Sundar's TechBlog

UIControlSuite Release 12 is now available

Wish you all a very happy new year 2010 :-)

UIControlSuite Release 12 is now out and available from 4th Jan 2010.

The release includes 2 new controls – An outlook 2007 like Scheduler control for both WPF and Silverlight 3.

Also included in the package are Stunning 10 new Slideshow transition effects written using High Level Shading Language (HLSL) pixel shader.

The release also contains loads of other enhancements across suite controls, and some bug fixes.

Read more of the new features in Release 12 release notes.

Docking Library for WPF and Silverlight 3

I did plan to release the docking library for WPF and Silverlight 3 in this release, but could not make it to the date, because much of the time had been spent on completing the Scheduler control for WPF and Silverlight.

I am expecting to release my docking library for WPF and Silverlight 3, in the upcoming release 13, which is due in a few weeks time.

Enjoy Release 12 :-)

Stay tuned!

- Sundar

UIControlSuite .NET Release 12 highlights

Yes, a quick hint on what is coming in my next major release of UIControlSuite .NET build: Release 12.

New WPF and Silverlight 3 .NET controls

• Rich Windows Docking library for both WPF and Silverlight:

BinarySmartDock .NET - A comprehensive docking library for WPF: with full support for dockable & floating windows, collapsed groups, 3D document switching (like Vista's Flip-3d), and capable of letting you serialise docking layout across application sessions.

• A MS Outlook styled Scheduler control for WPF and Silverlight 3

• Enhancements to SlideShow control (for both WPF and Silverlight variants)

Stunning 10 new SlideShow transition effects written using High Level Shading Language (HLSL) pixel shader.
The WPF version of these new transition effects will be rendered using the GPU (where possible), thereby providing extra-ordinary performance during transitions.

Additional features

• Enhanced Design time experience for all of our WPF controls
  for both Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend 3, so you can setup the controls fully without having to write any C# or XAML code yourself :-)
• More C# sample projects for all of the WPF and Silverlight controls

Stay tuned!

- Sundar

UIControlSuite .NET Release 11.1 available now :-)

Wahooo! Yes, I have now released UIControlSuite .NET Release 11.1.

This release contains 4 new controls, 1 new control for Silverlight 3, and 3 new WPF controls, viz.:

1. A SlideShow .NET control, for both WPF and Silverlight 3

2. A very cute and customisable Glass button control for WPF, that is very useful for creating applications like that of a SlideShow app.

3. A Control Visual Re-sizer control for WPF.

I will take a little break for now, and soon get back into the development sprint of the next release - I will possibly version it as Release 12 :-)... since there are some major enhancements coming in that release.

For now, enjoy Release 11.1, and stay tuned!

- Sundar

UIControlSuite Release 11 plans

Well, as planned, the Release 11 of UIControlSuite .NET will be released during this month, and I have decided to release it in two volumes: Volume 1 and 2.

Volume 1 will be released on 13th August, and will contain the following new controls:

New WPF controls

BinarySlideShow .NET
BinaryControlResizer .NET

New Silverlight 3 .NET controls

BinarySlideShow .NET

You can read a lot more on the BinarySlideShow .NET control from my earlier blog post here.

 

Release 11 Volume 2 will contain all the remaining bits of new controls and enhancements as detailed in this earlier post.

Stay tuned! Release 11 of UIControlSuite .NET is coming close :-)

- Sundar

Release 10.5 - New Silverlight 3 .NET control: UI Virtualizing Wrap Panel

Yep! :-) I could not resist the temptation... so here you go... I have now built a new control for Silverlight 3: A "UI virtualizing" Wrap Panel control, which has now been released as Release 10.5.

I had planned this control as part of Release 11 package though… well… nothing wrong to “push out” a part of the release - a bit early :-)

This control will be the world's first Virtualizing Wrap Panel control for Silverlight 3 :-)

The control is based on my popular UI Virtualizing Wrap Panel control for WPF (which is also the world first of its kind for WPF platform).

Microsoft had certainly listened to some of my earlier rant on the missing bits that I had needed to do this control :-)... So thanks to "Redmond buddies" too on this :-)

That said, the porting of my WPF code to Silverlight 3 was not that straight-forward anyway (the SL3 RTM still was not exactly in sync with the WPF version of ItemsControl and the core VirtualizingPanel classes), but anyway, I have managed to get my SL 3 control done with my own code bits to fill the gap :-) Ha!

In terms of features, this Silverlight 3 control is exactly the same as the WPF one.

The new Silverlight 3 .NET control has now been released as UIControlSuite .NET Release 10.5... so you are welcome to come and grab your copy! :-)

You can also see a live demo of this control "in action" here:

http://www.binarymission.co.uk/binaryvirtwrappanelsl3/BinaryVirtualizingWrapPanelSLApplicationDemo.html

Note: You will need Silverlight 3 RTM to run the demo.

 

Out-of-Browser install of the application demonstration!

The online demonstration application has been configured to be run Out-of-browser (OOB feature of Silverlight 3), so you can install the demo on to your local machine/laptop by just right clicking on the application demo page, and invoking the command "Install BinaryVirtualizingWrapPanel for SL 3 onto this computer...".

 

Enjoy Release 10.5! :-)

-Sundar

Release 11 features: UIControlSuite .NET

As promised earlier on, I am excited to hint you all on the "work-in-progress" Release 11 of UIControlSuite .NET.

