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Spread.NET

Microsoft Excel-compatible Spreadsheet Functionality

Spread.NET
  • Why you should choose Spread.NET
  • Can Your Grid Do This? Excel Fidelity
  • Spread Windows Forms - Getting Started... Data Binding
  • Excel Document Integration
  • Can Your Grid Do This? Business Documents
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Control, Cells & Complete Solution
  • Why you should choose Spread.NET
  • ".NET Rocks!"on Spread.NET from GrapeCity PowerTools
  • GrapeCity PowerTools Spread - Overcome Document Overload
  • GrapeCity PowerTools - Spread - You Demand More
  • Spread from GrapeCity PowerTools
  • Rapidly deliver .NET Spreadsheet and Reporting Applications
  • Developing Decision Support Applications in .NET - Part 2 of 2
  • Developing Decision Support Applications in .NET - Part 1 of 2

Embed Microsoft® Excel®-compatible spreadsheet functionality for advanced business, engineering, and scientific applications. Spread.NET joined the ComponentOne product line on July 1, 2012, when ComponentOne became a division of GrapeCity. XAML Developers: See the Spread WPF-Silverlight controls.

Spread .NET delivers:

  • Windows Forms and ASP.NET spreadsheets, MultiRow grid, stand-alone Chart, Formula Provider, and the Spread Designer run-time license
  • Integrated charting engine and data visualizations for informative and effective business dashboards
  • Comprehensive Excel document support for information sharing across the enterprise

Why use Spread.NET?

  • Available in Professional and Standard Editions

    Spread.NET is available in two editions: professional and standard. You can also purchase Spread.NET with maintenance, which includes all major upgrades, updates, and phone support for one year. This is the most cost-effective way to stay current with our latest technology.

  • Pioneering .NET and ASP.NET Spreadsheet Components

    Spread introduced a number of technologies to Microsoft developers, including the first full-featured spreadsheet component for Visual Basic originally called FarPoint Spread, and the first spreadsheet designer. The Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET versions added an array of new Excel-compatibility features and advanced customization options. Both the .NET and ASP.NET spreadsheet components continue to deliver this familiar Excel experience to your end users.

  • Embedded, Programmable Microsoft Excel Platform

    Import Microsoft Excel documents and preserve complete formatting. Interact with the data in Spread from within your application, then export your spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel for portable distribution to your users. Spread supports the current versions of Excel as well as multiple Excel file formats, including Excel (2007 - current XLSX), Excel 97 (XLS), comma-delimited (CSV), and text (TXT).

  • Dashboard Data Visualization

    The data visualization functionality provided in Spread gives your data a voice, for example:
    • Use Sparklines to provide small, focused cell-level charts.
    • Use Camera Shapes to bring together content from various locations within a spreadsheet, even on different sheets, into a dashboard. The Camera Shapes object provides:
      • A live view of a range of cells, including any values, formatting, shapes, charts, or other content.
      • Immediate refreshes to any updates or modifications made to a range of cells through user interaction or programmatic updates.
    Additional data visualization is provided in Spread through: Chart support, conditional formatting, filtering, and grouping.

  • Integrated Spreadsheet Chart Control

    Create expressive 2D and 3D charts within your spreadsheets. Select from various chart types, including:
    • Column
    • Line
    • Pie
    • Bar
    • Area
    • XY
    • Bubble
    • Stock
    • XYZ
    • Doughnut
    • Radar
    • Polar
    Add charts at design time using the Spread Designer and Chart Designer, or through code using the comprehensive Chart object model. Charts can be bound to external data sources, and you can allow end users to make changes to the chart formatting at run time. Spread.NET features built-in design dialogs for end-user interaction to create and modify charts (like in Microsoft Excel).

  • Extensive Customization Options

    The Spread.NET object model allows .NET Windows Forms and ASP.NET developers to customize UI elements and manage the behavior of the control by extending built-in classes and assigning custom objects to Spread. Developers use the Spread .NET controls to embed advanced Microsoft Excel-compatible spreadsheet features into their .NET and ASP.NET applications - features that would otherwise be considered impossible to achieve.

  • Design Time Support for Code-free Development

    The easy-to-use, intuitive Spread Designer makes designing detailed spreadsheets and input or datagrid display screens a snap. Without writing a single line of code, design new application forms or edit existing application forms using the Microsoft Excel-like, visual, drag-and-drop user interface. The built-in Chart Designer and UI-type editors make it easy to design stunning charts and spreadsheet dashboards.

