Syncfusion announces release of Essential Studio Version 4.1, with full support for Visual Studio 2005

Syncfusion announces release of Essential Studio Version 4.1, with full support for Visual Studio 2005

New version also includes support for insertion of barcodes and a preview version of Essential DocIO

Research Triangle Park, NC - January 24, 2006 - Syncfusion, Inc. today announced the release of Essential Studio 4.1., the latest update to its line of ASP.NET and Windows Forms components for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET developers. Arriving just after the launch of Visual Studio 2005, Essential Studio 4.1 is a particularly important and exciting release. Its full support for Visual Studio 2005 allows .NET developers to take full advantage of the latest advances.

Syncfusion Essential Studio 4.1 includes a wide array of new features and enhancements that span Syncfusion's 10-product spectrum of Windows Forms and ASP.NET components, adding still more value to the already feature-rich Essential Studio.

AJAX-style Callbacks, .NET 2.0-style data sources, and IDE productivity enhancements are among the exciting features introduced by Essential Studio 4.1. Also key to the release of Essential Studio 4.1 is the inclusion of native binaries for Version 2.0 of the .NET Framework. This version does not use a single set of binaries that have been compiled against Version 1.0 of the Framework.

Essential Studio 4.1 also includes support for visual designers and an enhanced install experience. In the interest of streamlining the install process, Syncfusion Essential Studio 4.1 offers the option to exclude the ASP.NET or Windows Forms versions during installation.

As part of the effort to simplify the user experience, Syncfusion has also streamlined its product offering. With this release Syncfusion has removed the distinction between Essential Studio Professional and Essential Studio Enterprise and every Essential Studio license now includes access to all 10 products. Developers may now simply choose between Essential Studio Source and Essential Studio Binary.

Syncfusion Essential Studio 4.1 provides Windows Forms and ASP.NET developers with significant updates across all ten libraries, along with improved documentation. Also included with Version 4.1 is a preview version of Essential DocIO, a .NET library that can read and write Microsoft Word files. It features a full-fledged object model similar to the Microsoft Office COM libraries. The product does not use COM interop and is built from scratch in C#. Essential DocIO can be used on systems that do not have Microsoft Word installed. A UI-independent component, Essential DocIO can be used on Web Forms applications where the created document is streamed to the client browser.

Syncfusion is very pleased to offer a number of major updates for ASP.NET developers. Chief among these is AJAX support that goes above and beyond what is included in ASP.NET 2.0. All Syncfusion controls now feature built-in support for callbacks wherever appropriate. The CallbackPanel control is the most exciting feature of all as it provides developers with a control that eliminates the requirement of postbacks from their website designs.

Among the new features included in this latest version of Essential Tools for ASP.NET are a new Menu framework, Google Suggest(TM)-style AutoComplete, Rotator, and Progress Bar. Essential Tools 4.1 also adds value to ASP.NET applications with a new Callback Panel that allows developers to AJAX-enable any page or control. Essential Tools 4.1 for Windows Forms includes elaborate support for visual themes across all of the compatible controls, as well as support for the all-new Microsoft Office 12 look and feel. Visual Studio 2005-style docking and other docking enhancements have also been made.

AJAX-style Callbacks without postbacks for the Grouping Grid for sorting, grouping, paging, and more are included in Essential Studio 4.1. To allow for the creation of user-friendly grouping grids that are of the optimal size, Essential Grid for ASP.NET now supports Multiple Rows per Record. There is also a brand new Grid Control for 4.1 that allows for a highly customized look and feel. Essential Grid 4.1 for Windows Forms includes a rework of the design-time experience for the cell-oriented grid, and a popup form now lets developers edit cell contents outside the VS IDE. The grid now has support for serialization to XML. Developers can read back the grid from XML with all of its properties, options, cell contents, and base styles included. At design-time the option is now available to specify either saving cell contents into code or writing them into a Resx file.

Essential Chart for ASP.NET includes a number of performance improvements, and it is not dependent on Windows Forms in any way. Essential Chart 4.1 for Windows Forms has support for the hosting of Windows Forms controls. Hosted controls can be docked inside Essential Chart and they will be included when printing or exporting. Support for an interactive chart legend has been added to Essential Chart for ASP.NET and Windows Forms, as well as support for Box Plot chart type and for exporting to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).

Essential Diagram for ASP.NET and Windows Forms now includes support for Line Routing and Line Bridging. Several new import and export formats are provided, including Visio Stencil Import, Metafile Export, and SVG Export.

Essential PDF 4.1 has been updated with support for 128-Bit encryption and support for inserting barcodes. There is a new forward-only mode for creating large tables, which drastically reduces memory usage. Support for linking external files on disk and a beta version of a DOM that simplifies usage of the library have also been added.

Essential XlsIO 4.1 features major performance enhancements and updated chart support.

Essential Calculate sees several updates in this release, including new string functions, support for Arrays when using the CalcQuick interface, and support for dynamic additions and deletions of CalcSheets within a Calc WorkBook.

Essential Grouping 4.1 includes significant performance enhancements, as well as updated samples and documentation. Support for Excel export has also been added.

Essential Edit's User Margin and Wordwrap features have been enhanced to support custom text and background, including gradient colors. A text encoding feature has been added to support serializing the Edit Control's contents in ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-7, Unicode, and Big Endian Unicode. Support for XP-themed styles for the scrollbars, splitters, Intellisense popups, control border, and outlining tooltip has also been added.

Essential HTMLUI includes support for optimized loading and rendering of tables, and a label-like interface has been added, making usage easier.

Essential Studio 4.1 resources

For additional details on Essential Studio 4.1's new features and enhancements and a look at this release's screenshot gallery please visit this page: https://www.syncfusion.com/Products/whatsnew/v4info.aspx.

Essential Studio 4.1's full release notes are available here:

Test-drive Version 4.1 by downloading the Essential Studio evaluation.

Licensees with active subscriptions may download this release via their Direct-Trac accounts.