I'm in the process of building a web cms platform. And I've come to a point where I have to choose what actually goes in the pages (I've been building the "core" for now).
What do you think is the best option and could you give me your reasons for choosing that?
Currently I'm looking at jQuery UI, Telerik, and I'm also juggling with the idea of just building controls by myself, but I think that's too much of a hassle for little gain...
I'd love to hear your opinions, thanks!
I built my own CMS solely on the Telerik ASP.NET Ajax tools. It's really good, and if you're careful, performance will be comparable to jQuery-UI. If you're just doing it for "one client at a time", why not grab a copy of SiteFinity and include the licensing cost in the overall price?
jQuery has some really great tools too, but I prefer the simple nature of the Telerik tools.
Related
My team is currently working on a substantial update to an existing ASP.NET 3.5 application which uses the Ajax Control Toolkit on virtually every page. We've found that in many cases that its use is unwarranted (clearly a previous developer decided to "Ajaxafy" everything), and a richer - and simpler - experience can be found using jQuery.
We've also found that the AjaxControlToolkit can be a pain to work with frankly in terms of maintainability and performance when you have half a dozen developers working it. We're debating scrapping its use completely, and going with jQuery for the UI experience. We're fortunate to have enough time to do this safely, and every feature we use can be replicated without any problems (AutoComplete, Calendar Control, etc).
It seems Microsoft are siding with jQuery with its addition to Visual Studio lately, and the current Ajax Control Toolkit isn't in ASP MVC (client side files only). Therefore I'm personally siding with jQuery for the moment, as it seems to have a future, while the Control Toolkit's future is a little more cloudy.
However, from a maintainability perspective, how is jQuery to work with?
It's essentially just Javascript, so no plugins required. Are updates stable, and do they often break existing functionality?
We use jquery extensively with asp.net 3.5 and have upgrade jquery and jquery ui about 3 times without a hitch. Both times we have had noticeable speed increases. Maintenance has never been an issue in about 2 years of use with 5 developers.
We find jQuery very readable and enjoyable to code with.
Don't give up on AJAX just yet. Both AJAX and jQuery are useful as long as you're using them to do what they're suited to. I really don't see too much of a difference in maintainability, it's all still code. You need to test new releases/updates before putting them into production; vet any 3rd party code you're integrating into your code base, and make sure that you're not using AJAX/jQuery to pound a square peg into a round hole.
As to the pros/cons of AJAX vs jQuery:
AJAX beats out jQuery when it comes to:
Server-Side integration
CLR Features and Feel
JSON and WCF
jQuery beats out AJAX when it comes to:
Animations
Being Lightweight
DOM Selection
Attribute / CSS Manipulation
The ACT isn't in MVC because the control structure is deeply embedded in the web forms product; most vendors (like Telerik, Component Art etc) are actually writing a separate code-base for MVC because of the complexity of making it work with two frameworks, although Telerik did a good job of it (you can use the web form controls in MVC, though the MVC-specific controls are much nicer to use).
I like JQuery, and for a project, I believe we are going to go Telerik/JQuery and plugins, so that is always a good bet.
Also, the ACT does have a lot of scripts and may not be applicable in all scenarios, but the real issue is adding too much AJAX when it isn't warranted, something that can be a problem with any other framework too.
HTH.
jQuery is tested pretty extensively. I don't remember a break caused by an update, you mileage may vary. They would likely know about any compat problems and warn about them in the release notes or elsewhere.
Recently i completed on mid level web application where i have used telerik controls,
all the developers in project used native javascript functions as well as telerik
functions to work with javascript.
We faced so many cross browser issues in this approach, we have solved all the issues but i am just wondering that what should be the best approach ?
Do i need to consider JQuery for the next project for avoiding cross browser issues or there is any other option
I want my application should work perfectly in (IE 6+, FF 2+ & Chrome)
Please suggest the appropriate solution.
I prefer using jQuery. It helped me lot to develop rich applications without writing code that target each and every browser.
Also I found their documentation to be relatively simple and have a large user base which is quite an advantage for a library. Also there are plenty of plug ins that are built on top of jQuery.
If you are doing trivial amounts of JS, then a framework is usually going to be more bandwidth than it is worth. (It doesn't sound like you are, but I think it is important to get that statement out of the way first).
Once you get into serious amounts of JavaScript, then it is worth looking at the various frameworks out there.
jQuery is popular. I prefer YUI. I've heard good reports about ExtJS for projects described as "web applications". There are a number of other popular choices.
It is worth evaluating which best suits the sort of projects you are working on.
I used telerik controls in the past, and I have to say that they are quite a pain in the butt. They are very rigid and don't allow you any control. I have found that YUI provides you with a solid javascript framework that has all the features telerik offers, but with non of the limitations.
Check it out here
Most people here will suggest you use jQuery. I would suggest you sketch out your requirements and priorities before starting development on your next project and evaluating libraries based on your list of requirements. Using any large general purpose library such as jQuery or Prototype will have implications (download size/delay for user, code quality, trade-offs between generality and speed) you should be aware of before using them.
as most have already posted, it all depends on what you need to do, i used jQuery, script.aculo.us, and Mootools for some time, and for lightweight effects mootools was the most appropriate, as for support and medium sized projects jQuery. script.aculo.us is pretty usefull as it is based on prototype, but it took me some time to figure out how to actually use it effectively
I personally prefer JQuery and ASP.NET AJAX (Microsoft AJAX Library). There are so many JQuery Plug-in available which you can try them out. As for ASP.NET platform, Microsoft AJAX Library is inevitable because of its simplicity and tight integration with ASP.NET controls. Recently, JQuery has attained citizenship in Visual Studio 2008. This should also be taken into account.