  • Flexible Data Binding Support

    Spread can bind to any .NET data source, and includes built-in support for displaying relational datasets. The run-time support for unbound rows and columns within bound data allows for inclusion of aggregated information or for performing what-if scenario analysis. Spread also supports binding a range of cells to a data source and providing a range of cells as a data source.

  • Printing/PDF Support

    Select from a wide range of printing options to customize the printing of your spreadsheets. Spread also supports printing to PDF documents. You can even take ultimate control of the printing in your code using the owner print drawing support to easily create reports on your data.

  • Time-tested by Developers Worldwide

    As the first spreadsheet component on the market for Visual Basic, Spread has been used by tens of thousands of developers worldwide for the past 20 years. It's one of the few components to be successfully localized, sold, and supported in Japan, Europe, United States, and other parts of the world. While Spread has continued to evolve over the years, the development team has stayed true to the legacy and continues to support VB.NET for .NET products, and VB for the Spread COM product.

  • Strong Public Knowledge Base

    When you purchase Spread, you get a market leader. This means you get thorough documentation, technical support, and expert advice. Plus, be confident knowing that for nearly 20 years, over 100,000 developers have adopted and enriched Spread with their experience and skill, and have contributed to a global online knowledge base in the form of forum discussions, articles, and blogs.

Spread.NET General Features

Native Microsoft® Excel® Support

Spread provides the industry's best native Excel support. You can import data from and export data (and formatting) to Excel, including XLS, XLSX, CSV, and TXT files, all without needing Excel installed on the user's machine. It's royalty-free and run-time free. Native Microsoft® Excel® Support

Sparklines

Sparklines are tiny charts drawn directly inside cells to provide a visual representation of your data, right next to the data itself. Spread supports the Column, Line, and Win/Loss sparkline types and import/export of these sparklines in Excel 2010 files. You can also create custom sparklines and implement classes to define the sparkline settings and draw anything you want in a cell. Sparklines

Data Handling

Spread provides the familiar sheets and workbooks you know from Microsoft Excel, as well as formula support, including cross-sheet references. You or your users can search, sort, filter, and group data, including providing outline grouping similar to Microsoft Excel. In addition, Spread can display data in hierarchies. Data Handling

Dashboards and Camera Shape

Create impressive spreadsheet dashboard reports using camera shapes! A camera shape shows a range of cells as a static image exactly as it appears in the original source sheet. It can be placed anywhere in the target sheet. To summarize and analyze your data, lay out several ranges that contain cells of various sizes and place them alongside other content in the target sheet (like charts and sparklines). Dashboards and Camera Shape

Data Acquisition

Spread works with data any way you need to provide it, for example:
  • Bind Spread to a data source or use unbound data
  • Import files in many formats
  • Set up the data at run time
  • Set up the data at design time using the convenient Quick Start wizard or the Spread Designer
Data Acquisition

Chart Support

Add impressive charts to your spreadsheets using the Chart control. Easily design charts using the included Chart Designer. Spread supports 12 chart types with 85 chart views, including 2D and 3D:
  • Area
  • Bar
  • Bubble
  • Column
  • Doughnut
  • Line
  • Pie
  • Polar
  • Radar
  • Stock
  • XY
  • XYZ
Chart Support

Appearance

Use Spread to achieve clear, colorful table layouts, custom spreadsheets, and more. How do you want your spreadsheet to appear today? Customize it to look any way you want with:
  • Fonts/colors
  • Multiple headers
  • Borders
  • Merging
  • Spanning
  • Conditional formatting
Appearance

Interaction

Your end users require different levels of interaction in their spreadsheets, and Spread can do it all. Offer users these interactions, as needed:
  • Zoom
  • View multiple panes of data
  • Drag-and-drop data
  • Drag fill data in cells
  • Freezing rows and columns
  • Moving rows and columns
  • Operation modes (Selection options)
  • Undo/redo capabilities
  • Auto-complete options
  • View Cell notes
Interaction

Cell Types

Spread offers eight editable cell types and thirteen graphical cell types, which provide just about any interaction or data display you need. You can customize cells with spin buttons and provide pop-up calendars and clocks and other editors as needed. Cell Types

