Page Text: We expect to ship the following new DevExtreme Diagram customization features in 2021:
Released in v21.1:
Get a shape/connector model from its underlying data item key
Iterate through all diagram shapes and connectors
File Manager – API Enhancements
Angular React Vue jQuery
We will extend the DevExtreme File Manager and make it more customizable with the following new APIs:
Released in v21.1:
Allow custom HTTP headers in RemoteFileSystemProvider
Customize context menu items for individual files/folders
Show custom errors on the client side
Show/hide Progress Panel and Folder Tree
Released in v21.2:
Add events to precisely control file/folder operations (folder creation, file uploading, moving, deleting, etc.)
Tree Shaking & Code Splitting
Angular React Vue jQuery
ES6 modules available in v21.1 In Development
A lot of work has been done in the regard to better Tree Shaking, but much work remains to be completed for better Code Splitting. Last year we reworked DevExtreme modular system to deliver ES6 modules in DevExtreme NPM packages. The final “mile” was unexpectedly long – as issues prevented us from shipping ES6 modules inside v20.2.
Note, ES6 modules make it technically possible to efficiently tree shake code. Unfortunately, this is not enough for efficient bundle/chunk size optimization. Modules themselves need to be small and independent from one another. Large components should not be monoliths. That’s our goal for 2021 - make existing modules smaller and more independent - and split large monolith components into separate modules. We don't expect to finish everything in this regard this year, but we expect to eliminate the most problematic issues. Join the discussion on ES6 modules support and share your feedback (we definitely need early testers).
Material Design Enhancements
Angular React Vue jQuery
Released in v21.2
The Google team constantly updates its Material Design Guidelines. We plan to incorporate relevant changes and previously planned Editor Label Animations. If you have any specific requests about Material Theme support in DevExtreme, feel free to let us know via the feedback form below this post.
2021 Guiding Principles and Development Direction
Your feedback helped us fine-tune our vision. The features we'll introduce in 2021 depend on continued feedback/engagement with all of you – and of course available resources.
Flexible NPM Distribution
Angular React Vue jQuery
Under Consideration
We already mentioned Code Splitting above. Another thing to consider in this regard is to split the monolithic DevExtreme NPM package into multiple smaller packages. This would allow you to install big controls such as Scheduler, Diagram, Gantt, etc separately. There are different variants to split by packages. If this change is important to you, please let us know how you would benefit from its implementation.
“Nativeness”
Angular React Vue
Under Research
The JavaScript world evolves rapidly. As such, we must fulfill user demand whenever a popular JS framework appears or an existing framework receives a major update. While we want to ship products as soon as possible, we also want to deliver products of the highest possible quality.
A few years ago, we decided to wrap existing JS components for Angular, React and Vue so you can leverage our 70+ JavaScript components with your framework of choice immediately. Now we want to go even further and eliminate the perceived disadvantages of ‘wrappers’. We are still at the research stage and we’ll be posting updates on this particular topic once we have something relevant to share.
As it relates to “nativeness”, we have three specific objectives for DevExtreme:
Native API & Lifecycle
Our current API allows you to implement almost any usage scenario, but in some instance, our API may not “feel” native. Sometimes the API requires direct DOM access or instance method calls instead of declarative bindings. Sometimes you need to use DevExtreme-specific events instead of the target framework’s lifecycle events. We want to address all these issues and deliver native declarative APIs and support native lifecycles.
Native Data Binding
DevExtreme ships with a powerful data layer that encapsulates all the complexity of client-side data processing and remote HTTP request handling. This notwithstanding, in some instance, you may need to bind components directly to your local application state. This state can be represented by static arrays, observable arrays, Redux or NgRx store, etc. We plan to improve the developer experience in this regard and deliver a straightforward solution to address these usage scenarios.
Native Rendering
Each JS framework comes with its own philosophy and core technical foundation. React and Vue are based on Virtual DOM, Vue and Angular use observables, etc. Multi-thread rendering via Web Workers is on the horizon. All these techniques offer benefits - from better performance to server-side rendering support. While DevExtreme wrappers leverage some of these benefits, we can do more. We are researching ways to deliver all of them via a fully native internal component architecture. We’ve already got some promising results in this regard, but still have some core issues to address before we can share our solution with you.
If the ”nativeness” related enhancements are important to you and you want to participate in early testing and technical discussions, please let us know via the form below or simply track this GitHub thread .
DevExtreme Reactive (Native React)
If you are not familiar with this product, DevExtreme Reactive is a separate set of components built from the ground up for React. It currently includes native React Grid, Scheduler and Chart components. In the context of what we said above regarding “nativeness”, the future of this product line will be shaped by successes in mentioned in the section above. If we prove the viability of our "nativeness” concept, we’ll be able to substitute DevExtreme Reactive components with more powerful native components for React - a package that will include more than 70 UI controls. Of course, if we go the “nativeness” route, we’ll do our best to make the migration process as smooth as possible for those of you who already committed to DevExtreme Reactive. We expect to support our Reactive components and to introduce minor enhancements in 2021. We don’t plan on any major updates to this product line in 2021.
TypeScript
Angular React Vue jQuery
In Development
Another key area of focus will be TypeScript support. Thanks to your feedback, we know what to do and which use cases to address. First, we want to replace ‘any’ type with specific types wherever possible. Second, we expect to make event arguments strongly typed and extract these types/interfaces so you can use them in your projects. If you want to forward specific issues as they relate to TypeScript, feel free to comment in this thread .
Documentation
Angular React Vue jQuery
In Development
This year we plan to allocate more resources to documentation. The mix of technologies on our website is confusing, so we plan to have dedicated websites for each JS framework we support. For instance, if you target React, you won’t be distracted with Angular or ASP.NET-related examples or documentation topics. Additional examples and demos for each framework are also on the horizon.
Copyright © 2011-2022 Developer Express Inc.
All trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.