DataGrid - Somehow an Achilles' heel?

[marcosgerene]

Hi folks,

I have been developing with WPF since 2019, but I do not consider myself a master in WPF. I am a background guy and use things like MahApps to make my life easier.

It has also been a while since I started considering (actually, it is already decided now) rewriting the entire UI of my software in Avalonia. The idea of keeping my ViewModels the same and running my application on macOS/Linux/Android Tablets makes me very excited.

Well, just to give you some context, my application is an ERP with something between 200-250 windows. I asked some questions and provided some information/screenshots here: #14188.

I have built some small applications in Avalonia to understand and learn about it, and I had no big problems, but I feel like DataGrid is an Achilles' heel.

Why do I feel like this:
Again, I am not the guy who takes Avalonia and makes big changes; I would use things like Avalonia.Material, Ursa, ActivePro... I want productivity even if I have to pay for a component like ActivePro.Avalonia.

I found everything I wanted for my ERP; even my reports, which are built upon FastReports, have a solution now. But DataGrid does not have (I did not find) solutions, even paid ones.

Things like https://github.com/dotnet/DataGridExtensions are not available. I asked on Ursa about this: irihitech/Ursa.Avalonia#128.

My whole point is: How true is my feeling? Am I not knowing how to search? Is there any better solution for DataGrids (open-source or not)?

[robloo]

DataGrid and table views in general are a problem in this type of framework, and not just for Avalonia.

• It took forever for WPF's DataGrid to finally be added. This is still the most powerful first-partly DataGrid ever for a XAML platform... but it does have it's quirks. It was NOT open source at the time Avalonia first ported it's DataGrid. Issues with WPF's DataGrid include:
  • It's complexity to maintain -- it's the biggest control to date
  • It's not AOT friendly which is an issue today (Wasn't at the time)
  • It's not MVVM friendly. Columns and a lot of the setup still has to be done in code-behind.
• Silverlight also needed a DataGrid so wrote another version of it. That Silverlight version is less powerful and has even more quirks (more like actual bugs in this case). However, it's the one other frameworks derived from as it was the first one open sourced. This is the version ported to Avalonia. It is also the version used in UWP's community toolkit at the time.
• WPF also had something no other XAML framework has (exception noted next): a very light-weight grid/table control. This was the GridView view of a ListView and it was really easy to throw up a table of values (without needing anything advanced).
• Very recently WinUI added the TableView in the community toolkit which is an attempt at a light-weight control again. This isn't widely used and is a completely new API.
• Avalonia, in an attempt to fix some pre-existing issues and add new use cases, developed a new TreeDataGrid control. This one is AOT friendly and highly performant (more than DataGrid). However, it's missing a lot of functionality and doesn't really focus on MVVM at all. It's still the recommended "table" control to use if you can though.

So as can be seen this is still an unsolved problem and the whole ecosystem is still searching for a general-purpose solution. This also says nothing about 3rd party DataGrids of which you can find the best implementations. Some 3rd party controls are MVVM friendly and support very complex things in a simple way -- these controls likely took thousands of hours to develop though.

Someday Avalonia might attempt a port of WPF's DataGrid. Someday we might have a light-weight TableView or GridView control as well. However, right now use TreeDataGrid if you can first then fall back to the current DataGrid second. Third-party more advanced controls will hopefully step in here too.

[marcosgerene]

@robloo Thanks, you teach me a lot!

The sad part is I was kind of right, DataGrid is an Achilles' heel, not just for Avalonia but also for Avalonia. =(

[rabbitism]

Sorry I didn't reply you in my Ursa repo because I was so addicted to my calendar view...
In general we do have plan to migrate some heavy DataGrid controls, but we are lack of people (and I'm also busy looking for investors these days).
If you need it urgently, you can check https://eremexcontrols.net/ , it is not free, but afaik, their DataGrid is almost competitive to DevExpress ones.

[marcosgerene]

@rabbitism

In fact you did answer all my questions! I know you have a limited team there, actually I think the work you have already done is amazing.

However, as I said I am looking for some DataGrid components for a while and before eremex you just mentioned I had not seem anything.

Thanks a lot for your effort!

[timunie]

Filtering and sorting should be in the VM layer imo. A filter in the control itself would heavily rely on reflection which is not perfect for several reasons imo.

[marcosgerene]

@timunie

I can't discuss this in a deep way, I don't have enough knowledge to this, but...

I think even though it should not be in the "base" component it could be some solution to this, as an "super DataGrid" developed by a company as ActivePro (or Eremex as @rabbitism has mentioned before). It is hard to find even paid solutions to this.

The idea o this "lack of solution" is an Achilles' heel, that was my point.

[timunie]

Sure, it would be great to have a huge 3rd party eco system available and I'm sure it will grow further. But right now,

[thevortexcloud]

One less than ideal solution is to use XPF hybrid which will let you run third party WPF controls inside Avalonia on most of the platforms Avalonia supports. The Teleirk grid stuff for example apparently works.

https://avaloniaui.net/xpf/packages/telerik

You could also probably use MAUI controls with MAUI hybrid stuff.

https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/AvaloniaMauiHybrid

Although MAUI does not support the same platforms as Avalonia, so that may not work for you.

[marcosgerene]

@thevortexcloud
I think XPF is a great solution, but the idea of have a new project with something "adapted" from WPF does not sound well to me.

I have consired XPF to my actual WPF project, but I have decided to rewrite the entire UI, I will do this using only Avalonia things. My first idea was to use only open-source solutions, but I face a lack of solutions on DataGrid.

By now I will try the new TreeDataGrid and maybe adapt some functions if needed.