What's New in ComponentOne 2021 v2

The ComponentOne 2021 v2 release is now LIVE! This release includes the debut of our WinUI controls for developing modern Windows desktop applications, as well as new features for .NET 5 WinForms and WPF, Blazor, and ASP.NET MVC.

If you're an existing WinForms user, you will also be interested in our new WinForms Data Services Edition, which brings our classic UI controls together with our powerful new .NET Standard service components that make working with data easier. Read more below.

New WinUI Edition - Beta

ComponentOne WinUI Edition is a native UI library for Windows desktop applications based on the WinUI3 framework. With WinUI Edition (beta) you get:

• Powerful datagrid with superior cell customization and high-performance virtualization
• Essential calendar and layout controls that fill the gap and extend your application functionality
• Fluent designed desktop controls for building the latest Windows applications
• Support for WinUI in Desktop apps only

Learn more.

New WinForms Data Services Edition

Take your data management to the next level by building scalable services that run on any .NET platform. The newly re-branded Data Services Edition is our collection of .NET libraries that make working with data easier across any .NET platform.

In the 2021 v2 release, we're introducing a new bundle of components for building Windows desktop apps using WinForms controls and Data Services. If you're building WinForms apps, this bundle now gives you everything you need for both the data layer and UI layer:

• Data Connectors for accessing and integrating data from various online and cloud-based sources.
• Data Binding Components for displaying and virtualizing large data sets
• A Data Engine for ETL and quick, in-memory data analysis
• Text Parsing Components for extracting data from sources other than a database
• Web APIs for downloading, uploading, caching, generating, and exporting images, documents, reports, and barcodes.
• 130+ WinForms UI controls, including fast datagrids, charts, reports, a complete ribbon, docking panels, and more.

Learn more.

WinForms 2021 v2

For WinForms this release, we've continued to expand our .NET 5 control rollout and packed more valuable features into FlexGrid, FlexChart, InputPanel, GanttView, and FlexPivot.

More Support for .NET 5 and Beyond

We have ported the following controls to .NET 5: DataFilter, CheckList, PdfDocumentSource, TouchToolkit, ColorPicker, DBNavigator, MaskedTextBox. Also, the following controls are out of beta and ready for production: C1Document, FlexReport & FlexViewer. C1PrintDocument is in preview in 2021 v2. These controls are based upon .NET 5, which means they will work great with .NET 6, and we plan to continue supporting this version for future versions of .NET following Microsoft's yearly releases.

FlexGrid Column Pinning

FlexGrid now allows users to freeze columns or column range at runtime. Pinned columns are automatically moved to the left and frozen during scroll. Set the AllowPinning property to SingleColumn or ColumnRange to allow users to pin columns. Check out the online documentation for more details.

InputPanel Grid & Flow Layouts

We have added Grid and Flow layouts to our popular InputPanel control. In addition to the default stacked layout strategy, these new layouts provide greater flexibility to developers for designing complex business forms and layouts. These layouts are available both in .NET Framework and .NET 5.

FlexPivot Axis Grouping and Pie Charts

The FlexPivotChart now supports axis grouping, which is helpful when data is hierarchical in nature. The PivotChart also now supports Pie charts with the 2021 v2 release.

Reintroducing PrintDocument for .NET

The C1PrintDocument component has been separated from the legacy C1Report component. With C1PrintDocument, documents can be completely created in code or bound to a database via a powerful and flexible data binding model. C1PrintDocument also includes preview controls, C1PrintPreview and RibbonPreview, for previewing documents with thumbnail support. These controls are available in .NET Framework and as a beta in .NET 5.

FlexChart Supports BreakEven Charts

FlexChart for WinForms now supports BreakEven charts. Break-even analysis is used to calculate marginal costs. This technique is widely used by production management and management accountants.

WPF 2021 v2

FlexGrid Column Menus, Cell Styles, and Excel Export for .NET 5+

The new and improved column menu allows end-users to perform column-based actions at runtimes like sorting, grouping, filtering, and auto-sizing. The built-in filters deliver Excel-like functionality unique for each column data type.

By default, FlexGrid applies the filter automatically, meaning the data is filtered as the user changes the UI, but you can change this behavior to be more like Excel by showing an Apply and Clear buttons. Check out more you can configure in the online documentation.

The new Cell Styles API makes styling the FlexGrid easier. Now you can define a Cell Style with a specific background, foreground, and border and set it to any of the specialized grid styles such as SelectionStyle, ColumnHeaderStyle, RowStyle, NewRowStyle, GroupRowStyle, and AlternatingRowStyle. Additionally, FlexGrid now supports semi-transparent selection styles.

FlexGrid for WPF .NET 5 can be exported to CSV, HTML, text, and now Microsoft Excel (XLSX) thanks to the new C1.WPF.Grid.Excel library.

DataFilter Conditional Filtering Enhancements

The C1DataFilter control lets you build a complete filtering UI on the side of your application. Now it supports a conditional filter that lets you build more precise filters such as "Greater Than" and "Starts With" for various data types. Plus, end-users can build multiple condition filters using AND/OR logic. This enhancement is supported in .NET 5+ apps.

FlexPivot Supports Range Grouping

The new WPF .NET 5 FlexPivot now supports grouping by custom ranges. Organizing data into groups helps the end-user better understand, navigate, and analyze data. Normally, groups are created for each unique value in the data set.

For some fields, like numbers or dates, this is not ideal to group without the ability to create ranges. With range grouping, you can create a group like "1-100" or "January - March" to group and aggregate the data however you want. The FlexPivot control automatically aggregates all the values within each group to generate the pivot table.

Calendar Date Range Selection

The new .NET 5 Calendar now supports date range selection. Selecting a range of dates is useful for booking appointments or an event that has a duration lasting more than one day. Use the SelectionMode property and the MaxSelectionCount to set the maximum number of days that can be selected.

