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Published Nov 9, 2023 ⦁ 4 min read

Devextreme's key features for developers

Introduction to Devextreme

Devextreme is a feature-rich JavaScript UI component library from DevExpress that helps developers quickly build responsive web applications. With over 65 widgets like interactive data grids, charts, and scheduler calendars, Devextreme provides the building blocks for full-featured web UIs.

Created specifically for JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue, Devextreme has amassed over 500,000 npm downloads per month and an active open source community on GitHub.

In this post, we'll explore some of Devextreme's most useful capabilities for developers building modern web apps and sites. We'll look at its large library of widgets, developer-friendly features, robust data handling, and cross-platform support. Let's dive into the key strengths of this popular toolkit for web development.

Extensive Library of Widgets and UI Components

Devextreme includes over 65 responsive UI components ranging from complex data grids and scheduler calendars to navigation controls and data editors. These provide the building blocks for crafting full-featured web UIs.

Some of the most popular Devextreme widgets include:

Data Visualization

  • Charts - Bar, line, area, pie, and more to visualize data. The scatter chart can show correlations between data points.
  • PivotGrid - Interactive pivot table for data analysis.
  • TreeMap - Display hierarchical data using nested rectangle maps.
  • Gauge - Linear and radial gauge types to illustrate business metrics.

Data Editing

  • DataGrid - Feature-rich grid with sorting, filtering, row editing, and selection.
  • Scheduler - Full calendar for scheduling events and appointments.
  • TreeList - Tables to show hierarchical data in columns and rows.

Navigation

  • Menu - Vertical, horizontal, and adaptive menu widgets.
  • Drawer - Sliding navigation drawer for toggling hidden side content.

The components provide out-of-the-box Material Design styling but can be customized via templates, events, and API options. Devextreme emphasizes accessibility, with UI widgets supporting ARIA, keyboard shortcuts, screen readers, and other compliant features.

Designed for Developer Happiness

Devextreme aims to make developers happy by providing a familiar set of UI tools for their framework of choice. Its developer-centric features allow customizing apps to match your needs.

Get Started Quickly

  • Starter projects with React, Angular, Vue contain examples to modify.
  • Prebuilt Material Design theme gets styling setup fast.
  • Responsive works across desktop and mobile out of the box.

Customizable and Extensible

  • DevExtreme templates let you customize UI layouts.
  • Plugins extend components.
  • Theming API and CSS hooks available for styling.

Performance Optimized

  • Virtual scrolling renders only visible rows.
  • Server-side operations reduce data transfer.
  • DataGrid supports grouping, filtering for fast rendering.

With over 100,000 commits on GitHub, Devextreme has an active open source community improving the library daily.

Powerful Data Layer

Devextreme provides a robust data layer for connecting UIs to data sources and enabling server communication.

Flexible Data Binding

  • Bind UI components to JSON, OData, APIs.
  • Enable real-time updates using WebSockets. 
dataGrid.dataSource = new DataSource({
  // binds grid to REST API
  url: "https://myserver/api/orders" 
});

Validation and Editing

  • Apply data validation rules per field.
  • Show errors during editing.
  • Batch changes for transactional updates.

Remote Data Operations

  • Server paging, filtering, grouping.
  • Custom server-side loading logic.
  • Partial model updates minimize traffic.

These features allow building complete workflows for managing data, from creating to editing and viewing records.

Cross-Platform Support

Devextreme lets you build apps that work great across desktop and mobile, with built-in accessibility, internationalization, and framework support.

Mobile and Touch

  • Responsive design adapts UIs across resolutions.
  • Performant animations and transitions.
  • ScrollView widget designed for mobile UX.

Globalization

  • Right-to-left layout support.
  • Localization and translations.
  • Format dates, numbers, currencies.

Accessibility

  • WCAG and ARIA compliance.
  • Keyboard navigation.
  • High contrast themes.

Multi-Framework

  • Official support for React, Angular, Vue.
  • Can be used with jQuery or plain JavaScript.

Summary - Key Advantages of Devextreme

For developers looking to enhance their apps with powerful widgets, responsive UIs, and robust data handling, Devextreme is a compelling choice.

Key strengths include:

  • Large library of customizable UI components
  • Developer-friendly features like starters and themes
  • Declarative components for React, Angular, Vue
  • Advanced data binding, validation, editing
  • Optimized performance and customization
  • Cross-platform support and accessibility

With a vibrant open source community providing enhancements, docs, and support, Devextreme has become a popular toolkit for building feature-rich web applications.

To learn more about Devextreme and explore its full component library, check out the official website which offers demos, API references, and guides to get started. The GitHub project is also a great resource for code examples using Devextreme and contributions from the community.

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