Output

Distributing the data can be just as, if not more, important than simply displaying it. You can export the data to different file formats, including:
  • Native Excel files
  • Delimited files
  • PDF
  • Printed reports
Output

Layers and Drawing

Spread includes several different layers for you to work with, including the:
  • Data layer (on which cells with data appear)
  • Control layer (to place child controls on)
  • Drawing layer (on which shapes and other graphical elements appear)
Layers and Drawing

Designers and Wizards

Spread makes it easy to create a prototype quickly or to customize your finished designs using the built-in Designers and Wizards. Designers and Wizards

Components included with the new Spread.NET Professional

  • MultiRow

    New GcMultiRow control for Windows Forms is the ultimate data bound row template repeater! Create advanced row layouts with ease using the template designer editor inside Visual Studio. Learn more about MultiRow.

  • ActiveChart

    New stand-alone FpChart controls for Windows Forms and ASP.NET - create charts without the spreadsheet or any of its dependent assemblies, or move your charts outside the spreadsheet. Learn more about ActiveChart.

  • Spread Designer available at Run-time

    New FpSpreadDesigner component - show the Spread Designer tool from your applications and let your users edit or create spreadsheets!

  • Formula Provider

    Leverage the power of the Spread Calculation Engine to perform calculations using controls in your application - outside of Spread. Access the Spread built-in functions, and Custom Function capabilities to create specialized and complex formula evaluations.
Components included with the new Spread.NET Professional

Spread for Windows Forms Features

Annotation Mode

Each sheet can have its own drawing layer with built-in shapes, custom shapes, and annotations (free-hand drawings). You can use shapes and annotations to draw attention to parts of your spreadsheet or to emphasize some information or process involving the use of the spreadsheet, for example:
  • Display a logo on your sheet
  • Show a process with flowchart-like graphics
  • Use shapes to simply highlight a particular result
  • Add free-hand drawing to the drawing layer of the sheet using annotation mode
Annotation Mode

Auto Complete

Spread offers a customizable auto complete feature that can be used with user entry in editable text cells. For example, when you type a letter in a highlighted cell, if a match is found the spreadsheet will show you the suggestions that match. You can change the settings for auto complete and apply them to any column in the spreadsheet.
  1. Set the mode for automatic completion. The options include whether to suggest a list of possible completions, a drop-down list of possible completions, both, or none.
  2. Set the source of the suggestions and drop-down list. The source is the list of items that are considered for completion. You can create a custom source and define your own list of items or you can set various system sources.
Auto Complete

Borders

Customize the appearance of the cells by setting borders for a cell or range of cells. A border can be displayed on the left, right, top, or bottom, or around all four sides of a cell or cell range. Use any of the built-in styles or define customized borders. You can specify more than one style and color for the same cell, column, row, or block of cells. Different border styles let you set different options. Borders

Cell Notes

You can add a note to a cell or range of cells. The note may contain text such as a comment, a question, or documentation describing the origin of the cell's value. Set the cell notes to be displayed when moused over; optionally, always display them (not just when the pointer moves over the indicator). You can also allow notes to remain displayed as if they were sticky notes. In this case they appear in a rectangle next to the cell with an expandable line that attaches the note to the cell, allowing the note to be moved by the user. Cell Notes

Cell Types

The cell type defines an editor control for the cell that handles data entry, a formatter control to handle how the data is interpreted, and a renderer control that handles how the data is displayed in the cell. Cell types can be set for individual cells, columns, rows, a range of cells, or an entire sheet. In general, working with cell types includes defining the cell type, setting the properties, and applying that cell type to cells.
Editable Cell Types
  • Currency Cell
  • Date-Time Cell
  • General Cell
  • Mask Cell
  • Number Cell
  • Percent Cell
  • Regular Expression Cell
  • Text Cell
 Graphical Cell Types
  • Barcode Cell
  • Button Cell
  • Check Box Cell
  • Color Picker Cell
  • Combo Box Cell
  • Hyperlink Cell
  • Image Cell
  • List Box Cell
  • Multiple-Column Combo Box Cell
  • Multiple Option Cell
  • Progress Indicator Cell
  • Rich Text Cell
  • Slider Cell
Cell Types

