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Do you have a good experience with a control library? Something that is kind of robust, well documented, consistent (across different controls) and quite well integrated into the Visual Studio.
I'll second the vote for Telerik. Their controls for the most part "just work" and their support has been excellent. I primarily use their forums and I still receive a response within a day (unlike some other vendors who barely seem to notice that they've even got a forum).
It also feels like they've actually spent time trying out a lot of the ways customer's will use their controls. The documentation and support reflects it. They aren't perfect, though. One issue that they had in the past, and that they've addressed in the latest releases (what they were calling their "Prometheus" controls, now just "Rad Controls for ASP.NET AJAX") is the performance of the controls. In previous releases they were definitely a bit sluggish (I'm thinking specifically of their RadGrid and RadEditor). Now they're noticeably faster (esp. the RadEditor - it loads MUCH faster).
Overall I wouldn't think twice of recommending them.
Well, I can only speak about the Infragistics controls - they have a lot of bang for your buck and are well documented, very consistent and are well integrated with the standard ASP.NET programming model, etc.
Begin rant:
I personally think they are bloated and past their prime in today's world of lighter-weight JavaScript libraries and toolkits. Most developers are becoming more and more proficient in such toolkits, so the abstractions provided by Infragistics and other such and similar control vendors are not needed as much.
But that is purely my opinion.
We're huge fans of Telerik here. Their control are all of the things you mention.
I've looked at a lot of control libraries ... too many to count. I like the DevExpress controls as they provided a complete suite for Windows and the Web. They also include charting, gauges and reports. We write apps for Windows and the Web so it makes it easy to transition between the two.
Though, when it comes to a Web environment we try to minimize the custom controls we use, just because of the added bloat.
I don't have a recommendation, but I do have some feedback on the Telerik recommendations. I can't stand their tools myself. The performance of their more complicated controls (e.g., Tree, Grid) is very sluggish and feels very un-web 2.0.
JDash.Net is an Asp.Net Web Forms control library which allows you to easily and seemlessly integrate end user designed dashboards into your application. JDash.Net is browser and database independent
You can provide personalized start pages and modern dashboards to your users.
Your users are able to customize start page of your application and create their own dashboards using your dashlets.
Demo Site
ComponentArt has some pretty cool controls. You might want to check out Telerik as well. Both companies offer pretty easy to use controls that look nice.
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why should i use telerik radcontrols over visual studio built-in controls. Basically i want to know the pros and cons of telerik controls.
I am new in telerik. I really get very less time for learn something new.
So is it worthwhile to choose telerik over other new technologies.
We use Telerik a lot, togheter with the standard set of controls.
Pros
Prevents you from reinventing the wheel. For example, RadScheduleView and their charts are powerful, if you need them.
Tons of controls, for almost any need
Look and feel-consistency
The huge library of demos and examples provide a solid base when you want to rapidly do or test something
Extensive documentation
Great support from the staff and community on their forums
Widely used - almost every issue encountered has an answer
Quite good MVVM-support
Cons
Some controls are sub par performance wise, but it has gotten better over the last few years
You probably wont use most controls
Your application tends to get rather large (even with optimizations)
The learning curve for some of the most useful controls can be steep, depending on the experience you have
Customization of some of the controls is cumbersome
Some controls don't offer much above the standard ones
My tip is to find out what you want to do, and check if they have a control that seems to make the cut - and try it!
Advantages:
By using this control our lots of coding is reduced. For ex:- Telrik Grid automatically handled Pagging,Filter,Sorting...etc. So, we can reduced development time.
Using telerik style builder, we can easily create our custom theme to match our site theme.
Any .net developer get good hand on this control in very short time.
We can get easily support from telerik team, telerik mvp and telerik users.
In trail demo all the features is available, so we can implement this controls in our page and check the how it looks and match our requirement.
Demos and documents available in live. If internet is not available in our system then we can also install this demo in our system and we can check it offline.
The number of control is very high so after buying this control we do not need to buy any other control.
In-addition its controls also provide client side events and api.
RadControls is a complete ASP.NET AJAX development toolset .It includes more than 70 versatile and performance-optimized components that help you build high-quality, professional line-of-business projects. RadControls speed up UI development up to 5 times and allow web developers to focus most of their time on implementing business logic.
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My question is simple and straight forward - Is DevExpress fast enough for real world web application. We're using DevExpress in our company to build a CRM for a client and every page has got lots of controls and its damn slow. On my development server it takes 10sec for a page with around 20 controls to load. Is this good or bad? And can you guys point me to a real life DevExpress application except the ones given on the case study section.
I realize that this question is quite old and the original author has probably long since made a decision. However, when I was personally directed by my company to use DevExpress and I was trying to eek out all of the performance that I could, a Google search would always point to this thread and many like it across the internet. There's always a question, a few anecdotal responses, and usually a PR response from somebody that works for DevExpress. I rarely find honest answers from experienced people.
In the past, I've used Telerik, Infragistic, and DevExpress. From a performance and maintenance perspective, DevExpress is the worst. All of their controls have odd properties and accessors that do not align with what somebody that is familiar with ASP.NET or even HTML would expect. Since the properties and accessors of the controls are so convoluted, you will find that you've written about twice as many lines of code that are necessary in a normal .NET application.
DevExpress controls are rendered out as hugely bloated, nested tables. Some controls expose a lightweight rendering mode that is better, but their styling and functionality do not match with the other DevExpress controls, and I found them to be quite buggy in cross-browser testing.
