Krypton 2.6 Released

Use the following link to download
http://www.componentfactory.com/downloads/KryptonToolkit260.zip

Toolkit Change Highlights
  KryptonCheckBox control added
  KryptonRadioButton control added
  KryptonDataGridView control added
  ToolTips added for button specs

Navigator Change Highlights
  2 x Ribbon modes added
  OutlookMini mode added
  ToolTips added for button specs
  ToolTips added for page headers
  Popup pages added for tab strip style modes
  Page selection via mnemonics

Ribbon Change Highlights
  CheckBox element added
  RadioButton element added
  CustomControl element added
  ToolTips added for button specs
  ToolTips added for relevant element types

Regards
Component Factory Pty Ltd

If you ever need a windows utility to enhance your developerment environment then I have the list for you.

The list is produced by Scott Hanselman and should contain everything you ever need.

Scott Hanselman Tools

I’ve spent the last week fixing all the outstanding bugs that I could reproduce. Here are just three of the more important ones.

Slow Design Time Performance
When using many Krypton controls on a Form the design time experience can slow down dramatically. Even worse it can become pretty much unusable when you have many containers with many controls inside them. This is not an uncommon scenario as many applications have a Navigator for displaying multiple pages and then each page contains many child controls.

The root of the problem was the helper glyph that is presented on container controls such as the KryptonGroup, KryptonGroupHeader, KryptonNavigator etc. This glyph appears in the bottom right hand corner of the container and allows the developer to click the glyph to select the container control. This is handy when you KryptonGroup has a border of just 1 pixel and so requires you to click exactly that 1 pixel wide area to select the group control. Unfortunately this glyph implementation at design time was causing the horrible performance hit.

So version 2.6 has removed the glyph selection feature entirely in order to remove the performance problem. As an alternative way of selecting controls at design time I recommend you use the View -> Other Windows -> Document Outline display. This window problems a TreeView that allows you to see the hierarchy of controls on the Form and selection of a control by clicking the tree node of interest.

TextBox Usage on MDI Child Forms
When placing TextBox and some other controls onto an MDI child form the controls are not always usable. In particular you might have noticed that right clicking the TextBox does not show the context menu that you would normally expect. This has been fixed so that MDI child forms working correctly.

GDI Object Leak
If you create a KryptonForm derived Form and then show and dispose of it there is a GDI object leak of two handles. Although only a small leak this can add up when you applications makes extensive use of windows and runs for a long period of time. This leak has been fixed.

There are quite a few other fixes but these three are the current highlights. Check out the release notes when the latest version is installed in order to see a definitive list of all new features and bugs fixed.

I am having a break for the next two weeks. The next few days will be spent in sunny Brisbane at the Tech.Ed 2007 Australia event followed by a short vacation in the North of Australia. Tech.Ed 2007 will give me a chance to see a broader view of the current Microsoft technology landscape and also a chance to actually talk to some fellow developers!

If your also going to Tech.Ed 2007 then I would love the chance to chat so feel free to introduce yourself. I’ll be in a bright orange shirt and my badge will of course have my name ‘Phil Wright’ and ‘Component Factory Pty Ltd’ on it. See you there!

Finally I have a Beta version of 2.6 that I can release.
Download Krypton 2.6 Beta

Toolkit Highlights
KryptonCheckBox added
KryptonRadioButton added
KryptonDataGridView added
ToolTips added for button specs

Navigator Highlights
2 x Ribbon modes added
OutlookMini mode added
ToolTips added for button specs
ToolTips added for page headers
Popup pages added for tab strip style modes
Page selection via mnemonics

Ribbon Highlights
CheckBox element added
RadioButton element added
CustomControl element added
ToolTips added for button specs
ToolTips added for relevant element types

Release Warnings!
All new features have been added but the bug list has not been processed yet, so many bugs reported in the past few months have not yet been investigated and fixed. Hence you might still find a bug that you have already reported in the past. Don’t worry, this will be worked on before the full release.

I wanted to get the Beta out so people can play around with the new features and provide feedback whilst I work on the bug list, this giving time for feedback to be incorporated before the full release occurs.

The palette definition file has not been tested and updated and so use of palette definitions files might not work very well at the moment. I cannot guarantee that loading a previously saved palette file will work in this version. This will be addressed in the full release of course.