Xceed DataGrid for WPF v1.2 has something both for Vanguard subscribers and for regular users who have registered the product for free.

For Vanguard subscribers, the latest version of Xceed’s popular datagrid for Windows Presentation Foundation offers built-in printing and XPS-exporting capabilities with fully customizable progress dialogs and page layouts, which will help programmers get grid data into their end-users’ hands, in style. Also, fourteen statistical functions usable both inside and outside of a grid in any element have been added, giving the datagrid number-crunching abilities that are easy to use. Finally, a new Glass theme has been provided, which allows for quick and easy branding of the datagrid: designers and developers can insert custom bitmaps while overlaying a glass effect containing the grid’s user interface elements.

Of course, in addition to having access to new advanced features, Vanguard subscribers also receive priority telephone and e-mail support. For more details on how to obtain a Vanguard subscription, contact our sales department.

For all registered users of Xceed DataGrid for WPF (those with or without a Vanguard subscription), various new standard features are also available for free, as are bugfixes. First, same-level groups in a grid can now be configured to use the same headers and footers, group-level indicator, and initial expansion setting. Second, cards in CardView can now be resized.

Other new standard features give developers even more options when it comes to the datagrid's themability. The added Zune desktop theme lets the datagrid integrate more seamlessly with the end-user’s chosen desktop theme. And a project template for Visual Studio is now provided that sets up a new theme project for creating custom themes (a tutorial on creating custom themes is included to help designers and programmers get started quickly).

Finally, version 1.2 of Xceed DataGrid for WPF gives developers programmatic control over expanding and collapsing groups.

Users of versions prior to version 1.2 can update their license key by visiting the product's registration page. The interactive XBAP online demo of Xceed DataGrid for WPF has been updated to demonstrate the expanded feature set of version 1.2.

Xceed DataGrid for WPF is not only the most powerful grid of its kind—with more features than any other offering—but it is also clearly the fastest, with a remarkably flexible and extensible object model, and reusable parts (datepicker / calendar control). With Xceed’s WPF grid control, developers can create software that presents data and lets end-users edit it in any 2D or 3D layout imaginable, such as 3D rolodex, carousel or timeline views. Traditional Outlook-style table and card views are included with the product.

Designed and developed entirely for Windows Presentation Foundation and .NET 3.0, this professional-quality component is a true lookless, 100% stylable control. It features rich in-place editing, configurable keyboard/mouse edit commands, and Excel-like default key bindings. UI virtualization reduces load time and memory usage. Production-quality table and card views with all Windows OS themes are provided. And its flexible and extensible object model means that you can adapt the grid to your needs. It more than fills the void left by the “missing” datagrid component in WPF!

Xceed’s summer is ending with a bang with the release of two new streaming Zip products: Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET and Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET CF.

These lightweight libraries let applications read and write fully standard Zip archives without resorting to intermediate disk/memory storage or temporary files, giving programmers access to “on-the-fly” streaming Zip file compression. Regular Zip compression components just can’t do this!

Xceed’s Real-Time Zip products begin creating Zip files as soon as they receive data to compress: the components don’t wait for all of the files, or even for complete files, and don’t need to know how many there are. The resulting Zip file can immediately be sent over a network or saved locally, and the rest of the archive becomes available as it is compressed. Archived files are similarly extracted and available instantly for further processing even if the component is still receiving the Zip file.

And because these products don’t use intermediate storage, they can perform slightly faster than Xceed Zip for .NET. Plus, not using temporary files translates into improved security.

Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET and Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET CF therefore provide the type of optimized performance that is ideal for scenarios such as high-demand server environments, Biztalk servers, diskless operations, I/O-intensive Web sites, or any situation where real-time streaming zip/unzip capabilities are needed or where memory or disk space is at a premium. The size or number of files in a Zip archive has absolutely no impact on memory and disk-space requirements.

