Category Archives: Diagramming

MindFusion.WinForms Pack, 2016.R1

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MindFusion Pack for WinForms, 2016.R1 has been released. Here is an overview of the new features. You can find details about each new feature here.

Visual Studio 2015 support
MindFusion Pack for WinForms now includes support for Visual Studio 2015. The installer can create VS2015 toolbox palette for the components.

Barcodes
The new BarcodeLabel and BarcodePrinter classes allow displaying and printing EAN, UPC or QR barcodes.

BarcodeLabel: QR barcodes

BarcodeLabel: QR barcodes

MindFusion WebForms DiagrammerMindFusion.Diagramming

Street maps
MapNodes can render street maps in OpenStreetMap format. Call FromXml method of MapContent to load an .osm file.

MindFusion WinForms Street maps

MindFusion WinForms Street maps

Resize table columns and rows
Columns and rows of a TableNode can now be resized interactively if its AllowResizeColumns or AllowResizeRows properties are enabled. In order to resize, move the mouse pointer to the border line on column’s right side or row’s bottom side until it shows resize cursor and start dragging.

Barcode nodes
The BarcodeNode class displays EAN, UPC or QR barcodes as node’s content. In-place edit operations let users enter new numeric codes for 1D codes or text strings for QR codes.

Miscellaneous

  • Support for .NET 2 has been dropped; the minimum supported .NET framework version now is 3.5.
  • Distribution now includes a set of digitally-signed assemblies.
  • Undo/redo records for in-place edit operations are now created automatically. They are represented by instances of the EditTextCmd class.
  • CompositeNode supports vertical scrolling in EditComponent (only via keyboard).
  • Support for FromPage and ToPage properties of PrinterSettings .
  • CreateBarcodeNode methods added to the Factory class.
  • The BarcodeNodeStyle property of Diagram defines the default appearance of BarcodeNodes.
  • Improved speed when dragging large hierarchies of grouped nodes.
  • ZoomControl can now be used with other components by MindFusion and has been moved to MindFusion.Common.WinForms assembly and namespace.
  • and much more.

Map-16x16MindFusion.Mapping

Street maps
You can render street maps in OpenStreetMap format by adding a StreetMapLayer instance to the MapView. In order to load a street map, create a new StreetMapLayer > object and call its Map‘s LoadFromXml method to load the corresponding *.osm file.

Zoom control
The ZoomControl class lets user change interactively the current zoom level and scroll position of a MapView. To set it up, add a ZoomControl to the form, place it anywhere over a MapView, and set the control’s Target property to that view.

map-control-zooming

Multiple selection
Now it’s possible to select multiple decorations or map shapes by drawing a selection rectangle. To enable that, set the Behavior property to Select. Selected elements are stored in the Selection collection of respective layer objects.

API changes

  • The type of MapElement‘s Label property has been changed from string to Label class. The FontName and FontSize properties have been moved from MapElement to Label.
  • Type of Layers property changed from List to ObservableCollection .

WPF Reporting ToolMindFusion.Reporting

Barcodes
MindFusion.Reporting reports can now display UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, and QR barcodes. The barcodes are represented by the new Barcode report item.

WinForms Reporter: Barcode Report Items

WinForms Reporter: Barcode Report Items

Miscellaneous

WebForms Scheduler by MindFusionMindFusion.Scheduling

Improved List View
The List view can now display an additional header and a footer. To turn them on, set the appropriate flag to the HeaderStyle property of the ListViewSettings class. The FooterFormat and MainHeaderFormat properties let you customize the text in the respective header. The text can also be customized through the CustomizeText event of the Calendar class. The size of the headers can be specified through the MainHeaderSize and FooterSize properties. Interactive Recurrence Rescheduling Recurrences can be rescheduled interactively by holding down the RescheduleRecurrenceKey while dragging a recurrent item. The control tries to preserve the current pattern of the recurrence when possible.

New Theme
A new built-in theme is available in MindFusion.Scheduling – the Light theme. It is available through the ThemeType enumeration.

The new 'Light' theme

The new ‘Light’ theme

New Properties
Several new properties have been added to the control:

Miscellaneous

Spreadsheet-16x16MindFusion.Spreadsheet

Autofiltering
Worksheets now support autofiltering. To enable it, call the AutoFilter method of the CellRange class. To specify autofiltering criteria for individual columns, use the AutoFilter overload.

WinForms Spreadsheet: Auto filtering

Multiple Selection
MindFusion.Spreadsheet now supports selection of multiple cell ranges. Cell ranges can be added to the selection interactively, by holding down the CTRL key while dragging with the mouse, or programmatically, by using one of the new methods of the Selection class: Add, AddRow, and AddColumn.

Miscellaneous

Installer for the latest version can be downloaded at https://www.mindfusion.eu/WinFormsTrial.zip

Updated assemblies are also available as MindFusion.Pack NuGet package.

