WinForms HTML CSS: Create Your First Template using DevExpress.

[@lakra4k]

That's amazing!

[@LibyaMicro]

This woman's voice is more beautiful than this beautiful lesson and these beautiful tools I feel my heart hurts

[@rwj_dk]

Can HTML and CSS templates also be applied to the WinForm Dashboard Elements as well?

[@jonasmwalula1760]

I really wonder too...

[@DeveloperExpress]

Hi Rasmus. Dashboard items do not support layout customization via HTML-CSS markup. Currently, you can define custom layout for Card Dashboard items (see docs.devexpress.com/Dashboard/DevExpress.DashboardCommon.CardCustomLayoutTemplate for detailed information). In any case, I have forwarded your inquiry to our R&D team so that they can take it into account when discussing future enhancements.

[@burgasHoH]

wow man that's inspiring thanks alot

[@DeveloperExpress]

Glad you liked it!

[@S3Kglitches]

wow is this awesome, how is this limited compared to Blazor? The Html&Css editor looks very user-friendly! I love that you can select stuff and see what's what. I'd love to see more complex scenarios about this HTML controls in WinForms - e.g. some more complex interaction and reacting to changes and moving stuff etc. This HTML&CSS controls might be useful when defining own controls in WinForms. Using this technique, it is like WPF but with CSS capabilities. Is it possible to use external HTML&CSS items like Fluent-UI style controls from Microsoft (looks much better for desktop than Bootstrap).

[@DeveloperExpress]

Thank you for the feedback, great to see you like it. Yes, you got the main idea right - just like templates for WPF, our web templates allow you to significantly re-design DevExpress controls, but use a well-known HTML&CSS combo instead of XAML. As for your questions - this feature is the newest addition to our platform, it's too early to compare it with platforms like Blazor (not to mention comparing two separate platforms is not the most straightforward task anyway). Our templates engine is a completely custom solution and as such, will likely be more limited than Blazor, but you need to compare these two products based on what matters the most for your specific business needs. Regarding complex interactions and movement - we have plans to implement transition\transform animations. If that's not exactly what you had in mind, please share your ideas in our Support Center (it's much easier to track, write follow-ups and share attachments there). The same goes for external items - we hope to implement global CSS styles that you can apply for various controls, but you can always share your ideas if that's not what you'd love to see.

[@thorstensteinberg5999]

That is great! I hope there is a way to save a "common" css file to avoid redudant css-styles. But great!!!!

[@DeveloperExpress]

yes, we already have this in our plans.

[@illum19]

I'd be very interested in how we can then apply the usual built-in sorting and filtering options that users expect from anything grid related

[@DeveloperExpress]

WinExplorerView has no built-in functionality to sort, filter, or edit data the way you do it in the default GridView (that's why we've implemented a separate FilteringUIContext component). So you're losing nothing if you decide to use HTML templates. And that should certainly remain the case for any other control: HTML is just a new way to design apps, and no design technique should come at the expense of the core functionality of a control.

[@illum19]

@@DeveloperExpress thanks for the response, I'll do some digging into the FilteringUIContext

[@orhancanoguz4423]

Web version would be helpful.

[@chhittola6261]

Can we use image from url ?

[@DeveloperExpress]

no, for security reasons we cannot load images from URLs. However, you can upload icons into an SvgImageCollection, assign that to a control's "HtmlImages" property, and then you'll be able to use these uploaded images inside templates. We demonstrate this technique in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWjPma1oaLCJZsk