Charting

Create impressive 2D or 3D charts using code or the Spread Designer. Also, allow the end user to resize the chart and the range of data used in the chart control. There are several visual elements to a chart such as the plot, legend, and label areas; the axis, and the series.
  • The plot area is the area in which data points are drawn.
  • The legend area can be used to help end users identify different chart elements such as the series.
  • The label area contains additional information about the chart.
  • The axis displays the scale for a single dimension of a plot area.
  • Each series is a collection of data points.
Spread supports 12 chart types with 85 chart views, including 2D and 3D:
  • Area
  • Bar
  • Bubble
  • Column
  • Doughnut
  • Line
  • Pie
  • Polar
  • Radar
  • Stock
  • XY
  • XYZ
Charting

Conditional Formatting

Easily add conditional formats to your cells; for example, you may want to change the background color of a cell based on the cell's value. You can use a named style to specify various formatting options such as borders and colors to apply if the condition statement is valid. Conditional Formatting

Control Layer

To provide more interaction with the user, you can place your own controls on a sheet. Basically anything that can be derived from the Control class in the .NET framework can be hosted on a Spread sheet. Key points:
  • The child control is placed on a separate layer, the controls layer, that is separate from the data area where cells are and is separate from the drawing layer wear shapes and other graphical elements are.
  • The child control is one of any number of controls that can be placed on the sheet.
  • For the sheet there is a child control container (similar to the shape container for all the shapes on the sheet).
  • You can enumerate through each control and override any property of the interface of that control.
  • You can set events and work with event handlers.
Control Layer

Data Binding

You can bind the control to a data set, such as data in a database, or to anything that the .NET framework allows, such as an IList object. Key points:
  • When you bind the component using the default settings, data from the data set is read into the columns and rows of the sheet to which you bind the data.
  • Columns are associated with fields, and rows represent each record in the data set.
  • Spread automatically updates the data set with changes.
  • Part of your spreadsheet can be unbound.
  • You can bind to a range of cells.
Data Binding

Drag-and-drop

Allow the end user to drag-and-drop data from one range of cells to another. Specify whether the end user can:
  • Select a cell or range of cells
  • Drag-and-drop them to a new location in the same spreadsheet or another spreadsheet
Drag-and-drop

Drag Fill

You can allow the user to drag-and-fill data from one cell or a range of cells to another cell or range of cells. With a cell or range of cells selected, you can fill other cells either in a row (or rows if more than one column is selected) or a column (or columns if more than one row is selected). Drag Fill

Excel Compatibility

Import data from and export data (and formatting) to Microsoft Excel, both in individual spreadsheets and entire workbooks. Several Excel document formats are supported, including Excel 97 - Excel 2003 (XLS), Excel 2007 XML (XLSX), comma-delimited (CSV) and tab-delimited (TXT). Open an entire multiple-sheet Excel file into the Spread component, or specify a particular sheet (either by name or number) and open it into a specific sheet in Spread. Excel Compatibility

Filtering

You can customize the user experience for filtering data on a sheet. With row filtering, you can allow the user to filter the data and display only the rows of data that meet criteria from a drop-down list or change the appearance of rows based on that filter. Filtering can be set up automatically by column. Filtering

Fonts/Colors

Spread makes it easy to apply different colors and fonts to any cell, row, column, row header, or column header. Fonts/Colors

Formulas

Spread's powerful Calc Engine includes over 300 built-in functions, supports cross-sheet formula referencing, and gives you the ability to define your own custom functions. With formulas, you can:
  • Specify a cell reference
  • Use a circular reference
  • Nest functions
  • Recalculate and update formulas automatically
  • Allow the user to enter formulas
  • Create and use a custom name
  • Create and use a custom function
Formulas

Formula Textbox

The formula text box control in Spread for Windows Forms gives you Excel-like formula editing and can be placed anywhere on the form. Formula Textbox

Freezing Rows/Columns

You can freeze (make non-scrolling) any number of rows, columns, or both in a sheet. This includes top rows, called leading rows, left-most columns, called leading columns, and trailing bottom rows or trailing right-most columns. Freezing Rows/Columns

Grouping

Set the display to allow Outlook-style grouping of rows. For large amounts of data, grouping displays the data in the order the user needs. You can provide grouping to allow users to sort the data with multiple levels of groups by dragging additional column headers into the grouping area. Grouping

Outline Grouping (Excel-like)

Set the display of the spreadsheet component to allow rows or columns to be grouped as an outline according to the headers. This display uses outlines to group the rows of data. Collapsed rows that are not visible become visible when the outline is expanded. This feature is also called range grouping since it operates on a range of rows or columns. Outlines can be nested. Outline Grouping (Excel-like)

