Can you provide more information on "Enhanced filtering capabilities"?  Will you be adding the ability to add custom criteria like numeric comparison operators and string functions like "starts with", "ends with", and "contains"?

 Thanks,

 Mario 

Yes, you will be able to provide custom distinct values such as "<" and ">" operators (or any other custom filtering criteria) in the auto-filter drop down.

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Senior Technical Writer
- Xceed Software

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

One thing that would be very useful for the project I'm working on would be a multiple-select cell editor.  When not being edited the cell could display the selected items separated by commas.   For example documents in our database are often authored by multiple people, so we need to allow users to select any number of authors from the drop-down list.  A lot of other metadata we store for our document managent system also require a multiple selection editor.  It's something I have not seen included out of the box in any similar product.

Another suggestion would be column-based data virtualization - if the user is viewing only 5 columns out of 25, why query data for all those extra columns when they aren't being used?  All 25 columns would need to be included so the user could use the column picker to add/remove columns as needed. The column picker could have an "Apply" button, so the user could check/uncheck any number of coumns, then a single event would be raised to retrieve data only for the new columns (also obeying the existing row-based data virtualization of course).

Hi, I would really like to see built in support to save/restore column layouts. (name, witdth, visibility, etc.)

There are ways to accomplish this manually as discussed on these forums, but it feels like a core functionality that should be included before attacking some of the aforementioned "niche" features.

Just my 2c.

I agree with Nicholas.  I have implemented a rudimentary Checkbox selection column, but I'm not satisfied with what I have to work with, let alone what the finished result is.

 Most of our users are not power users, so they won't know/care about how to select multiple rows using the Ctrl and Shift keys.  So we had to implement a "Selected" bool property on our objects and then create a new column bound against that.  Then the trouble really started.  I had to forgo using "IsDeleteCommandEnabled" and do that manually.  Also, I wanted to be able to quickly select items that were in groups, by having a checkbox in the existing header to quickly select/delselect all items in the group.  I gave up on that feature, because there was precious little documentation/examples on how to extend the Grouping functionality.  I was able to create a checkbox in the Grid's header, and wire up an event to mass-check/uncheck all items in the grid.

 Master/Detail usage with this same scenario was not good.  Deleting checked child objects - not selected items - (without using "IsDeleteCommandEnabled"- see above) leaves an empty space, and trying the force the grid to refresh itself - or the child detail area - was fruitless.  I'm still fighting that battle.

A lot of this would be nicely resolved by having a built in Checkbox column feature that allows for a better User Experience in checking multiple items.  A separate API for handling the checked items (not the selected rows) would be nice, such as MyXceedGrid.CheckedItems and other properties similar to what is implemented for the SelectedItems.

MegaByte,

The ability to persist/restore column layouts is in there already, and it is expandable. It's in v3.1 Pro Edition. 

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Odi Kosmatos
VP, R&D, Xceed

Hi Odi,

Is V3.2 still on course for release in May?  Are you able to be any more specific yet?

Thanks,

Michael

Hi Michael,

v3.2 has been rescheduled for June 2009. The fast smooth scrolling / animated table view with sticky group headers will also not make it in there, getting it right is important, it has been pushed back slightly to v3.3 two months later.

Here's the complete, revised list of the major new features v3.2 will have:

Improvements to Data Virtualization:
    - Support grouping
    - Built-in support for IQueryable (LINQ)

Full support for the Entity Framework

Direct support for unbound columns

Auto-detection and population of ComboBox columns (enums, foreign keys)

Ability to supply custom distinct values for auto-filtering ranges

Enhanced filtering capabilities (for end-users as well, with filter row)

Target .NET 3.5 SP1

 

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Odi Kosmatos
VP, R&D, Xceed

A TimeSpan-Editor such as the DateTimeTextBox for DateTimes, which can edit durations for example in either "hh:mm" or in "hh:mm:ss" format.

Is the feature  "Built-in search with end-user UI " still in there?  Or is it going to be pushed back?

 

I also would like to suggest (if it is somehow possible) a way to try to adjust the column widths if they are not visible with the column.GetFittedWidth method.  There must be a way I can't imagine that there is no way.      http://xceed.com/CS/forums/thread/20203.aspx

 

 

Hi,

what kind of multiple-selection will this be? Would it be like Excel, click and drag over cells the user would like to be selected?

I have been told that you cannot change the Width of a 3DCard.   If this is the case could I request this ability?  It would also be nice if you were able to change the shapes of the 3DCards as well. 

Make Row:IsSelected settable. I have an application where I have checkboxes for quick selection (no ctrl needed). If IsSelected were settable I could have done this with pure databinding without a single line of code.

I look forward to the 3.2 release, as I will use most of those improvements.

I'm not sure why, but most of the 3.3 items are not valuable to me, other than the Themes.  I'm not sure why virtualization is such a big deal, other than performance of the grid with a lot of rows.  This is an uncommon problem for me at the moment.

I could use the Export to PDF, calculated columns, WPF 4.0 alignment, integration into VS 2010, library of Cell Validation rules, more themes, better Master/Detail support in general, and much better spreadsheet-type features

 BTW, I'm still trying to figure out how to make data-entry work with using Tab and Enter keys as the only navigation keys - just like Excel.  I have been using the grid for 7 months.

 Also, the InsertionRow/InsertionCell seems like it is not very mature, and needs some work.  We have had to limit our usage of the InsertionRow due to several problems/exceptions that happen in typical usage.

Ryan, thanks for the comments, they're being noted. Everyone else too.

Note: v3.2 will let you do calculated columns (using the unbound data fields feature)

 

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Odi Kosmatos
VP, R&D, Xceed