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Infragistics Debuts WPF Tools
Infragistics NetAdvantage for WPF 2007 Volume 1 Beta offers radiacal new ways to dispaly data.
Component vendor Infragistics Inc. has released NetAdvantage for WPF 2007 Volume 1 Beta, a set of tools that take advantage of the dynamic presentation capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). The tools, written in C# and XAML, feature radical new ways to display data.
"What the beta consists of is about a year's worth of work," says Product Manager Andrew Flick.
The tools include a data grid -- a feature missing in version 1 of WPF -- as well as a simplified data binding function that uses one property for a wide array of data sources. The grid also implements WPF's UI virtualization technology, allowing it to handle thousands of records, according to Infragistics.
Other tools in the suite marry this core functionality with layers of visual flash. For example, a developer can build a UI for an employee-records viewer that displays the entries in a rotating, carousel -- like 3-D view instead of a tabular grid.
[click image for larger view] |
| With Infragistics' NetAdvantage for WPF 2007 Volume 1 Beta, developers can build a user interface for an employee-records viewer that displays the entries in a rotating, carousel-like 3-D view. |
The release includes a pair of data-editing controls, The xamMaskedEditor and xamTextEditor, which can be integrated into the data grid control or used on their own.
The tools also come with a bundle of 15 "Stylepacks," which let users apply a unified look to their controls with a single property setting. The themes include ones inspired by Windows XP, Windows Vista and Office 2007, as well as proprietary designs such as "Hulk" and "Onyx."
WPF may offer plenty of visual sizzle, but the early word from some developers is that the technologies are difficult to learn. (Perhaps underscoring this, the WPF beta ships with more than 50 code samples, which demonstrate each of the controls.)
Flick says this perception is largely a matter of perspective: "I would say that it certainly is different. ... There's a learning curve to it. ... It's just a new platform."
The beta is available for download at http://infragistics.com/wpf.
>With Infragistics' NetAdvantage for WPF 2007 Volume 1 Beta, developers can build a user interface for an employee-records viewer that displays the entries in a rotating, carousel-like 3-D view.
About the Author
Chris Kanaracus is the news editor for Redmond Developer News.