Hierarchy

Sheets can display relational data, such as from a relational database, in hierarchical views. The user can expand or collapse the levels of the hierarchy by clicking on the expand and collapse hierarchy icons (plus and minus signs). To set up hierarchical data display:
  1. Create a data set to hold the relational data
  2. Define the relations between the data
  3. Set the Spread component to display the data as you want: customize the cell type, the colors, the headers, and other aspects of the appearance of the view.
  4. Bind to a hierarchical collection, in necessary.
Hierarchy

Import/Export

You can import and export entire spreadsheet(s) with data and formatting to and from XML. You can import and export native Microsoft Excel files without needing Excel installed on the user's machine. Several Excel document formats are supported, including Excel 97 - Excel 2003 (XLS), Excel 2007 XML (XLSX), Comma delimited (CSV) and Tab delimited (TXT). You can also export to PDF format. Import/Export

Merging

Merging is an automatic feature. Spread merges cells between columns or between rows if the cells have the same value based on the policy that you set. You may want to do this, for example, when bound to a database, as shown in the figure below where the cells in the Year column merge where the year value is the same, as with 1995 and 2003. Merging

Move Rows/Columns

Allow the user to drag and move rows or columns, or you can programmatically move them. For users to move rows or columns, they simply left-click on the header of the row or column to move and drag the header back or forth over the header area and release the mouse over the desired destination. The row or column that is being moved is shown in a transparent clone attached to the pointer, as shown in the figure, where the fourth column is being moved to the left. Move Rows/Columns

Multiple Headers

Define any number of rows and columns for the headers. You can also fully customize the appearance of header cells, including the text, styles, gradients, spans, and height/widths. Multiple Headers

Operation Modes

By default, sheets allow users to select a cell, column, row, range of cells, or the entire sheet. Customize how selection occurs by working with the operation mode of the sheet and the selection policy and unit of the sheet. You can control whether users can only select:
  • Cells
  • Rows
  • Columns
  • Sheet
  • Combination
  • Cells, ranges of cells, or multiple ranges of cells
  • Only rows, no editing
  • Only rows, editing
  • Multiple contiguous rows, no editing
  • Multiple noncontiguous rows, no editing
Operation Modes

Printing

Print a spreadsheet, or parts of a spreadsheet, and use a variety of options to customize printing. For example, you can set options for the appearance of what is printed, preview the printing, and provide the printing operation to the end user. Printing

Printing to PDF

You can print a sheet to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. To print to PDF, use the PrintToPdf method in the PrintInfo class. Select from many additional settings to customize the PDF output. Printing to PDF

Reporting

Spread can easily be set up to generate and print reports. Reporting

Search

By specifying the sheet and the string of data for which to search, you can search for data in any of the cells in the workbook. Also, allow the end user to search for data using a pop-up search dialog box. You can add some advanced options to the search dialog for the end user to allow them to search other areas of the spreadsheet, including cell notes and cell tags. Search dialog options include:
  • Match case - finding only strings that match the case of the search string (upper or lower case).
  • Match exactly - finding only strings that match the search string exactly.
  • Alternate search - searching down rows then across columns rather than vice versa.
  • Use wildcards - allow the use of wildcard characters in the search string.
  • Include cell text- this searches the row and column cells.
  • Include cell tags- this searches the cell tags in the data area.
  • Include cell notes- this searches the cell notes in the data area.
Search

Shapes

Each sheet can have its own drawing layer that can contain built-in shapes, custom shapes, and annotations (free-hand drawings). You can use shapes and annotations to draw attention to parts of your spreadsheet or to emphasize some information or process involving the use of the spreadsheet. For example, you can display a logo on your sheet, show a process with flowchart-like graphics, or use shapes to simply highlight a particular result. Shapes

Sheets

You can have multiple sheets within a workbook. Each sheet is a separate spreadsheet and can have its own appearance and settings for user interaction. Each sheet has a unique name and sheet name tab for easy navigation between sheets. You can add, remove, copy, insert, and hide sheets. Sheets

