DataGridView and GridControl (Legacy) - Comparison

• Jun 26, 2020
• 5 minutes to read

This document compares the DataGridView for Xamarin.Forms with the legacy GridControl, and describes the differences in features, API, and behavior of these controls.

Features

This table lists features of the new DataGridView that the legacy GridControl does not support:

Feature	Related API
Input Validation	DataGridView.ValidateCell DataGridView.ValidationError EditFormPage.ValidateCell EditFormPage.ValidateForm
Templates	DataGridView.ColumnHeaderContentTemplate / GridColumn.HeaderContentTemplate DataGridView.GroupCaptionTemplate / GridColumn.GroupCaptionTemplate DataGridView.GroupRowTemplate DataGridView.GroupSummaryTemplate DataGridView.SwipeItemTemplate / SwipeItem.Template DataGridView.TotalSummaryTemplate / GridColumn.TotalSummaryTemplate
Multi-Row Column Layout	DataGridView.AdvancedColumnLayout AdvancedColumnLayout.ColumnDefinitions / AdvancedColumnLayout.RowDefinitions GridColumn.Row / GridColumn.Column GridColumn.RowSpan / GridColumn.ColumnSpan
Row Drag and Drop	DataGridView.AllowDragDropRows / DataGridView.AllowDragDropSortedRows DataGridView.RowDragPreviewTemplate DataGridView.RowDragPreviewShadowColor DataGridView.DragRow DataGridView.DragRowOver DataGridView.DropRow DataGridView.CompleteRowDragDrop
Row Auto Height	DataGridView.RowHeight DataGridView.GroupRowHeight If these properties are set to -1, the grid adjusts the height of rows to display cells’ content.
Cascade Data Update	DataGridView.AllowCascadeUpdate DataGridView.AllowCascadeTreeCreation
Column Header Visibility	DataGridView.IsColumnHeaderVisible
Scrollbar Visibility	DataGridView.IsHorizontalScrollBarVisible DataGridView.IsVerticalScrollBarVisible
Column’s Properties	EditFormCaption GroupCaptionDisplayFormat HeaderCaptionLineBreakMode HorizontalContentAlignment MaxWidth
Grid’s Visual Updates	DataGridView.IsUpdateLocked DataGridView.BeginUpdate() / DataGridView.EndUpdate()
Refresh Indicator Visibility	DataGridView.IsRefreshing
	IRowData.CanGetFieldValue(String)

The following table list the GridControl‘s features that the new DataGridView does not support:

Feature	Related API
New Item Row	GridControl.NewItemRowVisibility GridControl.InitNewRow
Auto-Filter Panel	GridControl.AutoFilterPanelVisibility GridControl.AutoFilterPanelHeight GridColumn.AllowAutoFilter GridColumn.AutoFilterCondition GridColumn.AutoFilterValue GridColumn.ColumnFilterMode GridColumn.ImmediateUpdateAutoFilter
Filter Panel	GridControl.FilterPanelVisibility GridControl.FilterPanelHeight
Popup Menu	GridControl.PopupMenuCustomization GridControl.AllowDeleteRows GridControl.AllowEditRows GridControl.AllowGroup GridColumn.AllowGroup GridControl.HighlightMenuTargetElements GridControl.IsColumnMenuEnabled GridControl.IsGroupRowMenuEnabled GridControl.IsRowCellMenuEnabled GridControl.IsTotalSummaryMenuEnabled
Column Chooser	GridControl.IsColumnChooserEnabled GridControl.ShowColumnChooser() GridControl.HideColumnChooser()
Resizing Columns from UI	GridControl.AllowResizeColumns
Horizontal Scrolling Virtualization	GridControl.AllowHorizontalScrollingVirtualization
Conditional Formatting	GridControl.FormatConditions
Export to Excel	GridControl.ExportToExcel(Stream, ExportTarget) GridControl.OptionsExportXls GridControl.OptionsExportXlsx GridControl.OptionsExportCsv
Serialization	GridControl.RestoreLayoutFromStream(Stream) GridControl.RestoreLayoutFromXml(String) GridControl.SaveLayoutToStream(Stream) GridControl.SaveLayoutToXml()
Miscellaneous	GridControl.FindRowByValue(GridColumn, Object) GridControl.IsGroupCollapsed(Int32) GridControl.Redraw(Boolean) GridControl.Dispose() GridControl.LoadInVisualTree() GridControl.FilterApplied GridControl.HorizontalScrollOffsetChanged CustomizeCellDisplayTextEventArgs.Source

Behavior

This section describes differences in implementation and behavior of the functionality that the DataGridView and GridControl support.

Editing Rows

Editor	DataGridView (New) Learn more…	GridControl (Legacy) Learn more…
In-place	In-place cell editor The grid automatically commits the edited cell value when a user taps outside the cell being edited. Use the DataGridView.EditorShowMode property to specify a gesture that invokes an in-place editor for a cell.	In-place row editor The grid invokes the in-place row editor (RowEditMode = Inplace) when a user double taps a data cell.
Edit Form	To allow users to edit cell values via an edit form, create an EditFormPage instance and handle the grid’s event (for example, Tap or DoubleTap) to specify a gesture that invokes the edit form.	The grid invokes an edit form according to the RowEditMode property value. To replace the default row edit form with a custom form, use the EditFormContent property.
		GridControl.AllowEditRows - Specifies whether users are allowed to change cell values in the grid.