About MindFusion.WinForms Pack: A set of five WinForms programming components that provide your application with a rich choice of diagramming, charting, scheduling, mapping, reporting and gauge features. The tools are very easy to implement and use. They boast intuitive API and various step-by-step tutorials to get you started. Both online and offline documentation is available.

A sample browser presents you with all the samples for each control to let you easily navigate to what you need. You can check some of the features of each component right now if you look at the online demos:

Visit the features – page of the components for more information about their capabilities:

You can check the prices and licensing scheme here. All components are royalty-free.

ContainerNode fold / unfold animations

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In this post we’ll show how to animate container’s fold and unfold operations using some event handling and custom drawing. You can download the complete project here:

AnimatedFold.zip

The sample code will demonstrate several features of the Diagram control and .NET:

  • use LINQ to collect contained items
  • handle fold/unfold events
  • custom draw from DrawForeground event
  • draw items from custom drawing code

Let’s start by creating some items and containers when the form loads:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var ctr = diagram.Factory.CreateContainerNode(20, 20, 100, 100, true);
    var node1 = diagram.Factory.CreateShapeNode(30, 35, 15, 15);
    var node2 = diagram.Factory.CreateShapeNode(80, 45, 15, 15);
    diagram.Factory.CreateDiagramLink(node1, node2);

    ctr.Add(node1);
    ctr.Add(node2);

    var ctr2 = diagram.Factory.CreateContainerNode(20, 20, 100, 100, true);
    ctr2.Add(ctr);
}

We’ll use LINQ extensions methods to find all items within a ContainerNode, including ones contained recursively in child containers:

List GetDescendents(ContainerNode container)
{
    var nodes = diagram.Nodes.Where(
        container.ContainsRecursively);

    var links = diagram.Links.Where(l =>
        nodes.Contains(l.Origin) ||
        nodes.Contains(l.Destination));

    return
        nodes.Cast().Concat(
        links.Cast()).ToList();
}

Add handlers for ContainerFolded and ContainerUnfolded events that will start animation for the container:

void OnContainerFolded(object sender, NodeEventArgs e)
{
    var container = (ContainerNode)e.Node;
    StartAnimation(container, true);
}

void OnContainerUnfolded(object sender, NodeEventArgs e)
{
    var container = (ContainerNode)e.Node;
    StartAnimation(container, false);
}

The StartAnimation method stores a list of items that should be redrawn during animation and a few other animation attributes:

void StartAnimation(ContainerNode container, bool fold)
{
    var bounds = container.Bounds;
    var scaleCenter = new PointF(
        (bounds.Left + bounds.Right) / 2, bounds.Top);

    // collect items that will be unfolded
    animatedItems = GetDescendents(container);

    // animation will also draw this rectangle as background
    ctrBounds = bounds;
    ctrBounds.Size = container.UnfoldedSize;
    ctrBounds.Y += container.CaptionHeight;
    ctrBounds.Height -= container.CaptionHeight;

    // start animation timers
    Animate(scaleCenter, fold);

    if (!fold)
    {
        // temporarily fold back when animating unfold operation
        // so that contained items stay invisible
        container.Folded = true;
        toUnfold = container;
    }
}

The Animate method starts a timer whose Tick event invalidates the DiagramView and stops the timer when final frame has been reached:

void Animate(PointF scaleCenter, bool scaleDown)
{
    if (scaleDown)
    {
        frameCounter = maxFrames;
        frameIncrement = -1;
    }
    else
    {
        frameCounter = 0;
        frameIncrement = +1;
    }
    this.scaleCenter = scaleCenter;

    animationTimer = new Timer();
    animationTimer.Tick += OnAnimationTimer;
    animationTimer.Interval = duration / maxFrames;
    animationTimer.Start();
}

void OnAnimationTimer(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    frameCounter += frameIncrement;
    diagramView.Invalidate();
    if (frameCounter == 0 || frameCounter == maxFrames)
    {
        animationTimer.Stop();
        animationTimer.Dispose();
        animationTimer = null;
        animatedItems = null;

        if (toUnfold != null)
        {
            toUnfold.Folded = false;
            toUnfold = null;
        }
    }
}

Add a DrawForeground event handler that applies scale transform proportional to current frame of animation and draws the container’s descendants stored in animatedItems list:

void OnDrawForeground(object sender, DiagramEventArgs e)
{
    if (animatedItems != null && frameCounter > 0)
    {
        var options = new RenderOptions();
        var g = e.Graphics;

        // apply scale corresponding to current frame
        var scale = (float)frameCounter / maxFrames;
        g.TranslateTransform(scaleCenter.X, scaleCenter.Y);
        g.ScaleTransform(scale, scale);
        g.TranslateTransform(-scaleCenter.X, -scaleCenter.Y);

        // draw container background
        g.FillRectangle(Brushes.White, ctrBounds);
        g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, ctrBounds);

        // draw contained items
        foreach (var item in animatedItems)
            item.Draw(e.Graphics, options);
    }
}

Same technique can be applied to animate collapse and expand operations on tree branches. To implement that, handle NodeExpanded and NodeCollapsed events instead, and collect items reachable recursively from the branch’ root by following outgoing links.