Sorting

You can sort the data displayed in the sheet either by column or by row. Typically, all the rows of a sheet are sorted by the values in a particular column; however, Spread allows multiple ways to perform a sort with various properties and methods for setting up each type of sorting. Key points:
  • The sort order can be in ascending order (A to Z, zero to 9) or descending order (Z to A, 9 to zero).
  • The method of comparison can be customized. You can select which values to use as a key when comparing to sort the values.
  • The sort indicator, often an arrow, can be displayed in the header for the column being used as a sort key.
  • The sorting depends on the data type of the values in the cells. If you sort cells with data of the DateTime type, then it sorts those cells by date, and if you sort cells with data of the string type, it sorts those cells alphabetically.
Sorting

Spans

You can combine cells to create a span of cells. Creating a span of cells creates one large cell where there had previously been several. For example, if you create a span of cells from cell B2 to cell D3, cell B2 then appears to occupy the space from cell B2 through cell D3. Spans

Designers and Wizards

Spread makes it easy to create a prototype quickly or to customize your finished designs using the built-in designers and wizards. Designers and Wizards

Sub Editors

For several editable cell types, when you click inside the cell, a default editor is displayed. You can go beyond this simple line editor and provide a custom user interface (UI). The custom UI is controlled by the subeditor, or the editor within the cell editor. For example, when you select the date-time cell, you can provide a calendar for the user to select a date. This calendar control would be called by the subeditor. Sub Editors

Unbound

You can use Spread in unbound mode to add your data - no dataset needed. You can also add unbound rows and columns to a bound spreadsheet. Unbound

Undo/Redo

You can allow the end user to undo/redo various user actions, including cell editing, copying, and pasting from the Clipboard. You can add the capability to your application to undo various actions in the spreadsheet performed by your end user. To do so, you make use of the UndoAction class and several specific classes that correspond with various user actions. Undo/Redo

Viewports

You can divide the display into separate viewports or panes, each of which can be scrolled. You may have either:
  • A set of horizontal viewports (called a viewport row since it is a row of viewports)
  • A set of vertical viewports (called a viewport column since it is a column of viewports)
  • A set of both (as shown in the figure)
Viewports or panes allow you to display different parts of a very large spreadsheet in a very limited viewing area. You can add, remove, and customize viewports programmatically, and allow your end user to create and use viewports by simply clicking on the split box and dragging it to the desired location. Viewports

Zoom

You can allow the user to change the scale of the display of the control, in other words to zoom in or zoom out. This allows the user to zoom in or out by pressing the Ctrl key and turning the mouse wheel. The user can zoom in up to 400% and out to 10% of the default display. You can also programatically adjust the zoom. Zoom

Spread for ASP.NET Features

Charting

Create impressive 2D or 3D charts using code or the Spread Designer. Also, allow the end user to resize the chart and the range of data used in the chart control. There are several visual elements to a chart such as the plot, legend, and label areas; the axis, and the series.
  • The plot area is the area in which data points are drawn.
  • The legend area can be used to help end users identify different chart elements such as the series.
  • The label area contains additional information about the chart.
  • The axis displays the scale for a single dimension of a plot area.
  • Each series is a collection of data points.
Charting

AJAX Support

Enable AJAX support to the FpSpread component by setting one property. This allows the component to refresh without refreshing the entire page, and affects several features including:
  • Expanding and collapsing child sheets in a hierarchical display
  • Column sorting
  • Inserting rows
  • Paging

If the ClientAutoCalculation property is true, then after a cell value is changed, an AJAX call is made to the FpSpread component. Then the component calculates the formulas and sends the values to the client side. The component then updates the values at the client side. AJAX Support

Cell Merging

Enable automatic cell merging between columns or between rows if the cells have the same value based on the policy that you set. This results in easier viewing of the data, for example, when bound to a database. Cell Merging

AJAX Extender Cell Types

There are several cell types that are made available by using ASP.NET AJAX and are dependent on the extenders of the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. The appearance and behavior of these cell types are controlled by the AJAX Control Toolkit. All controls in the AJAX Control Toolkit can add or attach client behaviors to a target control. In Spread, the target control is exposed as the Editor property of the extender cell type. AJAX Extender Cell Types

Cell Types

The 18 cell types, included in Spread, make it easy for your user to enter the expected data. Cell Types

Conditional Formatting

Easily add conditional formats to your cells; for example, you may want to change the background color of a cell based on the cell's value. You can use a named style to specify various formatting options such as borders and colors to apply if the condition statement is valid. Conditional Formatting

