Soon I will offer a free version of the Jedi Library for download with the following contents:

• JediGrid (an optimized DataGridView with support for groups, treeview and tiles, with the fastest generic auto sorting, up to 10 times faster than other professional data grids)
• DockPanel (allows to group and nest panels with each other with the possibility to move them on runtime while performing a neat visual animation, introducing the smart placing algorithm)
• Sidebar (A combination of windows sidebar and outlook sidebar, containing sections and groups)
• GlossyRenderer (Non visual control, but provides functionality to paint neat backgrounds that are used by all controls of the Jedi library)
• BreadcrumbBar (An implementation of a breadcrumb bar as you know from window vista's explorer).

   

The library will be free of charge for private use though it is not allowed to use it for professional applications without permission!

• JediGrid
• DockPanel
• GlossyRenderer
• Sidebar
• BreadcrumbBar

for for details about the JediGrid see the PowerPoint presentation:

http://www.msnusers.com/n17u6qt1kivpohh9q0l6njksc1/Documents/JediPanel2.pptx

While developing the new DOCexplorer, I created a class that allows to find objects in any Ilist class, by specifiying criterias that match for the object and it's properties.

The Listsearcher class uses reflection to determine the public properties of the object within the list, and thus can perform a search for each property value.

The search can be simple or complex by specifying an expression string with various kinds of comparisons and boolesic arithmetic, including nested brackets.

For instance:

• James
• "James Bond"
• James & Bond
• James and Bond
• James or Bond
• Name:Bond & FirstName has "ame"
• (Name=Bond or Name="Smith") and (FirstName="Jim")

Are valid expressions.

If no property name is specified, the comparer uses the object.ToString() result to compare, otherwhise the specified property. It's even not necessary to write the complete name of the property. Eq. if there is a property with the name "DayOfBirth", you can simply specify it by using the first letters, ignoring the charcase. So "day:1973" is a valid expression.

With the LocaleProvider class (which has also been developed by myself to enable multilinguale applications as easy as possible) it's also possible, to specify more than one name for a property, thus the "DayOfBirth" property may be also accessed as "born", which is simpler to write and remember.

To optimize the performance while searching, the Listsearcher compiles an "in memory" class depending on the expression so the search is performed with full speed, as if it was written for this special purpose, as it IS compiled for this special purpose!

Of course, the need to parse the expression and to compile it, before using it slows down a little bit, but that is not recognizable.

The Listsearcher together with the developed UI input panel makes it easy to perform complex searches for any kinds of lists without the need to implement any search algorithm for the list.