We have questions about free .NET libraries and applications, but I'm curious about what ASP.NET control packages you've used that provide the best bang for your buck. Yes, paid stuff.
I'll get the ball rolling by saying I love the Telerik controls, but their price tag isn't great. The one reason I would say the value is the greatest here because of the licensing, which makes deployment so easy.
[Full Disclosure: I work at Telerik.]
I won't make any statements about which controls are the best- since clearly my opinions would be biased- but I will say that in the "3rd party" component market (in other words, not Microsoft and not open source) the pricing amongst the big players is all about the same. And in general, if you need the rich functionality offered by any of the 3rd party suites, the price is significantly lower than what you'd pay in your own dev time to rebuild the controls from scratch (or even to customize an open source control).
There are some significant differences in the way the licensing is handled, though, and as Josh originally highlighted, Telerik has the most open, "developer friendly" licensing approach. Purchased controls have no license keys to deal with.
Hope that helps.
I have both Telerik and DevExpress and I find myself, more and more, moving away from the Telerik stuff and using more of the DevExpress controls. I particularly like the DevExpress reporting package (the Telerik one was unusable) and the Grid / PivotGrid. However, Telerik does have better AJAX management helpers (although I no longer use them as I've learned enough about "raw" AJAX) and the Telerik Editor control is the best there is.
So...one vote here for DevExpress.
Telerik is by far the most robust for the cost; but you're right that the cost is a bit high.
We use the "Web.UI" suite from ComponentArt and we're very happy with it. You get the source code, redistribution, etc. Makes our web app stand out for sure.
http://componentart.com
The cost of Telerik's / DevExpress controls are CHEAP compared the cost having one or two people develop "something better". I have had developers work two weeks on just a grid with no Ajax, no client side anything and it looked like crap. Unless you have great skill with tools like jQuery and the team all possesses those skills, it is cheaper to go with a purchased library. Stuck on an issue, open a ticket. It's that simple.
Will anyone suggest good 3rd party controls for asp.net development.
Especially gridview.tabcontrols,treeview.Menu
Please suggest controls which scores well on all points below
Easy development,
good performance in run time.
Less page overhead and less page
objects etc.
faster page loading.
I used few but had bad experience on page performance.
Thanks
Swapna MC
The consensus here at SO seems to be DevExpress. Telerik and ComponentArt are good, too. DevExpress seems to be the fastest performer.
How about "obout" controls.
This is suggested by some one .But i am facing performance issues now.Page load is very slow.I am not sure its the controls causing the problem.
swapna
I have experience with Telerik and DevExpress. As others have noted, DevExpress is probably the fastest; however, I still strongly prefer Telerik. Their big advantage is that they have been around a very long time and have a huge support database. Compared to every other .Net control library I've worked with, theirs is, by far, the easiest to get help for.
Considering that each library will have its own nuances and bugs, going with the one with the most vibrant user community and support forum is a smart move.
One more point, DevExpress's AspXPivotGrid is fantastic. Clients absolutely love pivot grids, and they are a smart move for the first report and clients will cut you a lot of slack when they can build their own reports.
telerik asp.net ajax controls provide a quite rich client-side api. it's their most attractive side for me.
I need to make a client able to drag and drop images into category-folders in an ASP.NET 3.5 web-app.
I was hoping that an option existed, that was almost as easy to use as the Reorderlist from Ajax Control Toolkit, and where I did not have to look into JQuery or similar handcoding.
What are your recommendations?
Similar questions have been asked before, like this 6 months ago...: ASP.net AJAX Drag/Drop? where MooTools is recommended, but 6 months is a long time in the ASP.NET/Ajax world, so maybe a better and even simpler option exists now?
Commercial components are also an option - well up to 200$ anyway.
My experience with the Reorder List in the Ajax Control Toolkit, as with many other 3rd party providers, is that most of them don't seem to be worth the effort. Definitely try them before you buy.
Unfortunately a lot of the samples/components out there are all too client-based and always seem to fall short on real-world uses and the sorts of interaction you need with ASP.Net applications (e.g. handling postback). Dragging a div around isn't that complicated, but that's all a lot of examples do. If your needs don't exactly mirror their offering try something else.
The Manning book ASP.NET AJAX in Action is a good reference on code for performing drag and drop. It uses Microsoft.Web.Preview, but this hasn't been updated in quite some time which is a worry. I have created a pretty good drag and drop UI with MS's PreviewDragDrop, it does work cross-browser, and it's pretty easy to code. Preview DLL's aside, the Manning book is great for understanding Microsofts AJAX API.
However, since jQuery is going to be shipped and supported with Visual Studio, I would recommend using it over anything else in a vain attempt to future-proof yourself.
A final piece of advice is never outsource your core competency. If this page is a core part of your offering you're better off implementing it yourself using library code like jQuery or Microsoft.Ajax rather than relying on a 3rd party component. However, if it's just a minor part of your site, then go ahead and use 3rd party controls.
Ref: My Version of Microsoft.Web.Preview.dll is 1.1.61025.0.
i have been very very happy with telerik's treeview control and use it for almost any asp.net application which needs a treeview drag and drop.
they allow free development licenses (not production though) so i guess you should give it a try. go to www.telerik.com and have a look
This is another Mootools suggestion, but you might find the Mif.Tree plugin useful. It's an MIT license. There are also code examples for each of the demos and API docs.
Robert>>
After spending 4-5 painful days of hacks, double-hacks and hacks to get around other hacks, I have come to the same conclusion as you. Especially the reorderlist from the ajax control toolkit drove me to the very edge of insanity.
It seems to me there is no real way around learning JQuery and simply doing the stuff myself. I used to shy away from doing client-side code, but with AJAX so much code has moved away from being just serverside.
JQuery has just been moved to the top of my personal study program.
Jquery has drag and drop controls.
Link
Maybe that will help...