Load More

The new grid automatically performs the load-more operation unless data rows fill the entire viewport or the number of visible rows does not change.

Swipe Actions

DataGridView (New) Learn more…	GridControl (Legacy) Learn more…
DataGridView.StartSwipeItems DataGridView.EndSwipeItems SwipeItem	GridControl.LeftSwipeButtons GridControl.RightSwipeButtons SwipeButtonInfo
SwipeItem.Tap	GridControl.SwipeButtonClick GridControl.SwipeButtonCommand
-	GridControl.SwipeButtonShowing
The grid can display an icon within a swipe item and use a custom template that defines a swipe item’s appearance.	-
DataGridView.FullSwipeMode	-

Themes

DataGridView (New) Learn more…	GridControl (Legacy) Learn more…
Light and Dark built-in themes C# using Xamarin.Forms; using DevExpress.XamarinForms.Core.Themes; // ... ThemeManager.ThemeName = Theme.Dark;	Light and Dark built-in themes C# using Xamarin.Forms; using DevExpress.Mobile.DataGrid.Theme; // ... ThemeManager.ThemeName = Themes.Dark;
When the ThemeManager applies a theme, it adds implicit styles for a grid and its elements to the application’s ResourceDictionary. You can use special target types (for example, CellStyle, GroupRowStyle, ColumnHeaderStyle, etc.) to create custom styles lower in the view hierarchy so that these styles override original styles (defined at the application level). All grids for which the corresponding resource is available uses these custom styles. You can also apply a custom style to a specific grid instance. To do this, use this grid’s *Style properties (CellStyle, GroupRowStyle, ColumnHeaderStyle, etc.). Learn more…	To customize the applied theme, use the ThemeBase class. Its properties provide access to different customizers that you can use to change appearance settings (for example, font attributes, border and background colors, etc.) of the grid’s visual elements (data cells, group rows, filter panel, etc.). Learn more…

Column Width

	DataGridView (New)	GridControl (Legacy)
API	GridColumn.Width - Specifies the column width as a GridLength value. Allows you to define absolute (for example, 50) or proportional (for example, 2*) width value, but does not support the Auto option. GridColumn.MinWidth GridColumn.MaxWidth	GridControl.ColumnsAutoWidth GridColumn.Width - Specifies the column width in density-independent pixels.   GridColumn.MinWidth
Behavior	The grid adjusts column widths so that the total width of all columns equals the grid’s width. When you set the Width property for a column, the grid automatically changes the widths of other columns. To specify the minimum and maximum column width, use the MinWidth and MaxWidth properties. If the total column width exceeds the grid’s width, horizontal scrolling is enabled.	ColumnsAutoWidth = true The grid adjusts column widths so that the total width of all columns equals the grid’s width. If you set the Width property only for one column, and there are other columns that do not have this property defined, the grid uses your width value for this column and decreases the widths of columns with an unspecified width. However, if you set the Width for all columns, or if specific columns whose width is not defined already reached their MinWidth value, the grid adjusts the width of all other columns in proportion to their defined Width but not less than MinWidth.   ColumnsAutoWidth = false A column’s width is specified by its Width property. If the total column width exceeds the grid’s width, horizontal scrolling is enabled.

Grid in the StackLayout Container

DataGridView (New)	GridControl (Legacy)
The grid height is equal to the height of the device’s screen, regardless of the number of data items.	The grid can change its height to show all data rows.

Miscellaneous

The new grid’s CustomizeCellDisplayTextEventHandler has a sender parameter.

Renamed API

DataGridView (New)	GridControl (Legacy)
Namespace: DevExpress.XamarinForms.*	Namespace: DevExpress.Mobile.*
CheckBoxColumn	SwitchColumn
Tap TapConfirmed DoubleTap LongPress	RowTap RowDoubleTap
DataGridView.SelectedItem	GridControl.SelectedDataObject
DataGridView.GetGroup(Int32)	GridControl.GetGroupInfo(Int32)
IGroupInfo.GroupValue	IGroupInfo.Value
DataGridView.GroupCollapsing DataGridView.GroupExpanding DataGridView.GroupCollapsed DataGridView.GroupExpanded	GridControl.GroupRowCollapsing GridControl.GroupRowExpanding GridControl.GroupRowCollapsed GridControl.GroupRowExpanded
GridColumn.HorizontalContentAlignment	GridColumn.ContentAlignment
GridColumn.HeaderContentTemplate	GridColumn.HeaderTemplate
CellData.Item	CellData.Source
DataGridView.SelectionChanged event’s argument type: SelectionChangedEventArgs with the Item property	GridControl.SelectionChanged event’s argument type: RowEventArgs
DataGridView.OpenEditor(Int32, String)	GridControl.OpenEditor(CellIndex)
DataGridView.CustomCellStyle	GridControl.CustomizeCell