Cider Beta 2 Release Notes

Welcome to Cider Beta 2, the Visual Designer and XAML tools for the Windows Presentation Foundation.

Please note that the VS 2008 Beta 2 installs (and requires) the matching .NET Framework 3.5 on the developer workstation (or VPC image) where VS is installed. The WPF applications created by the Cider beta 2 will run on the retail .NET Framework 3.0 that's part of Windows Vista and as a download for Windows XP.

Please give us your feedback!

Let us know what you like and what you don't like. What are the things that are missing today that stop you from using Cider? What are your "must have" features? Stop by and give us feedback on the MSDN forum for Cider

What's New in Cider for Beta 2

Overview

* Use the WPF Designer to:
* Preview any XAML in the designer including user defined controls and types
* Design Windows, Pages and ""UserControls""
* Develop ""UserControls"" using project references
* Do basic layout tasks in a Grid
* Do basic property editing using the new property browser
* Easily understand and navigate the “document structure” using the Document Outline
* See changes in the designer immediately in XAML
* Use the XAML Editor to:
* Edit XAML with real ""IntelliSense""
* See changes in XAML immediately in the designer

Details

* Designer User Experience
* ""AutoUpdates"" & Selection Sync
* Design pane updates as you type in XAML
* XAML updates with actions in design pane
* Designer <> XAML
* Document Outline
* Visual Preview
* Dripline effect on parent chain back to root
* Context Menu items
* Selection Sync <> Active pane
* Multiselection
* Path Control
* Navigate to children
* Navigate parent chain
* Visual Preview
* Context Menu items
* Selection History
* Shows multiselection
* Selection
* Multiple selection on designer via CTRL/Shift modifiers
* Improved rubber-band (marquee) logic
* (SHIFT) TAB to select next item
* Layout
* Precision control based on Zoom Level
* We now control the number of digits emitted when you create, move or resize a control, based on the zoom level you are at
* Snap Filling in Grid Cells now works reliably
* We fixed an issue so that Snaplines now allow you to easily snap-fill controls into a Grid Cell
* Accessibility
* High Contrast, Large Fonts are correctly honored by the designer
* The designer now works correctly with common screen readers

* Properties and Extensibility
* WPF-based Properties Window
* Categories
* Property Editor Extensibility
* Category Editor Extensibility
* Licensing Support for control vendors
* Note that licx files are not being generated correctly when a licensed control with a lic file is instantiated from the toolbox
* ""IsInDesignMode"" supporting controls’ rich design-time-only behavior
* New ""APIs"" for specifying layout for design time Adorners
* Metadata loading through sidecar *.Design.dll and *.VisualStudio.Design.dll metadata assemblies
* ""DesignTimeValueProviders"" that provide designer values that differ from the serialized XAML values
* XAML Language Services
* Important details on XAML Load Limitations are available
* Real, non schema-based Intellisense
* Used when Importing CLR namespaces, creating types, setting attributes, assigning enum values
* Supports framework and custom types.
* Improved UX for auto-completion and replacement
* Greatly improved XAML loading robustness and completeness
* Significant XAML load performance improvements
* VS App Domain Support
* Display and design XAML containing ""UserControls"", custom controls, and user-defined types
* same project
* sibling project (project-to-project reference)
* referenced assembly (binary reference)
* Designer Reloading when referenced controls/assemblies have changed

* Compatible with the ".Net Framework 3.0 RTM" Release (Windows Vista retail, and download for Windows XP)

Installing Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

Cider Beta is part of the Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 This download page contains instructions on pre-requisites, installation and uninstallation steps.