MatchPoint Version 3.1.5 Released

Date: 28.08.2013

MatchPoint version 3.1.5 is available for download in the download section. This version contains new features and changes along with bug fixes. All these changes are listed in the release notes document also available in the download section.

Here is a quick overview of the most important changes in this version.

Custom Web Part Chrome Support

All configuration types of the MatchPoint Web Parts have a new configuration element called Chrome. In this configuration element Web Part settings controling the appearance and layout can be specified. Addionally HTML markup defining the header and the footer of the Web Part can be specified in this configuration element. Also, the visibility of the Web Part can be defined by an expression to show or hide the Web Part in the containing page.

Chart Web Part Custom Color Schemes Support

The Chart Web Part allows to specify an expression to define a custom color scheme. The specified expression is expected to return an array of color definitions, where a color definition can either be an instance of System.Drawing.Color.aspx) or a value which is convertable by the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebColorConverter.aspx) class.

Composite Web Part Lazy Loading

The configuration of the Composite Web Part has a new property EnableLazyLoading, which, if enabled, causes the Composite Web Part to load its contents with an AJAX callback after the containing page has been loaded. This behavior is similar to the already existing lazy loading functionality of the Data Grid Web Part.

Refinement Web Part Root Nodes Sorting

The root nodes in the Refinement Web Part are sorted alphabetically regardless of the sort order defined by the columns in the configuration of the Refinement Web Part. With this version of MatchPoint a new configuration flag called UseColumnSortOrder is introduced. If this flag is enabled the root nodes of the tree in the Refinement Web Part are sorted according to the sort order of the columns defined in the configuration.

Data Provider Caching Optimization

Data providers defined in the configuration of a Web Part had a cache key assigned, which was stored in the XML data of the configuration. The cache key is used to cache the data provided by the data provider. If such a cache key was shared in case of a shared configuration, the caching mechanism did not work optimal.

In order to optimize this issue, the cache key is now provided by the Web Part and the cache key in the configuration is no longer used. The MatchPoint API was adapted to accomplish this improvements. The adaptations contain the addition of methods and the declaration of obsolete methods, but backward compatibility was maintained.

In case you have implemented a custom data provider extending the Colygon.MatchPoint.Core.DataProviders.BaseDataProvider class or another data provider class of the MatchPoint API you should override the newly introduced CreateInstance method that has a cacheKey parameter.
Also, if your custom data provider implementation includes a class extending the Colygon.MatchPoint.Core.DataProviders.BaseDataProviderInstance you should call the newly introduced constructor that has a cacheKey parameter. These adaptions are necessary if you want to benefit from the mentioned caching optimizations.