multi column combo box.

Just to reiterate on some of the things I hope you consider adding to your grid are:

(These are ordered from my most important to my least important requests)

 

1) A printview where you can scale up or down how the Grid will actually print.  It would also show the Header and Footers if there are any.
   I don't know how many times I have printed the datagrid and 1 column ended up on its own page and thus twice as many pieces of paper were used.   (This is a hugely important feature that I will need in the short term future)

2) "Built-in search with end-user UI"  I hope you do move this up sooner. I am surprised more people aren't clamoring for this.

3) The ability to change the Width of a 3DCard or even better yet allow someway to specify the shape of a 3DCard.

4) I also would like to suggest (if it is somehow possible) a way to try to adjust the column widths of a table if they are not visible with the
 column.GetFittedWidth method.  There was a message thread on this here:      http://xceed.com/CS/forums/thread/20203.aspx

5) Export to PDF would be a nifty.

6) A control that allows you to edit both the date and the time at the same time.  A DateTime object is designed to be able to store both the time and
the date.  It just blows my mind why there isn't a good WPF control that lets you do both.  I remember a control a long time ago that did both.
It had a drop down calender like a standard date control and at the bottom of this drop down was a place to edit the time.  (That control was
from another compiler than VS)

7) Add these methods to the grid:  Expand All Groups, Contract All Groups, Expand All Details, Contract All Details.  It seems like all my apps need
these methods.

8) I would also like a way to be able to retrieve stat function totals.  It was discussed here: http://xceed.com/CS/forums/thread/20583.aspx

9) This is a very general suggestion / observation.  The DataGrid works great when you already know what the Table is that you are loading into it.
   But things become a bit more complicated when you don't know what the table will look like when you load it up.  Any way to make things easier when this  is the case would be great.  Also have a few more samples that show you how to do more things dynamically in C# than just in xaml.

I have a new feature request for you.  I have swapped emails with your support department recently about columns with * widths not being resizable, and how this is a known limitation.

When you assign a column a * width, the column will not allow the user to resize it.  Columns that do not have * widths are still resizeable, and a mix of columns with/without a * width is fully supported.

This creates a dilemma for me, as I'm trying to: 1. Avoid horizontally scrolling completely.  2. Pack as much information onto a single grid as possible 3. Make non-critical columns available through the column chooser. 4. Show some columns that could have some moderately long and variable lengths.  5. Support large and small resolutions for different screen sizes.

I'm forced to choose between two options: 1. Enable * widths on the columns with variable length data, and the end user with small resolution settings will not be able to resize to see all data.  2. Not use * width at all, use Single Column expansion (first or last), and allow the user to be able to resize.

 Since I'm handicapping the user in scenario #1 (actually the xceed grid is), I cannot consider this a valid scenario, so I must use scenario #2.

Here is an algorithm suggestion: If you could support * witdth column resizing, only the columns with * widths would have to resize, and you would only have to redistribute the delta * width changes among the other star width columns.

Thanks,

 Ryan

The roadmap doesn't distinguish between Standard and Professional editions of the datagrid. In particular, will the animated table view be available in the Standard edition? Thanks a lot.

The animated table view will be in the Professional Edition, not the Standard.

---

Odi Kosmatos
VP, R&D, Xceed

Hi Odi,

I've just read your Post no. 22142  in reply to BringItemIntoView and scrolling re disadvantages of ATV and the requirement that all rows have the same height.  That's a major diappointment for me.  Most of my grids have fewer than 20 rows but each row has at least one column containing a variable amount of text or DataTemplate which can differ from row to row.  I was really pinning my hopes on v3.3 providing smooth scrolling but it seems it won't be of any use in my case.  On some of my grids I only get 1-3 rows in the viewport and integral scrolling produces a really unpleasant jumping effect which my clients find annoying and hard to work with.  Any chance this will get resolved in a future release?  What I'm after is the ability to generate and render each row one at a time thus producing an animating effect as the page is filled up.  That would display the first row or page in the shortest possible time.  It can then carry on pre-generating the next 20 rows at a lower priority to provide smooth scrolling.  I'm sure this should be workable for small numbers of rows.

 --Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your precious feedback. Anything's possible, we might tackle the challenge (of allowing variable-sized rows in animated table view / ATV) if enough users mention that they need this. At the moment we have limited data, not having launched the new view and have it being used seriously by customers. So for 3.3 nothing can change, we're too close to the release, but after that, the door isn't closed.

Reading the description of your needs though, makes me wonder if we don't already provide some of what you need thanks to data virtualization. One problem you mention is the unpleasant jumping effect. That one requires the ATV, granted. But you also mention you want the ability to generate and render each row one at a time, and to be displayed as they each become generated. I think that's a different, second requirement.

For the second requirement, I have some questions. Can I assume that it takes on it's importance mainly the first time the datagrid is displayed (the first screenful of rows is displayed) and also whenever you do a "page down" or "page up"? What is the main issue causing each row to take long to be displayed, is it loading that row's data from the source? If that's it, have you considered using the grid's data virtualization feature so that each row can be generated and displayed as the data comes in? It already provides the ability to continue pre-generating subsequent rows at a lower priority, just without smooth scrolling.

