What's New in ComponentOne 2024 v2

The ComponentOne 2024 v2 release is finally here! Our development team has been hard at work to bring you our most packed product release yet!

This release includes .NET 9 support, Microsoft 365 desktop themes, and enhancements for the complete “Flex” family of controls across the entire .NET stack. Read more below for the following 2024 v2 release highlights:

• .NET 9 Support
• Microsoft Office 365 Themes for WinForms and WPF
• Ribbon UI Automation Improvements for WinForms
• FlexGrid Enhancements for WPF, Blazor, and MAUI
• FlexChart Enhancements for WinForms, WPF, and MAUI
• FlexViewer for Blazor Server and WinUI (beta)

Ready to check it out? Download ComponentOne Today!

.NET 9 Support

With the .NET 9 update, your .NET apps will have even more modular flexibility and improved performance. We are excited to announce that we offer complete .NET 9 support with our latest control packages.

As with any new version of .NET, there are often sweeping changes and issues across the entire .NET stack. Our team has been diligently working with every .NET 9 preview this past year to address these changes before they reach our users. This includes changes to the drag-and-drop cursor, clipboard, and binary serialization in several of our libraries.

Please note that, like .NET 7, we are not providing .NET 9-targeted packages. Our plan is to only offer the LTS (long-term support) versions as packages. We’ve ensured .NET 9 support in our .NET 8 packages.

WinForms

Office 365 Themes for WinForms - Production Ready!

We’ve been hard at work completing the Microsoft Office 365 themes for our Windows Forms controls. These themes provide your desktop applications with the latest Windows software styles. There are several variations from which you can choose, including white, gray, dark, green, and colorful.

With our Theme Designer, you can also create your own themes based on our Office 365 Themes. Learn more here - Code Clinic Webinar- How to Design, Theme, and Style Your WinForms Application Like a Pro.

Ribbon UI Automation and Accessibility Improvements

We are committed to all our components complying with accessibility best practices. This includes UI Automation features (which help screen readers understand the UI elements) as well as improvements for automated testing tools.

In this release, we’ve enhanced our WinForms Ribbon control to fully comply with the latest UI Automation tools, passing Microsoft Accessibility Insights. Screen readers, such as UI Recorder and Windows Narrator, can be used to understand the Ribbon components at runtime and provide insight to users and automation tools alike.

FlexChart for WinForms Enhancements

New Built-in Zoom and Panning Behaviors

FlexChart for WinForms now offers an easier way to implement zooming and panning (translation). You can enable these features simply by adding an instance of the new behavior classes to the control. You can set the ZoomMode to scale the X, Y, or both axes. For example:

C1.Win.FlexChart.ZoomBehavior zoom = new C1.Win.FlexChart.ZoomBehavior();
zoom.ZoomMode = C1.Win.FlexChart.GestureMode.XY;
flexChart1.Behaviors.Add(zoom);

New Column Heatmap Sample

It’s called “Flex” chart for a reason! Check out our new column heatmap sample in WinUI, MAUI, WinForms, and WPF. The latest sample displays a bar chart with a color range signifying its value based on a condition with respect to a line chart.

Additional FlexChart Enhancements

• New Trendline.GetRegressionStatistics() method, which returns statistical characteristics about the regression. For example, you can use this to get the R-squared value of the trend line generated by FlexChart.
• New AnnotationLayer.DrawOnTop property that can be used to control the position of annotations on top or behind the plot elements. Use this property to display annotations behind the data points.

WPF

New Office 365 Themes for WPF .NET 6+

Our entire WPF suite for .NET 6 and .NET 8+ now includes Microsoft Office 365 Themes. Give your WPF applications a modern, Windows desktop style modeled after the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Check out the easy and flexible ways to use one of our WPF themes here: How to Add WPF Themes to Style Your Desktop Applications.

FlexGrid for WPF Enhancements

Import Data from Excel Files into WPF

We’ve made it as easy to load Excel files into FlexGrid for WPF as we have for the WinForms version. The new LoadExcel and LoadExcelAsync methods can be used to import data from Microsoft Excel files (XLSX). Note that this feature is focused on importing data and will not import all features of Excel, such as formulas, charts, and cell styles. Cell merging and styles can be implemented separately.

.NET 6 Clipboard Improvements

The new ClipboardCopyMode lets you configure whether column headers are included or excluded in the copied content. You can set this property for your entire application or build it into your application settings so that your users can decide.

FlexGrid Scroll By Row/Column

We’ve added a new ScrollMode property to FlexGrid for WPF featuring a new scrolling behavior for those looking to perfect their UX. When set to “Dimension,” the grid will scroll by row or column. This requested feature prevents a row or column from being partially in view. Scrolling by pixel is the default behavior. See the difference below.

