The Evolution of Webix from 8 to 8.4

Webix JavaScript UI library continues its sustainable development despite Corona, closed borders, and home office hours. The Webix team is closely cooperating with its customers, who can provide valuable feedback and inspire the developers either to improve existing products or to come up with something new. Let’s revise the most remarkable features changed or acquired from Webix 8.0 to Webix 8.4.

Webix 8.0

It was released last autumn. The main events appeared to be the complex widgets Scheduler and Gantt. The former one received desktop and compact modes and a completely new API and structure. The latter one is a newcomer. The Gantt widget is used for project management, it assists in setting up tasks, customizing them, and establishing links between them.

Spreadsheet updates

With Webix 8.0 it has become possible to export all the data to PDF. Besides that, additional options in the menu appeared leading to a more convenient grid setting.

Other changes include the Timeline widget with an added opportunity to align items horizontally. Also, the ColorBoard was updated. One more pleasant improvement was made for the Datatable. The HTML table was removed from the header resulting in a faster rendering speed of the widget.

Webix 8.1

This release happened last winter and it brought a couple of useful enhancements to the library. The most important of them was a new Webix widget Report Manager. It was created to deal with big data reports. The data can be presented in three various ways (tables, graphs, heat maps). The created reports can be exported in Excel and CSV formats.

Gantt updates

The ability to create projects and milestones was added to the functionality of Gantt. Besides, markers were introduced, which contribute to the visual clarity of the information in the tasks.

Webix 8.2

Spring 2021 was cold but it didn’t influence the speed of the Webix library development. The Webix team never stops improving its products, so, logically, minor and major advancements appear long after the widget was released. Gantt is no exception. The ability to allocate resources to projects and tasks was introduced with Webix 8.2. This new functionality allows users to see assigned and unassigned tasks, as well as to keep the track of the resources. One more significant change is the introduction of the critical path. This tool has provided an opportunity to visualize the most important parts of the project and to apply the workflow efficiently. The developers worked hard, so one more improvement to the Gantt widget is the ability to exclude holidays from task duration.

Spreadsheet and File Manager updates

With Webix 8.2 formulas were improved in Spreadsheet ensuring reliable mathematical calculations throughout the whole app. Turning to File Manager, it can now open and edit several text files at the same time.

With version 8.2, significant refreshments were made in the Webix Core. The Tabbar popup was tuned. In the Datatable resizing of the columns can be disabled and it has become possible to work with hidden columns.

Webix 8.3

Webix 8.3 was released in spring 2021. The new Diagram widget replaced the Organogram. The new widget is a complete library of various types of diagrams to be used in your project. All the diagrams are easily set. The options of automatical placement and cyclic dependencies are included. One more nice thing about this widget is that you can develop your own shape of the blocks, customize links between them and make your diagram look unique.

Other important updates

Finally, Timeline and Unit views were introduced for the Scheduler widget. Events can be grouped and you can arrange several groups within a day.

Splitting tasks is a new feature in Gantt. Using drag-n-drop users can now manage their tasks right on the scale.

In the Spreadsheet, you can now hide the columns and rows in an Excel manner, and they will be skipped if exported to PDF or CSV.

An option to call your family and friends is added to the Webix Chat. The interface resembles any other platform with similar functionality.

Webix 8.4

We have come to the most recent version of the library. The Diagram Editor was introduced to facilitate the work with the Diagram widget. With the help of the Editor, you can move and resize the blocks of the diagram, as well as change the setting of the links, create arrows, and provide any style settings to all items of the diagram.

The Chat widget has received a possibility of video calls with Webix 8.4. The interface is the same as in any other similar solution.

Minor updates of the latest Webix version include improvements on Gantt reordering operations and Spreadsheet conditional cells formatting.

Conclusion

All the changes and improvements are made due to the feedback from the Webix customers. Regular interviews with the users provide the Webix team with enough fruit for thought. There is no limit to perfection and the developers of the library will continue doing their best to satisfy the expectations of the clients. See you soon with the latest news!