The code above uses MindFusion’s .NET API and can be used with Windows Forms, WPF, Silverlight and ASP.NET diagramming components. The Java API for Android and desktop Swing application will look similar, with setter method calls instead of property assignments.

You can download the trial version of any MindFusion.Diagramming component from this page.

Enjoy!

Diagramming for ASP.NET, V5.5

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Here is the list of the recent changes and additions to MindFusion WebForms Diagram control:

Resize table columns and rows

Note: This feature is not available in ImageMap mode.

Columns and rows of a TableNode can now be resized interactively if its AllowResizeColumns or AllowResizeRows properties are enabled. In order to resize, move the mouse pointer to the border line on column’s right side or row’s bottom side until it shows resize cursor and start dragging. The control raises TableColumnResizing and TableRowResizing events to let you validate new size or prevent resizing some elements. The TableColumnResized and TableRowResized events are raised after the operation completes.

Diagramming for ASP.NET: Table Nodes

Diagramming for ASP.NET: Table Nodes

Canvas mode improvements

  • Shape library files and ShapeLibraryLocation properties of DiagramView and ShapeListBox can now be used in Canvas mode.
  • Items can now be deleted using Backspace key when running on Mac.
  • Caption divider line in TableNode and ContainerNode is now rendered clipped when caption height is smaller than corner radius.
  • The TooltipDelay property specifies the delay in milliseconds before showing tooltips.
  • The Orientation property of NodeListView lets you set the view’s orientation to Horizontal or Vertical (members of Orientation enum).
  • Fixed overlaps in client-side TreeLayout when arranging nodes of different sizes.
  • Fixed a bug where deserialization of custom item classes worked correctly only if their names contained Node or Link suffix.
  • MsAjaxLocation and JQueryLocation properties let you change the location of external script libraries.
Diagramming for ASP.NET: Node Shapes

Diagramming for ASP.NET: Node Shapes

ImageMap mode improvements

  • Image generator implementation changed from Page to IHttpHandler , this makes it more lightweight avoiding the full page life-cycle.
  • Image generation is now implemented by the built-in ImageHandler class inside MindFusion.Common.WebForms assembly and it no longer requires adding external .aspx file to the project. Instead, it can be listed in web.config file: 
    <handlers>
    <add name="ImageHandler" path="ImageGen.ashx" verb="GET" type="MindFusion.Common.WebForms.ImageHandler, MindFusion.Common.WebForms">
</add></handlers>
  • For convenience, there is still optional ImageGen.ashx provided as external file for easier set-up of the project (add existing file instead of changing web.config).
  • ZoomControl no longer draws using <canvas> element when running in ImageMap mode, but uses ImageHandler to generate bitmaps.

API changes

ZoomControl can now be used with other MindFusion components and has been moved to MindFusion.Common.WebForms namespace and assembly.

Here is a direct link to download the trial version:

Download MindFusion.Diagramming for ASP.NET, V5.5 Trial Version

Technical support
MindFusion support team is happy to assist you with any questions you might have about Diagramming for ASP.NET or any other of our products. You can leave a message at the discussion board, use the help desk or e-mail support@mindfusion.eu.. We strive to provide competent and detailed answers to your questions within hours of receiving them.

About Diagramming for ASP.NET: An advanced WebForms programming component that offers all the functionality that is needed for creating, styling and presenting attractive flowcharts, hierarchies, trees, graphs, schemes, diagrams and many more. The control offers numerous utility methods, path finding and cycle detection, rich event set and many useful user interaction features like tool tips, multiple selection, copy/paste to/from Windows clipboard and many more.

NetDiagram offers more than 100 predefined node shapes, scrollable tables, 13 automatic layouts and many more. You can check the online demo to see some of the features in action. The control includes many samples, detailed documentation and step-by-step tutorials. Every features is duly documented and there’s plenty of code to copy. The component is not only powerful and scalable, but easy to learn and fun to use.

Diagramming for JavaScript, V2.5

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The new release of MindFusion Diagramming library for JavaScript contains some useful new features and improvements. Below are the details:

Resize of table columns and rows

Columns and rows of a TableNode can now be resized interactively if its AllowResizeColumns or AllowResizeRows properties are enabled. In order to resize, move the mouse pointer to the border line on column’s right side or row’s bottom side until it shows resize cursor and start dragging. The control raises tableColumnResizing and tableRowResizing events to let you validate new size or prevent resizing some elements. The tableColumnResized and tableRowResized events are raised after the operation completes.