FlexChart for WPF Enhancements

• Built-in zoom and panning behaviors let you enable these mouse and touchpad-enabled features with just a few lines of code. Configure zooming and panning (translate) along the X, Y, or both axes.

chart.Behaviors.Add(new ZoomBehavior() { ZoomMode = GestureMode.X });
chart.Behaviors.Add(new TranslateBehavior() { TranslationMode = GestureMode.X });

• A new Column heatmap sample (shown above) displays a bar chart with a color range signifying its value based on a condition with respect to a line chart.
• A new Trendline.GetRegressionStatistics() method, which returns statistical characteristics about the regression. For example, you can use this to get the R-squared value of the trend line generated by FlexChart.
• A new AnnotationLayer.DrawOnTop property that can be used to control the position of annotations on top or behind the plot elements. Use this property to display annotations behind the data points.

Blazor

FlexViewer for Blazor - Production Ready

Our cross-platform document and report viewer is now production-ready for Blazor Server applications. We’ve added the document outline (tree), page setup panel, and report parameters. This version is still experiencing performance issues with WASM, which we are continually working on, but you can begin to use it in client-rendered applications today.

FlexGrid for Blazor Improvements

Blazor Datagrid Column Picker

In addition to reordering columns by dragging them, which was added in a previous update, we’ve now added a column layout demo that demonstrates how to implement a column picker in FlexGrid. This UI is useful not only for rearranging columns but also for hiding and displaying columns at runtime.

Improved Clipboard Support

This release also improved pasting and copy actions. Runtime users will now see an option to copy cells with headers, which can be useful in some situations. You, the developer, can configure this option using the ClipboardCopyMode property.

Blazor TreeGrid Enhancements

Did you know FlexGrid can be used as a TreeGrid? This release includes more TreeGrid features like connecting lines and indent properties, as well as enhancements for sorting, filtering, and checkboxes. You can use FlexGrid to create a complete File Explorer on the web using Blazor. Check out the DynamicTreeView sample to see it in action.

Additional FlexGrid for Blazor Improvements

• 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.
• The Row Details expanded state remains intact after the user navigates away and back to the page.

More Modal Popup Flexibility

Our Blazor Window component is a super useful tool for creating pop-ups in your Blazor Server and client-side applications. Previously, you could only display a semi-transparent gray background for a modal popup, but we’ve removed that restriction, and now you can configure background and modeless settings independently.

New Blazor Heatmap Charts

New Heatmap chart types have been added to FlexChart for Blazor! This specialized chart represents data values using colors and is especially useful in plotting large, complex data. Create a heatmap with a discrete or gradient color scale, gradient color axis, and with or without data labels.

ASP.NET Core

FlexGrid for ASP.NET Core Enhancements

• New triggers, which allow tooltips to display on focus in addition to on hover.
• New pasteEmptyCells property that determines whether, when pasting, to paste all cells or only not empty cells.
• The cell editor now supports non-editable, selectable dropdown-like menus for DataMap values. When assigning a DataMap to a cell, you may now restrict editing to selection only.
• The FlexGrid column headers may now receive focus. For example, you may now use the arrow keys to move up into or over row and column headers. Additionally, once column headers have focus, the Enter key triggers a click, performing a sort operation if enabled on the column.
• Enhanced display options are now available for the group aggregate text. You can now customize the display position of aggregate group summaries, including options like Top, Bottom, and Auto.

Input for ASP.NET Core Enhancements

• Support for arrow keys and mouse wheel now exists to change the date and time in the InputDate and InputTime controls. Just put the control into edit mode, and pressing the arrow keys or scrolling the mouse wheel will adjust the part of the control that has focus.

WinUI & .NET MAUI

Support for Windows App SDK 1.6

Our WinUI 3.0 controls have been updated to use the Windows App SDK 1.6. If you’re running the latest Visual Studio 2022 (17.12.0 or higher), you should have the latest SDK.

FlexViewer for WinUI - Beta

We’ve included an early release of our FlexViewer for WinUI, which is available in this release. We’re still working on the performance, but if you’d like to test it out today, you can use it to display FlexReports, SQL Server reports, and other PDF documents in your Windows 11 (WinUI 3.0) apps.

FlexGrid for WinUI & MAUI Enhancements

• Improved clipboard support—The new ClipboardCopyMode property lets you configure whether column headers are included or excluded in the copied content.
• Improved TreeGrid features—Configure more treeview properties, like connecting lines, indent depth, dashed lines, brush colors, and rounded corners.

FlexChart for WinUI & MAUI Enhancements

• Trendline support has been added. Add regression (like linear, polynomial, and exponential) and non-regression trendlines (like min, max, and average.) Learn more here: How to Add and Render Trendlines in Your C# .NET Charts
• New Heatmap chart types for .NET MAUI allow you to create colorful, 2D heatmaps with discrete or gradient colors and with data labels.

Calendar for WinUI & MAUI Enhancements

• Semi-transparent selection and hover - configure semi-transparent highlight and selection using the new MouseOverBrush and MouseOverMode properties.

Download the 2024 v2 release today and let us know what you think!