Released: Mar 7, 2011

Updates in this release

Updates in 2011.1

New Product - Bar Code for Silverlight
Bar Code for Silverlight is a new product, added in Silverlight Studio 2011.1. It makes it easy to add 2D and linear bar codes to any Silverlight application or report.  Bar codes can be saved to image files or added as a child control in any Silverlight control.  Actipro Bar Code takes all the work out of the bar code generation process by allowing you to simply say what value to encode. It automatically calculates any appropriate checksums and generates the resulting bar code for you. The output is completely customizable with many options, everything from setting the bar height to display of the encoded value below the bar lines. The most common linear symbologies are all supported, including EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 39 (and full ASCII variant), Code 93 (and full ASCII variant), Code 128, Codabar, Interleaved 2 of 5, and Postnet.

LL(*) Parser Framework Enhancements
An enormous amount of new features have been added to the LL(*) Parser Framework in 2011.1:

• Type-specific AST node (distinct classes for each type of AST node) support.
• Language Designer AST node code generation.
• Language Designer ability to open assemblies that contain multiple parsers.
• New tree constructors.
• New can-match callback helper methods.
• New error reporting methods.
• Parser performance improvements.

Web Languages Add-on Updates
The XML schema resolver now supports a default namespace, meaning that a xmlns attribute isn’t required on the XML’s root element to get automated IntelliPrompt to work based on a schema.  It also supports the ability to programmatically pre-define other namespace prefix declarations without the need for them to be done in XML by the end user.

Easy Parsing of Text Strings
Actipro have added a new SyntaxLanguageParsingExtensions.Parse extension method for ISyntaxLanguage that uses the language's IParser to parse specified text in the calling thread and return the IParseData result.  This feature makes it easy to parse a code snippet.

Squiggle Lines at Document End
Squiggle lines now can render at the document end, which is a common syntax error location when typing near the end of a document.

Language Designer Code Generation
The Language Designer has been updated to support the ability to code generate lexical state ID and token ID classes for programmatic lexers.

Performance Enhancements
Actipro have implemented some major performance improvements in several areas of the product and in the Web Languages Add-on.

FanPanel Control
The new FanPanel control allows child elements to be positioned in sequential order along the z-axis, while keeping a focal item centered in the view. Additionally, items below or above the focal element can be easily faded, rotated, or offset using customizable properties, providing for some visually appealing layouts.

New Product - Wizard for Silverlight
Wizard for Silverlight is the second new product added to Silverlight Studio 2011.1.  Wizard dialogs simplify the user experience of applications by taking complex tasks and breaking them up into a series of simple steps. Actipro Wizard is a lightweight control for building these wizard dialogs in Silverlight, while conforming to the Wizard97 specifications. Its rich designer functionality and straightforward API make it easy to quickly configure wizard pages. Simply create a page, set its page type, caption, description, and start adding controls to it. Special page types are included to support welcome and finish pages. Pages can optionally be data-bound and there is full support for MVVM. Basic sequential page navigation is enabled by default, and via the use of several properties, more complex page order sequencing can be achieved. Dynamic run-time decisions about which page should come next can also be made via the handling of selected page change events. Optional page history tracking can be enabled so that pressing the back button will revisit the previous pages in the reverse order they were originally visited, even when complex sequencing was used.  Wizard page changes can be animated with a number of built-in transition effects, or even custom transition effects from third-parties such as those found in the open-source Pixel Shader Effects Library. These subtle animations enhance the user experience by adding a visual polish to your applications.

Rating Control
The new Rating control inherits from ItemsControl and renders glyphs that can be used present an average rating or collect a user rating. By default, attractive star glyphs are used, but these can be easily replaced with any custom glyph.  There is also support for both horizontal and vertical orientations.

RadioButtonList Control
The new RadioButtonList is a regular ListBox capable of rendering its items as radio buttons.  The selected item in the list renders as a checked radio button. The control supports data binding and other features inherited from ListBox.