Syncfusion announces Essential Suite 2.1 for Microsoft .NET

Syncfusion announces Essential Suite 2.1 for Microsoft .NET

Globalization-aware RightToLeft support among key new features.

Research Triangle Park, NC - August 18, 2004 - Syncfusion, Inc. today released Essential Suite 2.1, the latest update to its popular Windows Forms and ASP.NET components for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET developers. This new release includes several globalization-friendly features and performance enhancements, and numerous other additions to Essential Grid, Essential Tools, Essential ExcelRW, Essential Grouping, and Essential Chart.

Essential Suite 2.1 enables Essential Grid and Essential Tools with RightToLeft (RTL) support, providing developers with the appearance and functionality necessary to support languages which are read from right to left, such as Hebrew and Arabic. This release also features improved support for IME Editor when editing cells in Chinese and Korean systems.

Regarding this new support, Syncfusion, Inc. CEO Stefan Hoenig noted that, "We have seen dramatically increased adoption of the .NET platform and our products in international markets. Our international customers have been eager for us to add RTL support to our products and with Essential Suite 2.1 we have done just that, providing the most complete set of RTL-enabled controls available on the market today."

Essential Suite 2.1 also includes a batch file that will build Syncfusion's libraries from source code with Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1.

Essential Suite 2.1 - Selected new features and enhancements:

Essential Grid

• RightToLeft (RTL) support.
• Support for Named Ranges in the GridFormulaEngine, allowing users to label a range or variable, and then use this label repeatedly in formulas in a GridControl.
• Treeline hierarchical grid: New Treeline cell control allows a hierarchical GridDataBoundGrid to display treelines.
• New AllowCacheStyles property for the GridEngine class. This property can be set to reduce the number of calls to the virtual QueryCellStyleInfo method.
• Added multiple properties to TableListChangedEventArgs for the Table.SourceListListChanged event, allowing optimization of this event for increased performance when changing a batch of records at once.
• Improved support for IME editor when working with Chinese and Korean.

Essential ExcelRW

• Spreadsheet creation speed has been increased. Version 2.1.0.9 is approximately 8 times faster than version 2.0.5.1.
• DataValidation: Users will be able to set data validation rules using ExcelRW API. List type DataValidation is also supported.
• Comments: Users will be able to set comments for cells using ExcelRW API. This also includes support for Rich Text comments.
• Rich Text: Users can insert Rich Text into cells using ExcelRW API.
• Auto-fit Rows/Columns support.
• Embedded Charts/Pictures: Charts and pictures can be inserted into a worksheet as embedded objects using ExcelRW API.
• Place Holders: Place holders can be replaced by DataTables, DataColumns, etc., at run-time using ExcelRW API.
• Retrieve formula-calculated result: New property to retrieve the result of calculations in a formula cell has been added.
• ASP.NET support: A new method for streaming the created spreadsheet to the client browser has been added.

Essential Grouping

• Added multiple events to grouping engine to allow developers to customize or cancel user actions.
• Improved CurrencyManager support for using GridGroupingControls in Master-Detail tables set-up on a form.

Essential Tools

• RightToLeft (RTL) support.
• Databound TreeViewAdv: A tree can be bound to relational data, rather than only hierarchical data.
• MultiColumnComboBox: Shows multiple columns in the drop-down automatically. Additionally, the data in the drop-down is filled virtually, allowing for the binding of huge datasets with no performance loss.

Essential Chart

• ChartControl drawing optimized to be more than 100 times faster when rendering large data sets.
• AppendSeries method has been added to facilitate highly optimized drawing for real-time charts.
• Display of Empty values: Complete support for exclusion of points based on static settings or dynamic criteria.
• Support added for RadarChart type.
• ChartMargins support added, allowing for control over exact placement of the ChartArea within the ChartControl.
• Custom drawing on ChartArea surface supported.

Essential Suite 2.1 is priced at $1,295 for the binary version and $1,595 for the source code version. Each Essential Suite includes a subscription for one full year of unlimited support and all updates. Individual products are also available separately. More information is available at https://www.syncfusion.com.