PrintDocument for .NET Framework

Our classic C1PrintDocument component is now available for WPF .NET Framework. With C1PrintDocument, documents can be completely created in code or bound to a database via a powerful and flexible data binding model. This component was previously included with our legacy C1Report.

More WPF .NET 5+ Controls Additionally, we've added .NET 5 and .NET 6 support for more WPF controls including C1PropertyGrid, C1ContextMenu and C1ProgressBar.

WPF Design-Time: Suggested Actions

For .NET 5+, we've added design-time improvements to some controls such as C1FlexGrid and C1FlexChart. With suggested actions, you can perform some common, quick actions directly from the smart tag-like menu. This saves development time and decreases the learning curve to work with ComponentOne WPF controls.

ASP.NET MVC 2021 v2

Create Choropleth and Scatter Maps with FlexMap

The new FlexMap control lets you visualize data geographically on a map with just a few lines of code. The ASP.NET MVC map control supports choropleth and point maps. Choropleth maps are used to show statistical values for geographic areas.

Each area is colored based on the data it represents. FlexMap also supports scatter point and bubble maps. Scatter maps are used to show points of interest at specific coordinates on a map. When you create a bubble map, the bubble's size depends on the value of the data (larger value = larger bubble).

New Palettes in FlexChart

We now have more palette choices available in FlexChart. The palettes were inspired by ColorBrewer 2 and are grouped in the following categories:

• Sequential (Single and Multi) - Best used to show ordered data that progress from low to highlight colors for low data values to dark colors for high data values.
• Diverging - Gives equal emphasis to mid-range critical values and extremes at both ends–light colors for mid-range and dark colors for extreme low and high values.
• Qualitative - Best used to show nominal or categorical data. The color is not indicative of differences in values.

Blazor 2021 v2

Our Blazor Edition expands with a new TreeView component and many chart enhancements. The FlexChart control is completed in this release with added animation, annotation, and scrolling support added. All the new controls and features are supported in Blazor Server and WebAssembly apps.

Blazor TreeView Component

Display your hierarchical list of items, such as indexed entries, directories on a disk, or headings in a document, as a tree structure with our new Blazor TreeView component. Or, if you have a nested navigation system or site structure, the TreeView provides the perfect UI component to create the navigation list. It comes complete with style customization, connecting lines, keyboard support, and multiple selection modes.

Blazor FlexGrid Excel Export

We have added support for Excel export on Server Side Blazor FlexGrid. This feature allows exporting the grid as displayed, including all styles, to Microsoft Excel. Features such as row\column freezing, grouping, merging, cell styles are preserved while exporting the grid. It is also possible to export only selected ranges.

Blazor Chart Annotations

The FlexChart control supports various built-in annotations such as Rectangle, Square, Circle, Ellipse, Line, Polygon, Image, and Text.

Blazor Axis Scrolling & Range Selection

Enable scrolling along either axis with the new axis scrollbar. This type of scrolling works well with the Blazor Server and WebAssembly (WASM), as the control updates the view after the user drags either scroll thumb. In addition to the axis scrollbar, you can use the Range Selector component to allow scrolling between two charts where one is a preview of all data, and one is zoomed in.

Legend Scrolling

Enable scrolling in the legend when there are too many items to display in the chart area at one time.

Blazor Chart Animation

The Blazor FlexChart supports animation for loading and updating.

New Data Services Edition

Take your data management to the next level by building scalable services that run on any .NET platform. The newly re-branded Data Services Edition (formerly known as Service Components) is our collection of .NET libraries that make working with data easier across any .NET platform. The Data Services Edition is included with Studio Enterprise. Plus, in this release, we've introduced a new bundle of WinForms + Data Services, and you can now license just the Data Services by themselves. Below are some new highlights:

Visual Studio Integration for DataConnectors

We have integrated DataConnectors with Visual Studio so that you can connect to online data sources such as Salesforce, Dynamics 365 Sales, OData, and Kintone through Server Explorer. This unlocks a variety of integration scenarios, and you can connect to these sources without writing a single line of code, drag and drop tables on a dataset designer, connect data-aware controls like grids, charts & report designers such as Crystal Reports.

Check out the online documentation for how to connect inside Visual Studio.

SQL Server Cache for DataConnectors

The DataConnectors have built-in caching to support local availability of data for faster performance on repeat operations. We have added support for caching data to SQL Server, which is helpful for distributed applications. Now you can choose either to use SQLite or SQL Server as a caching database.

New JSON DataConnector (Preview)

The new JSON DataConnector will enable quick connections to JSON data using ADO.NET or Entity Framework Core. In this release, we have included a preview version of the ADO.NET-based connector that lets you query flat and relational JSON data. This data connector supports querying JSON data using SQL or LINQ.

Web API Now Included with Data Services

The new Data Services Edition and WinForms Data Services Edition products now include our Web API when built on a licensed environment. ComponentOne Web API is a set of services that enable you to extend your app's functionality with server-side Web APIs quickly. Get and write data to your server-hosted native mobile and web apps with various APIs for document formats, imaging, reporting, and cloud services. Learn More.

PDF Web API Supports ASP.NET Core

We have migrated the PDF Web API to ASP.NET Core. You can use these Web APIs to load and view PDF files in ASP.NET Core FlexViewer, search text, and export PDF files to supported formats.

Toolbar Icons Updated

As part of Studio Enterprise, we include over 2,200 toolbar and ribbon icons that you may use in your applications royalty-free. In this release, we've provided an updated set of 315 new icons. Plus, if you have a Studio Enterprise license activated, you can easily download and install the icons from the C1ControlPanel under Utilities.