JavaScript Table Nodes: Resize

JavaScript Table Nodes: Resize

Shape libraries

The ShapeLibrary class lets you use custom geometric shapes created using MindFusion ShapeDesigner tool. Call its loadFromXml method to load a library XML file. getShapes returns an array of the loaded Shape objects. The ShapeLibraryLocation property of NodeListView creates a prototype ShapeNode object for each shape from the specified library.

Miscellaneous

  • TextStroke and TextStrokeThickness properties of DiagramItem let you set color and thickness of text outlines.
  • Items can now be deleted using Backspace key when running on Mac.
  • Caption divider line in TableNode and ContainerNode is now rendered clipped when caption height is smaller than corner radius.
  • The TooltipDelay property specifies the delay in milliseconds before showing tooltips.
  • The Orientation property of NodeListView lets you set the view’s orientation to Horizontal or Vertical .
  • MindFusion.Common.js contains code shared with other JavaScript libraries by MindFusion. It must be loaded before the MindFusion.Diagramming.js script.

Fixed bugs

  • Fixed overlaps in TreeLayout when arranging nodes of different sizes.
  • Anchor points indices were not serialized and could be reset to different values when loading from JSON.
  • Deserialization of custom item classes worked correctly only if their names contained Node or Link suffix.

Registered customers with an active upgrade subscription can download the licensed version from the clients area on our site.

A trial version is available for direct download from the following link:

Download MindFusion Diagramming Library for JavaScript, V2.5

We are glad to receive any comments, suggestions and feedback. You can write us at e-mail support@mindfusion.eu or use the help desk. You can use the JsDiagram section on MindFusion forum to post questions about the tool.

About Diagramming for JavaScript Library: Written 100% in JavaScript, this tool uses HTML5 Canvas to draw impressive diagrams, schemes, flowcharts, trees and many more. It is browser independent, easy to use and integrate into any web application. JsDiagram supports a variety of predefined node shapes, customizable links, rich event set and many appearance options.

The user interaction model includes resizing / moving / selecting and modifying any diagram element. The tool boasts an elegant API, which is documented in details as well numerous step-by-step guides and tutorials. Various samples are provided to let you learn quickly how to use the most important features of the library – check them here. JsDiagram is not only the perfect choice for creating any type of diagram in the browser – it can also arrange it the way you wish with a mouse click using one of its automatic graph layout algorithms. For more details about the features of the component, please visit the Diagram for JavaScript page.

Diagramming for WinForms, V6.3.4 Released

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MindFusion popular diagram control for WinForms has a new version. Here is a list of the new features:

Street maps

MapNodes can render street maps in OpenStreetMap format. Call FromXml method of MapContent to load an .osm file. The pens and brushes used for drawing the map are stored within the StreetMapPens and StreetMapBrushes collections in the static StreetMapFeatures class. You can define additional pens and brushes for drawing and painting certain map features by using MapContent’s AddPen and AddBrush methods.

Diagramming for WinForms: Map Nodes

Diagramming for WinForms: Map Nodes

Miscellaneous

  • Support for .NET 2 has been dropped; the minimum supported .NET framework version now is 3.5.
  • Distribution now includes a set of digitally-signed assemblies.
  • Undo/redo records for in-place edit operations are now created automatically. They are represented by instances of the EditTextCmd class.
  • CompositeNode supports vertical scrolling in EditComponent (only via keyboard).
  • Support for FromPage and ToPage properties of PrinterSettings.
  • CreateBarcodeNode methods added to the Factory class.
  • The BarcodeNodeStyle property of Diagram defines the default appearance of BarcodeNodes.
  • Improved speed when dragging large hierarchies of grouped nodes.
  • Fix for not restoring ColumnStyle value when cancelling or undoing TableNode column resize operations.

The trial version is available for direct download from the link below:

Diagramming for WinForms, V6.3.4 Trial Version Download

Your comments and feedback about the new version is welcomed. You can use the Diagramming for WinForms forum, the help desk or write us at support@mindfusion.eu. Our support team will be pleased to help you.

About MindFusion.Diagramming for WinForms: A programming component that provides any WinForms application with a full set of features for creating and customizing all types of diagrams, flowcharts, schemes, hierarchies, trees, graphs etc. The control provides numerous ways to save and load a diagram, six auxiliary controls and more than 12 automatic graph layout algorithms. Diagram elements include scrollable tables, container nodes, multi-segment arrows, custom diagram item types and many more. Further details here.

Diagramming for WinForms is a royalty-free component, clients get 12 month upgrade subscription when buying a license. The source code is also available for purchase. Visit the buy page for a list with the current license prices.