VCL — Early Access Preview (v25.1)

We are just a couple of months away from our next major update (v25.1). This post describes a few VCL-related features we expect to ship in early June and details what’s inside our Early Access Preview (EAP) build. For additional information on what you can expect in our v25.1 release, please refer to VCL – June 2025 Roadmap. 

Active DevExpress VCL Subscribers can download our most recent EAP builds using the DevExpress Download Manager. If you are using a trial version and want to try these preview features today, you can purchase a DevExpress VCL Subscription and this will give you access to the EAP/Beta builds. If you own our Express GridPack, Express Quantum GridPack or Express NavigationPack subscriptions and are ready to upgrade, email us at [email protected].

RAD Studio 12.3 Support

As you would expect, DevExpress v24.2.5+ and v25.1.1+ officially support the most recent versions of RAD Studio (Delphi 12.3 and C++ Builder 12.3 for both 32-bit and 64-bit).

Please take a moment to test our EAP against these IDEs (including 64-bit design-time support) and let us know if you encounter any difficulties/issues. Your early feedback will help us better support RAD Studio 12.3.

RAD Studio Dark Mode at Design Time

We improved developer-specific user experiences and modified DevExpress dialogs and wizards to apply a dark theme, when that has been selected in the IDE.

Simplified Application-Wide Skin

VCL v25.1 additionally propagates global TdxSkinController skin settings to the Layout Control, Navigation Bar, and Bar Manager components (if UseGlobalSkin = True is set in code or in the Project Settings dialog). For the majority of VCL developers, these changes will produce fewer errors and offer simpler configuration steps for common usage scenarios (see examples: one, two, three).

This should not affect customers who prefer advanced/ad-hoc skin customizations or where a global skin is not required (users can also revert to the previous behavior using feature toggles, if needed). Frankly speaking, these enhancements have simplified our own lives, because our VCL installer uses the layout control inside, and in previous versions we had to do skin-related "cherry-picking" for inner elements like check-boxes, etc.

Layout Control

Layout Control users no longer need to deal with TdxLayoutCxLookAndFeel or TdxLayoutSkinLookAndFeel (in most instances). Much like our TdxRibbon control, the TdxLayoutControl now automatically updates its skin settings from a TdxSkinController component in the application (including components added inside the layout control).

dxSkinController1.SkinName := 'WXI';
dxLayoutSkinLookAndFeel1.LookAndFeel.SkinName := dxSkinController1.SkinName;  // Not needed in v25.1+
dxLayoutControl1.LayoutLookAndFeel := dxLayoutSkinLookAndFeel1; // Not needed in v25.1+

To apply an individual skin, you can still modify the TdxLayoutControl.LayoutLookAndFeel.LookAndFeel.SkinName property - local skin settings always override global application settings.

Navigation Bar

We improved the design-time experience for the Navigation Bar control's Appearance Designer: 

• Sorted different views so that skinnable appears at the top.
• Filtered the Color Scheme dropdown based on the available/global project skins.
• Updated icons and added Dark Mode support in the designer.
• Made the Accordion View the default (instead of the Base View for newly added controls).

Bar Manager

Again, if UseGlobalSkin = True is set in code or in the Project Settings dialog, and users did not change the TdxBarManager.Style property (it is not set in DFM and is bmsStandard by default), our Bar Manager automatically updates its skin settings from a TdxSkinController component in the application.

The default Style value depends on the NativeStyle installer setting ("Use native look and feel style as default for DevExpress components"): if it is True, then the default value is bmsUseLookAndFeel, otherwise the default value is bmsEnhanced.

You can revert to previous behavior via UseGlobalSkin = False (in project settings) or global TdxBarManager.DefaultUseGlobalSkin = bFalse (in the module initialization section, when you have multiple places to customize).

Status Bar

The same changes made to TdxBarManager also apply to TdxStatusBar. Similarly, you can revert to previous behavior via UseGlobalSkin = False and TdxStatusBar.DefaultUseGlobalSkin = bFalse. The only differences are:

• The name of the property and its default value - TdxStatusBar.PaintStyle and stpsStandard respectively. 
• Our Status Bar does not depend on installer settings.

When our status bar is skinned, its default height and rendering is slightly different from native style (SkinController.NativeStyle is true) - we consider this more of a "bug fix" than a breaking change, because the overall appearance is now more accurate in v25.1.

v25.1 (PaintStyle = stpsUseLookAndFeel by default)

A Preview of the Report Designer and Report Viewer (Powered by JS/DevExtreme Wrappers for Delphi/C++)

As you recall from our v25.1 roadmap, VCL is taking a big step toward modernization with a new CTP for hybrid reporting that seamlessly integrates the DevExpress JavaScript Report Designer and Viewer. This bridges native VCL apps with modern web-based design capabilities via WebView and ASP.NET Core. All required .NET and JS dependencies are embedded into a single self-contained EXE file transparently (or even magically!) and developers can still use Delphi/C++ for many report customizations - this maintains one of the key advantages of VCL as a platform.

While not currently included in the EAP, I wanted to invite our loyal VCL customers to join the following feature discussion/FAQ thread - I have documented our interim results and some developer experience considerations. We welcome your thoughts on what is coming, how you are going to use it, what is missing or concerns you - your feedback will shape new product development strategies for the rest of this year. Here are a few teaser screenshots from our WIP - some core functionality is already implemented.

Your Feedback Matters

Just another reminder that our What's New in v24.2 and Roadmap surveys give you the opportunity to communicate your needs/concerns so we can make more informed long-term component development decisions.

For additional information on what you can expect in our June release, please refer to our VCL – June 2025 Roadmap.

Thanks,
Dennis Garavsky
Principal Product Manager
[email protected]

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