Event-Driven Programming

Event-driven programming? Haven't we been doing that since the dawn of time? Well, since Windows 1 at any rate?

What's possibly new that we can talk about?

Download the DXperience 11.1 Beta Now!

It’s here, it’s ready and it’s in your DevExpress Client Center Account.

We've seen sneak peeks of the new XAF and XPO features from Tolis and Dennis, Emil has teased us with animated gifs of new Silverlight and WPF data grid functionality, and Rachel has shown us that WinForms is alive and kicking. Now it's time for you to get your hands on the goodies and give your feedback to the teams.

Now it's time for all DXperience subscribers to get their hands on the goodies and give as much feedback to the teams as possible.

If you subscribe to DXperience ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF, WinForms, Enterprise or Universal, you can download the beta and give your feedback and comments to the teams via the Support Center.

Let's see you burn up our download servers!

Download the DXperience v2011 vol 1 Beta

New in v2011 vol 1: Profiling with XPO Profiler

This issue of DX Press: The DevExpress Newsletter brings even more great news for XPO users.

The team have been working hard on a solution that will help you to profile XPO-based business applications. With the beta release of DXperience v2011 vol 1, you will be able to try this brand new addition to the XPO suite for yourselves.

Take a look at Dennis’ article and leave the team your feedback on XPO Profiler in the comments. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

XPO Profiler: New to DXperience v2011 vol 1

Performance Improvements and Workflow Integration for XAF

As well as making great improvements to XPO, the frameworks team have also been busy finding ways to improve XAF for our users.

With the new caching approach used in DXperience v2011 vol 1, XAF users can anticipate an average of a 20% improvement in startup time for XAF applications. And that is not all. After many requests from the user base, the team are finally able to announce support for workflow scenarios in the same release.

It’s an exciting time for those of you using our frameworks. We’d really like to hear your feedback, so remember to post your thoughts in the blog comments.

Core and Performance Improvements for XAF in v2011.1 Support for Workflow Scenarios in the eXpress Application Framework

New Document Manager Control for DXperience WinForms

WinForms developer and DevExpress user, Crono, has said of this new control, "This feels like Christmas and my birthday put together!".

We hope that those fearing that WinForms was becoming less of a priority for DevExpress will be very happy with this news, and that it will go some way to proving that our commitment to the platform is still strong.

We encourage you to leave your feedback and let us know what you think of Julian’s news. As Tim Shnaider says, "Long live WinForms!".

Enable Tabbed and MDI Views with the Document Manager Control

How To ... With EasyTest

EasyTest is a test framework that allows you to perform functional tests on your XAF-based applications. For many DevExpress users this has been a fantastic addition to their toolset as it offers platform-agnostic testing scripts to allow multi-platform XAF applications to be tested with the minimum amount of fuss, and using straightforward framework infrastructure and language so that non-XAF users from other teams can perform tests.

With all this in mind, here are the first two articles from a three part series that XAF evangelist, Tolis, is working on as an EasyTest Deep Dive.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

How To ... Write EasyTests in Code How To ... Implement a Custom EasyTest Command

Data Binding Using Entity Framework 4 and the WPF Data Grid

Here’s a very simple and quick video that shows you how you can bind the WPF data grid to a SQL Server Express database using Microsoft Entity Framework 4.

You can find many more bite-sized videos to help you get to grips with features of the DevExpress controls on the DevExpress Channel. If there is something that you can't find, contact your evangelist through the DevExpress forums and let them know what you’d like to see.

DXGrid for WPF: Data Binding Using Entity Framework 4

Reporting with WPF and MVVM

This is an informative webinar recording from our reporting evangelist, Seth Juarez, demonstrating how to use the DevExpress XtraReports Suite in WPF while ahering to the MVVM Pattern.

If you are not familiar with MVVM, you might enjoy the video below from Miguel Castro which introduces some core concepts of MVVM.

These are very en vogue topics right now, so if you are feeling out of the loop grab a coffee and check them out over lunch.

Video Training: Using MVVM and XtraReports in WPF

Miguel Castro on Implementing MVVM

Experienced speaker, Microsoft MVP and ASP Insider, Miguel Castro, helps us to get off to a flying start with MVVM.

In this webinar recording, Miguel demonstrates the benefits of testability, reusability, and separation of concerns when using MVVM in conjunction with WPF and Silverlight development.

If you are looking for a primer on MVVM that will show you how best to implement this architectural pattern, look no further than this video.

Video Training: Implementing the MVVM Pattern

New Instant Feedback UI Mode for Silverlight and WPF

Does data source performance, network connectivity or huge volumes of data affect your grid’s response to user actions? Are you dogged by freezing controls that are affecting your users’ opinions of your application?

Say hello to Instant Feedback UI Mode. New to DXperience v2011 vol 1, this is similar in concept to Server Mode. It's an advanced data-binding operation that allows you to overcome control freeze and user frustration.

Take a look at this short introductory video for WPF, and at Emil’s blog post for the equivalent Silverlight grid control. We’re looking forward to your feedback. Can you benefit from Instant Feedback UI Mode?

Enabling Instant Feedback Mode in the DXGrid

What's New for Silverlight and WPF in DXperience v2011 vol 1?

Are you looking for a wrap up of the new features and functionality coming to the Silverlight and WPF controls in DXperience v2011 vol 1? Look no further than this DevExpress webinar.

Emil will be on hand with the R&D team to run through the exciting enhancements due to ship very soon with your favorite Silverlight and WPF controls.

You've read the blogs, you’ve thought about where you can use all the new goodies, now join the team live on May 26th to talk to them about what’s new in DXperience.

Live Webinar: What's New for Silverlight and WPF in DXperience v2011 vol 1