Easy to use and needing just a few methods to perform powerful streaming Zip compression/extraction, the libraries support the BZip2, BWT, Deflate, and Deflate64™ compression methods. PPMd compression and AES encryption are also available, but only in the non-Compact Framework version. Events and properties available in both versions let developers monitor and control the Zip writing/reading processes.

These products can be purchased separately or as part of Xceed Ultimate Suite.

The self-extracting binaries available with Xceed Zip for .NET with Self-Extractor (a new product), Xceed Zip for .NET CF, Xceed Zip Compression Library, and Xceed Zip for x64 let applications dynamically create fully customizable self-extracting Zip files, which can simply be run by users to unzip their contents. These binaries have been updated with various new features.

Self-extracting Zip files can now be created that support the Deflate64™, BZip2, and BWT compression methods, in addition to the traditional compression method available in PKZIP 2.04g and up. Furthermore, AES encryption is also supported.

Extra headers such as Unicode filenames, extended filestamps, and security descriptors are also now supported by self-extracting Zip files created using these binaries. Finally, the Zip64 file format is supported, which allows the creation of Zip files of practically unlimited size (no more 4 GB limit) and which can contain a practically unlimited number of archived files.

As already mentioned above, Xceed Zip for .NET with Self-Extractor is a new product. This product comes with a self-extractor binary, whereas Xceed Zip for .NET does not.

Xceed Zip Compression Library v6.1 features the addition of the BZip2 compression method. This BWT-based block-sorting compression method can often produce smaller Zip files than the more traditional Deflate and Deflate64, in situations where some speed can be traded off.

Version 6.1 of Xceed Zip Compression Library also features new capabilities in its self-extracting binaries. See elsewhere in this newsletter for details.

Xceed Zip Compression Library is a high-performance Zip/Unzip data compression library that lets your apps create and manipulate 100% PKZip 2.04g and 4.5 compatible Zip files, in addition to compressing and uncompressing data directly in memory. It features AES encryption, Deflate64™, Zip64, filtering, split/spanned/self-extracting files, and more. Designed to offer maximum flexibility while being the easiest to use product of its kind, it includes a state-of-the-art, impeccably documented ActiveX component that provides the industry’s most complete feature set and the fastest multi-threaded compression engine.

Xceed Zip Compression Library is available as part of Xceed Ultimate Suite and Xceed Data Manipulation Suite, and as a separately purchased product. Customers with an active Vanguard subscription associated with a suite will receive this update free of charge.

No less than five products have been added to Xceed Data Manipulation Suite, namely, Xceed Zip for .NET CF, Xceed FTP for .NET CF, Xceed Activities for WF, Xceed Zip for x64, and Xceed Zip for .NET with Self-Extractor.

The newly launched Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET and Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET CF have been added to Xceed Ultimate Suite, which includes all of Xceed's controls and components.

Current owners of either of these suites with an active, associated Vanguard subscription will be able to take advantage of these additions.

Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET and Xceed Real-Time Zip for .NET CF let applications read and write fully standard Zip archives without using intermediate disk/memory storage or temporary files, giving programmers access to “on-the-fly” streaming Zip file compression.

Xceed Zip for .NET CF is a Zip, data compression, and all-purpose file manipulation library for mobile apps. It provides flexible zip, gzip, self-extracting, and streaming, and a filesystem object model that makes zip files as easy to work with as regular files and folders. Xceed FTP for .NET CF lets you access the entire FTP protocol via an intuitive object model.

Xceed Activities for Workflow Foundation lets developers easily integrate data manipulation into software for .NET 3.0 and WF, for modeling business logic, building process servers, etc. It provides 15 activities for essential Zip, FTP, Tar, and GZip operations with a rich set of properties and events.

Xceed Zip for x64 has all of the same functionalities of Xceed Zip Compression Library but is built to run natively on x86-64 processors running a 64-bit version of Windows.

Xceed Zip for .NET with Self-Extractor has all of the Zip and filesystem capabilities of Xceed Zip for .NET but also allows applications to dynamically create fully customizable self-extracting Zip files.