/Translate Actions - with built-in actions, these features will be easier to enable.
• Data Labels on Heatmaps - our extended Heatmap chart type will support multi-colored data labels.
• R-Squared Value in Trendlines - you’ll be able to get the R-squared value of the trend line using the new RegressionStatistics.Rsq property.
• Display Annotations Behind Data Points - annotations are typically added on top of the chart series, but this enhancement will allow you to set the Z level for annotation layers.

Other WinForms Enhancements

• FlexPivot Conditional Formatting - improved visual cues make it easier for end users to apply conditional formatting. This enhancement will be added for WinForms .NET Framework 4.6 and .NET 8.
• Ribbon - UI automation support for better accessibility and testing for C1Ribbon in WinForms.
• DockingTab - added support for the ability to dock a floating tab into another floating tab.

WPF

New Office 365 Themes for WPF

As probably the most significant new feature, we plan to introduce a complete Microsoft Office 365 Theme for our WPF Edition. This includes several themes, such as dark, light, gray, and colorful. The new themes will be supported with .NET 6 and higher.

FlexGrid for WPF Enhancements

• New Clipboard Options - new clipboard options, including or excluding headers, to help end users export their data from your application. This feature already exists in the .NET Framework but will be added to .NET 6+.
• Scroll by Row/Column - a new scrolling mode will allow the WPF datagrid to be scrolled by whole rows or columns rather than by pixel.
• Improved Excel Interoperability - a new method will make it easier to load Excel files in .NET 6+.

FlexChart for WPF Enhancements

• Conditional Formatting Improvements - a new supported scenario will allow you to apply a conditional style (i.e., color) to a data point based on the value of another data point or series.
• FlexPie Data Labels - formatting for data labels will support different formats on different pie charts when multiple charts are displayed in a single control.
• Line Markers Over Axes - our WPF FlexChart will support displaying the line markers over the axes, similar to the WinForms version.

Other WPF Enhancements

• FlexPivot Conditional Formatting - improved visual cues make it more clear for users to know which fields can be formatted using the built-in dialogs. This enhancement will be added for .NET Framework 4.6 and .NET 8.

.NET MAUI

• FlexChart feature completion - we introduced FlexChart for .NET MAUI in 2024 v1, missing a few features. We will complete these features for 2024 v2, including annotations, gestures, axis scrollbar, range selector, and MacOS support.
• Our .NET MAUI controls will support the latest Uno Platform project templates for MAUI-embedding.

Blazor

FlexGrid for Blazor Enhancements

• FlexGrid TreeGrid Enhancements - sorting, filtering, richer collapsible cells, and checkboxes.
• Row Detail State Caching - the state of each row’s detail section (open or close) will be cached across paging within the FlexGrid.
• New Focus Gained and Focus Lost Events - enhancing interactivity events enables developers to attach custom code, which fosters dynamic user interactions and enhances overall application responsiveness and functionality.

FlexViewer for Blazor Official Release

• Document Map/Outline Support
• Page Setup & Page Operations (fit whole page, fit page width)
• WebAssembly Performance Improvements

Other Blazor Enhancements

• Blazor Window Modeless Overlay - our Blazor pop-up/window component will allow you to combine modeless functionality with a dark overlay. Typically, the dark overlay is used for modal. This enhancement will enable more flexibility.

ASP.NET Core

FlexGrid for ASP.NET Core

• Group Aggregate Display Options - enhanced display options will allow developers to customize the display position of aggregate group summaries, including options such as Top, Bottom, and Auto.
• Tooltip Trigger Options - new trigger options so tooltips can be displayed on focus as well as hover.
• Paste Empty Cells - a new pasteEmptyCells property will determine whether pasted cells will include empty cells.
• Menu Editor Type for DataMap - a non-editable, selectable dropdown-like menu for DataMap values.

Additional Work In Progress

We are also working on some bigger projects that you may see some preview in 2024 v2, or else you can expect them in our 2025 v1 release.

• FlexViewer for WinUI - our cross-platform document and report viewer will soon support WinUI 3.0 apps on Windows 11. With FlexViewer, you can view FlexReports, SSRS reports and PDFs in modern Windows apps.
• More UI Automation enhancements across more WinForms controls.

Let us know what you’re excited for and if there’s anything you wish to see!