Data Binding

Spread can bind to any data source that supports the IList or IListSource interface, including datasets. Once you've connected to your data, Spread automatically configures it's cell types to the appropriate data type and only allows editing for that data type; i.e., displaying a checkbox for Boolean fields. Spread makes it easy to present, edit, and update your data, for example:
  • Lock cells to prevent them from being edited
  • Hide columns or rows
  • Change the assigned cell type
Data Binding

Excel Compatibility

Spread allows you to import data from Excel and export data and formatting to Excel in its native format. This can be achieved with individual spreadsheets and entire workbooks. Save the data to an Excel-formatted (BIFF8 format) file or stream. Good news! You don't need Excel on the server for Spread to display your Excel files. Excel Compatibility

Filtering

You can customize the user experience for filtering data on a sheet. With row filtering, you can allow the user to filter the data in columns on a sheet and display only the rows of data which meet criteria from a drop-down list or change the appearance of rows based on that filtering. Use the basic default filtering or customize the filtering. Filtering

Frozen Rows & Columns

Freeze columns and rows and keep them displayed regardless of where the user navigates in the sheet. Frozen rows and frozen columns do not scroll when the user uses the scroll bar or navigation keys in the component. This is useful if you need information in non-header rows or columns to stay visible regardless of where the user navigates. Frozen Rows & Columns

Formulas

Spread includes a powerful calculation engine that allows you to quickly add formulas to your web applications by using any of the over 300 pre-defined functions. Optionally, add your own custom functions. Spread also supports cross-sheet formula referencing. Formulas

Grouping

Set up Outlook-style grouping of rows, which is helpful for large amounts of data. To select a column by which to group and display that data, either double-click on the header of that column or click and drag the column into the grouping bar at the top of the page. Grouping

Hierarchy

Easily display and edit your hierarchical data using Spread. Simply set up your dataset with relations and set the HierarchicalView property to True. That’s all it takes to display your data. You have full customization at the child level if you want to hide columns, change colors, etc. You can also choose from two hierarchy views: Hierarchical View and Parent Row View. Hierarchy

Import/Export Files

You can import/export Microsoft Excel 97 and higher files, text files, and Spread files. This allows you to view or load your data in your favorite desktop application or, for example, you could create and load company templates on the fly. Import/Export Files

LayoutMode - Row Template

For a more compressed format of displaying information, you may want to display columns with multiple lines of information. To do this:
  • Create row templates, also called aggregation subtotals or multiple-line columns
  • Display multiple lines within a column, such as to display address information together in one column that involves multiple fields of information
LayoutMode - Row Template

Load On Demand

As the user scrolls further down the spreadsheet the Spread component on the client loads another page of rows from the server as needed. This is similar to what would was called "virtual mode" in the COM version of the product. You can specify the number of rows to load initially and how many to load in subsequent loads. You can specify those properties at the component level (for FpSpread) or at the sheet level. Load On Demand

Operation Modes

Customize what the end user can select by working with the operation mode of the sheet. By default, the component allows users to select a cell, a column, a row, a range of cells, or the entire sheet. The MultiRangeSelection property allows the user to select multiple discontiguous blocks with the control (Ctrl) key and the mouse. Operation Modes

Move Columns

Allow end users to move columns by clicking on the header of a column and dragging it to another location on the spreadsheet. Enable this with the AllowColumnMove property in the FpSpread class. Move Columns

Order Entry Sample

Spread is ideal for any internal online order entry system or external shopping cart. After selecting an ID, Spread grabs the requested information and passes the data back, all without a full page refresh. You can also adjust the pricing, discounts, or quantities and Spread will make an AJAX call and update the data accordingly. Order Entry Sample

Printing & PDF Support

Print the data area of a spreadsheet, add headers and footers to the printed pages, and save the spreadsheet to a PDF file. Use the SavePdf method to save Spread to the specified PDF file, and the SavePdfToResponse method to save to the specified PDF response. Printing & PDF Support

Scroll Tips

Display scroll tips when the control is scrolled. The scrolling grid content can be displayed in a horizontal direction or vertical direction. By default, the scroll tip content is the row header content or column header content, but you can customize this content to display other information. Scroll Tips

Searching

You can search for data in any of the cells in the workbook by specifying the sheet and the string of data for which to search. You also have several searching options you can choose from. Searching

Sheets

Each control can contain multiple sheets, similar to Microsoft Excel, allowing you to organize your information on one convenient web page.
You can add and remove sheets at design-time or run-time. You can set the background color and gridline color for each sheet or apply a built-in or custom "skin". You can also hide or show sheet tabs at run-time. Sheets