The following are the new improvements and enhancements that are "currently being built" now as we speak, in the specific order of priority as they appear here :-)

New WPF controls

BinarySlideShow .NET
BinaryControlResizer .NET

BinaryMultiColumnComboBox .NET

New Silverlight 3 .NET controls

BinarySlideShow .NET

BinaryTreeListView .NET
BinaryScrollViewer .NET

Enhancements to BinaryRibbon .NET control

New Stylish StatusBar
New Stylish Trackbar

New Visual Studio 2008 specific Tools/templates

BinaryRibbon control project template for VisualStudio 2008

New VisualStudio specific features for our WPF controls

Enhanced VS 2008 Designer support for BinaryRibbon
Full support for VS 2010 Beta 1 for all of our WPF controls

Trust me, that is quite a bit of work :-). I am sure you will love these "goods"!

- Sundar

Release 10 of UIControlSuite .NET is now RTM :-)

Well, the title says it all! :-)

I have now released the much awaited UIControlSuite .NET Release 10.

Its got some new WPF controls, and pretty well enhanced Ribbon WPF control, in its version 4.0.

You will all like them. Go grab your copy now, play with it and enjoy! :-)

 

The next pleasure begins: Release 11 iteration plan

Yes, that is exactly what follows now, after i have had a nice fun out of my Sunday! :-)

I will soon blog about all the "goods" that is coming in Release 11 of UIControlSuite .NET.

 

Silverlight 3 RTM'd :-)

Well, yes, Silverlight 3.0 has been RTM'd right in time when I am planning my Release 11 Sprint/iteration - now that is going to add some temptation to bring in some new Silverlight 3 Controls :-) in Release 11 :-)

Stay tuned!

Enjoy Release 10 :-)

- Sundar

Version 4.x/5.x of BinaryRibbon WPF (goods) highlights :-)

I am currently very busy working on the next release of UIControlSuite .NET (Release 10), and specifically on the final bits of version 4.x of the Ribbon control for WPF

Like I had hinted in my earlier blog post, BinaryRibbon WPF is getting loads of goodies in its 4.x version... yummy... yummy... I know :-)

OK enough talk, let me now list the specifics of the new features that are in 4.x version of BinaryRibbon for WPF:

New features in Ribbon 4.0

New Custom Ribbon skins out-of-the-box

Ten new Custom skins that you can simply choose and apply to your app instantly.

New Ribbon custom controls

- Scorllbars
- StatusBar
- Checkbox and Radio Buttons as seen in our TreeListView WPF control
- FontFamily and FontSize comboboxes

Layout/ flow direction goodies

- Right-to-left support
- Ribbon auto-sizing feature will support auto-sizing of the control (resulting in automatic minimisation/maximisation and other UI effects) when performing layout transformation on the control (thanks to Vector based drawing!)

 

New features in Ribbon 5 (i.e. part of the planned Release 11)

New and enhanced Visual Studio 2008 designer support

Apart from the currently existing Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend Design time support, the control will offer an enhanced custom design time experience for Visual Studio 2008.
This will enable you to easily set up labels, select image resources from within your project resources, and be able to move around controls within the Ribbon control (say across Ribbon groups, etc.) with simple drag-and-drop operations.

Visual Studio 2010 (CTP) support

Ribbon 5.x will also support Visual Studio 2010 (CTP), along with some enhanced design time experience specific for Visual Studio 2010 IDE, including, supplying a Ribbon WPF Visual Studio 2010 Project Template for you to quickly get started with building your Ribbon application in minutes! :-)

My Release 10 iteration ends just after 1st week of July, so you all can expect a CTP of Ribbon 4.0 in couple of days soon.

Yes, as is usual, I am listening to all my customers (and you can see its effect as above :-))
So if you have any wish list of features in mind, please do ping me, and I will certainly try to box it in releases next to Release 10.

My Release 11 iteration timebox begins sometime 2nd week of July :-)

Stay tuned for screen shots and CTP of Release 10 soon!

- Sundar

Vista and Windows 7 Aero glass support in BinaryRibbon WPF

Yes, a new feature is getting in :-) I have now completed the enhancement of supporting Glass rendering on the non-client area in the Ribbon control :-)

By setting a new DependencyProperty named RenderGlassIfOSSupports, the control will render its non-client area with glass, rather than its default Office 2007 non-client area emulation.

Of course, the feature will work only in Operating Systems that supports Aero Glass – i.e. Vista and Windows 7, and only when the DWM composition is enabled.

Here is a screenshot of BinaryRibbon control running in its glass enabled mode in Windows 7 (RC):

You will see that the control renders the glass background for not only its standard Non-client area, but also for its Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) area.

There are a lot more goodies in the “works” for the next release (4.x of BinaryRibbon WPF) … so stay tuned! :-)

You can download the latest version 3.1.256 of the control to enjoy the glass feature in action!

- Sundar

BinaryRibbon .NET WPF 2.0 with Windows 7 Scenic skin

I have now released build 2.0.400 of BinaryRibbon .NET (WPF) with the well awaited Windows 7 Scenic "look-alike"  Ribbon skin :-)

Here is the screen shot, straight from my web site here: BinaryRibbon WPF .NET

I think i have done a pretty much good job here :-) creating this skin as much close look-alike of what it is in Windows 7 or "Weven" as we like to call it ;-)

Of course, as you can see, in my demo application that uses my Windows 7 Scenic Skin, i have setup the tab item groups using my group rendering UI.

You could also simply separate the groups using a separator control, just like how MS present their Ribbon tab items in their Paint and other applications in Win 7. I think its just a question of taste here... I love the group rendering UI rather than just using separators across groups.

Anyway, there you go... :-)

- Sundar