DevExpress WinForms Data Editors

The DevExpress Editors suite (DevExpress.XtraEditors) is a family of standalone WinForms input controls plus the repository-item infrastructure that lets the same editor be embedded into data-aware controls (Data Grid, TreeList, Ribbon, etc.). Almost every editor derives from BaseEdit, which contributes the bindable EditValue property; a smaller set of controls inherit from BaseControl directly and are used for display, action, or layout — buttons, labels, list boxes, navigators.

This skill covers three things at once:

1. The editor hierarchy — the BaseEdit tree (TextEdit branch, BaseCheckEdit branch, PictureEdit, ProgressBar, RadioGroup, RatingControl, TrackBar, TokenEdit, SparklineEdit), the non-BaseEdit controls, and how to pick the right one.
2. Masks — the input-mask system shared across TextEdit descendants: Numeric, DateTime/DateOnly/TimeOnly/DateTimeOffset, Simple, TimeSpan, RegEx (Extended Regular Expressions), Simplified RegEx, including the MaskSettings.Configure<> fluent API and the EditMask data-annotation attributes.
3. Editor buttons — EditorButton, ButtonPredefines, EditorButtonImageOptions, Properties.Buttons collection, click handling, captions/icons/tooltips, in ButtonEdit descendants (ButtonEdit, ComboBoxEdit, LookUpEdit, SpinEdit, BrowsePathEdit, PopupBaseEdit, ColorPickEdit, PopupGalleryEdit, PopupContainerEdit).

When to Use This Skill

• Adding any DevExpress editor to a form for text, number, date, time, lookup, color, image, file path, etc.
• Choosing between editor families (TextEdit vs ButtonEdit vs ComboBoxEdit vs LookUpEdit vs GridLookUpEdit vs SearchLookUpEdit; DateEdit vs TimeEdit vs DateTimeOffsetEdit; CheckEdit vs ToggleSwitch; ProgressBarControl vs MarqueeProgressBarControl).
• Knowing what is not a BaseEdit (no EditValue) and when to use a simple control instead — labels, buttons, list boxes, breadcrumb, navigator.
• Applying input masks, including DateTime, Numeric (c, n, p, f, d), Simple metacharacter patterns, RegEx patterns, and culture-aware behavior.
• Adding, customizing, hiding, or removing buttons in ButtonEdit descendants — predefined glyphs (ButtonPredefines.Ellipsis, Search, Plus, Minus, Up, Down, Clear, Delete, OK, Close, Right, Left, Combo, DropDown, …), custom SVG/raster images, captions, alignment, tooltips, and click events.
• Hiding the text box (TextEditStyle.HideTextEditor) or making it read-only (DisableTextEditor).
• Embedding editors into the Grid / TreeList / Ribbon via repository items.