Skins

Spread includes 13 built-in Skins, allowing you to provide a common look for all your Spread controls across multiple web pages or web applications. In addition, you or your designers can easily create and save your own custom skins to reuse in other projects. Skins

Sorting

You can sort the data displayed in the sheet by column or by row. Sort in either ascending order (A to Z, zero to 9) or descending order (Z to A, 9 to zero), and select which values to use as a key when sorting the data. At run time, you can automatically sort the data by double-clicking the column header (AllowSort property). Sorting

Summary Aggregation

You can show a column footer, a group footer, or both for the sheet and put information in the footer such as formulas or text.
  • The column footer is an area at the bottom of the sheet.
  • The group footer is an extra row of footer cells at the bottom of a sheet with grouping, if you are using the grouping feature.
In order to calculate the column footer or group footer result with a formula, set the AggregationType property of the Column object to the correct formula type for that column. Summary Aggregation

Spread Designer

Spread includes a robust Spread Designer, which allows you or your web designers to quickly configure the look and feel of the Spread control with no coding required. Using the Spread Designer’s unique WYSIWYG implementation, easily assign cell types, color, text, etc. for any cell. Spread Designer

Unbound Mode

You can use Spread in unbound mode to add your data - no dataset needed. You can also add unbound rows and columns to a bound spreadsheet. Unbound Mode

Worksheet

Use this page to fully interact with Spread. You can enter formulas, values, formats, or other options. Worksheet

What's New in Spread .NET?

Spread .NET introduces these new features available in the latest version of the Windows Forms product.

FpChart (Professional Edition)

Chart Features

Enjoy the new stand-alone FpChart controls for Windows Forms and ASP.NET. Show your charts outside of your spreadsheets, or create charts completely independently using only the chart control assembly. Learn more about ActiveChart.

MultiRow (Professional Edition)

MultiRow

Access the new GcMultiRow for Windows Forms grid control for advanced row layout requirements. Learn more about MultiRow.

FpSpreadDesigner (Professional Edition)

FpSpreadDesigner

Access the new FpSpreadDesigner component for run time deployment of the Spread Designer tool. With Spread.NET Professional, you can deploy the Spread Designer to your end users and they can use it to create or edit spreadsheets.

Formula Provider (Professional Edition)

Leverage the power of the Spread Calculation Engine to perform calculations using controls in your application - outside of Spread. Access the Spread built-in functions, and Custom Function capabilities to create specialized and complex formula evaluations.

Sparklines

New Column, Line, and Win/Loss sparklines. Sparklines are tiny light-weight charts that are drawn in cells to provide a visual representation of data. Spread supports the Column, Line, and Win/Loss sparklines in Excel 2010, with full XLS and XLSX import and export support.

Sparklines Sparklines

Sparkline Markers to highlight specific values

Sparklines

Sparkline groups to share appearance and style settings

More sparkline features include:

  • Built-in UI support for clipboard cut/copy/paste.
  • New easy-to-use sparkline APIs.
  • Built-in dialogs for allowing your end-users to create or change sparklines.
Sparklines

Import/export sparklines in Microsoft Excel 2010

Sparklines

Extensible sparkline model for creating custom sparklines

New Camera Shapes

New Camera Shapes New Camera Shapes

A Camera shape is a snapshot of a range of cells in a sheet that can be placed anywhere inside a sheet. Using camera shapes together with charts and sparklines, you can create advanced reports showing exactly the information you want, how you want it, without any spanning or merging of cells.

Features

  • Built-in UI support for clipboard cut/copy/paste.
  • New easy-to-use camera shape APIs.
  • Allow your end-users to create or change camera shapes using built-in dialogs.
New Camera Shapes

Import/export camera shapes in Microsoft Excel 2003/2007/2010

Improved Excel Import/Export Performance

Enhancements have improved the performance by up to 50%.

New Spread Designer Capabilities

Spread Designer

Create and edit sparklines using the new sparkline tools. Also, use the new camera tool to create camera shapes and advanced spreadsheet dashboards.

What's New in Spread ASP.NET?

Spread.NET introduces new browser client-side support features in the latest version of the ASP.NET product:

  • New standards support for Internet Explorer 9.
  • Enhanced client scripting to support Firefox 4.
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