But all this said, ATV, in your scenario, if it could support different-height rows, would provide a better experience because a page down is always a fixed number of pixels, not a fixed number of items like classic table view, so not knowing row heights in advance doesn't produce weird effects. (Uses pixel scrolling instead of item scrolling).

---

Odi Kosmatos
VP, R&D, Xceed

Hi Odi,

Yes, one could think of this as two separate requirements.  I was really suggesting the second (pre-generating the next page and rendering a row at a time) as a necessary step to solve the first (smooth scrolling) whilst maintaining responsiveness.  I hadn't realised that that was effectively what the DataGrid was already doing.  However, it seems to me that the DataGrid still generates a page full of rows before WPF renders.  If it does render a row at a time that opens up a host of possibilities.  Getting off track for a moment, if we could attach a storyboard to a row before it renders we could add all sorts of effects; scroll in from left or right, animate a background gradient, motion blur, ticker board and so on.  That would be mighty!

However, back to the main requirement.  Smooth scrolling is really important when row heights are large and there are only a few rows to a page - and I would have thought that in most scenarios where this is the case, row heights will vary. 

In my case, each row on its own doesn't take too long to generate, bind and display and with virtualisation the overall response is fine - but I don't get smooth scrolling.  If I turn off virtualisation I can have smooth scrolling but all rows are generated before the first one is displayed.  (Actually that's the way it works in an ItemsControl.  I seem to remember I had problems with this in an earlier version of the DataGrid but maybe I should try again now.)

It doesn't sound to me that ATV is very far from what I need.  Basically maintain a row cache either side of the visible page and use pixel scrolling.

--Michael

 re other features, I'd like to place a vote for alignment with WPF .Net 4.0

Hi Odi, 

Copy functionality-

It would be great if  you could support copying displayed values vs underlying values.

We are ending up putting our own customization since correct content is not copied with default functionality. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Paste Functionality-

This is completely missing except on per cell level.

Basic text to text paste in CellEditor/default edit mode would be nice to have.  I know this could easily get complex.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pivot-

Also with Xceed being leader in WPF grids.  We needed a pivot based grid for display and ended up using Dev Express grid as winhost in our WPF application.

I would have loved to see a pivotgrid in WPF.  This could be different project :-).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Od!

I'm looking for a solution for a row level validation which is like this:
- executed when a cell content has changed, eg.: when typing text in a cell without leaving the cell
- not current edited cell validation: eg.: I have 2 fields in a row: StartDate, EndDate. The EndDate cannot be lower then the StartDate. And with live editing validation (not when the cell has been left)
- these validation rules must works with DataTables (ADO.NET)

Hi Odi,

Previously, it has been requested to add in grid spell checker (http://xceed.com/CS/forums/permalink/14954/15422/ShowThread.aspx#15422). I would need that as well and it could be a reason for us to switch from Windows forms Xceed Grid to WPF Xceed DataGrid (the rest of our application is in WPF except for grids). Is it something planned?

 Thank you 

I have a suggestion on the drop down combobox that lets you select individual filters in the datagrid.  It would be useful if that contained additional functionality. 

The filter combobox currently looks something like:

------(Clear Filter) ------

|    [ ] Bob                |

|    [ ] George           |

|    [ ] Ed                 |

|    [ ] Dave              |

|    [ ] Cornelius       |

--------------------------------

(It currently is just a bunch of checkboxes)

 

But if it were changed to this:

---------------- (Clear Filter)------------------------

|   (10)  [Next] [Previous]   [ ] Bob          |

|    (3)   [Next] [Previous]   [ ] George      |

|    (11)  [Next] [Previous]   [ ] Ed            |

|    (12)  [Next] [Previous]   [ ] Dave        |

|    (6)   [Next] [Previous]   [ ] Cornelius   |

 -----------------------------------------------------------

The (#)   is the actual number of rows that have that string on it.  For instance there are 3 rows in this column that have the name George in them.

The Next and Previous   are small buttons that let you navigate to the next instance of George / whatever button you push

and the [ ] George   is just the same checkbox that is currently there aready.

I realize you can group these by names....but if there are thousands of different names it is still very hard to navigate and find them. You could also obviously make these options so you can turn on and off these features.

As for having numbers there...I came across a situation where I needed to find out if a certain column had any duplicates so I grouped that column together and started looking through it.  Unfortunely there were like 20,000 rows...and it was quite a pain to do.

 

Just a idea...

 

 

Does the August V3.3 feature "Full-column animated drag & drop reordering" include dragging rows to reorder the grid? Thanks.

Greg

Version 3.3 does included animated column reordering but it does not include support for dragging rows to change their order.

---

Senior Technical Writer
- Xceed Software

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

Hi all.

I have two suggestions to v 3.3:

1.  Can you add tab navigation through the cells when editing mode isn't activated? Default behavior is switched on another control which is not desirable.

2.  When all editors are visible during row editing if you scroll the grid forward and back editors will disappear and there is no way to edit values. It's not critically but allow editing independently of scroll bar position would be better.

Thanks, Tatyana