Custom styling requires many, many custom CSS selectors that force you to code DevExpress class names into your CSS, due to the nested and hidden nature of the control properties. This is very bad practice, since DevExpress can and should be able to change their internal CSS class names whenever they see fit.
These controls also make an absurd number of GET requests to their DXR.axd handler that serves up resources.
There's no doubt that their controls work fine in a Demo environment with only 1 control displayed on the screen, but in the real world, these controls are terrible and should be avoided. Implement your own controls or just download Bootstrap and use native ASP.NET controls. I replaced DevExpress with controls that I created that style the native HTML type that gets rendered from .NET and the following chart illustrates some of the differences in resource usage between the two. There were no changes to the page layout, business layer, data layer, or database code for this swap, just a replacement of DevExpress controls that I'd previously optimized and tried to squeeze every bit of performance out of with my own controls.
Chart Comparing DevExpress to Custom Controls
That's bad, but I wouldn't point straight at the DevExpress controls when assigning blame - I'd be running a profiler against my code to work out where the issue really is.
Soham,
As a general rule, when designing for the web, try to keep your pages light so they can run faster. For example, do you absolutely need 20 controls on one page?
And if they do not need any special functionality then you can use the native rendering.
Also, check out my article on the DevExpress web.config settings to improve performance.
Btw, I work for DevExpress. :)
I have no DevExpress experience, but you may also want to check out Improving Asp.net performance. It might help out as well.
2016 - Over the last 5 years I have used Infragistics, Dev Express, Telerik in that order.
Infragistics I won't even get started on because it is a subject unto itself.
My biggest pet peeve with Dev Express is their controls do add some "bloat" to the overall result. However, some controls do have feature sets that are worthy of the bloat. Certainly their Grid and Pivot grid are complex tools that allow the user to do many things, and i have successfully implemented Devexpress packages that worked both quickly with very good results. I have two problems with Dev Express:
Every time I install a new version, it breaks a significant amount of code, that's both WebForms and MVC implementations. That is quite frustrating, but as programmers to be expected I guess.
They really don't look very nice, you have to go through significant effort to get the to look anything close to a bootstrap table etc. Once done though they do allow all the needed bells and whistles. You could of course as the authors above suggest grow your own, that's always an option, but it's not why people buy controls. They are trying to leverage their time so that they can implement faster of course.
Having said all this, Telerik is the current best of breed, in my opinion by far. Easier to implement, grids are fast, have proper desirable functionality and look better.
If you use 20 Controls containing Textboxes with formlayouts, probably the Server takes a hard time to render that page containing alot of hierarchy of long tags in it. DevExpress is bad on having multiple Controls. Redering one ASPxTextbox Control could take KB compared to hundreds of byte on ASP.net Textbox control.
It very common for an entry page to have more than 20 controls. I did use devexpress for years, the speed and performance are acceptable. We use to build ERP solution.
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We are looking for an ASP.NET compatible data grid that allows for multi-line editing similar to Excel or a WinForms data grid. It must also support very basic keyboard input (tab, arrow keys, return). Note that we are not looking for Excel capabilities (functions, formatting, formulas) ... just a grid for fast data entry.
I've looked at Telerik, Infragistics, ComponentOne, DevExpress, and many others ... all their support teams have said that the controls either do not support multi-line, or do so in such a clunky way that it would be unusable.
Has anyone used any Excel-like grids that they can recommend? The client-side grids seemed closer to what we needed, with Sigma Widgets ( example ) being the closest I've found so far. Extjs's grid was too inflexible, and the jQuery grid was too buggy.
It does not exist today. There are products such as those you have mentioned which have tried, but in my experience none of them will make an experienced Excel user happy.
My company makes Excel compatible spreadsheet components for use with Windows Forms and ASP.NET. We have been getting this question for years, so we have of course considered building one because it looks like a good business. But HTML / JavaScript is just not a suitable platform for building something which "feels right" to users who want it to work like Excel - IMO.
We have settled on the idea of building a spreadsheet control for Silverlight. I believe this will give you the best of both worlds - cross platform rich interactive spreadsheet in the browser which any Excel user would be comfortable with. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen this month or next...
At my previous company, we actually built a spreadsheet component as a Netscape Plugin, as an ActiveX control and as a Java Applet. They had a little bit of success, but none of these technologies ever became ubiquitous in the enterprise for various reasons. I believe Microsoft is finally getting it right with Silverlight and that Silverlight will become the gold standard for browser based Line of Business applications in the Enterprise.
EDIT:
I should have mentioned that the product I alluded to above is Formula One / NET (Netscape Plugin released ~1995), Formula One / ActiveX and Formula One for Java - which is now sold by Actuate as e.Spreadsheet. I left in 2002, but AFAIK they still maintain the Java Applet which is probably the best example of an Excel like UI in the browser (I have no interest in the product any more - in fact we compete to some extent with e.Spreadsheet and intend to have a better answer with a Silverlight control in the future). I did not mention it by name in my original answer because it is a Java product - not a .NET product - but it is a potential answer even for an ASP.NET web site.
Lloyd Cotten correctly comments that Google Docs is an example of a spreadsheet built with HTML / JavaScript. Lloyd says Google Docs "definitely 'feels right' in its similarity to Excel". While I respect Lloyd's opinion, in my experience Google Docs does not 'feel right'. Perhaps this is because I'm a spreadsheet guy. I do know that we talk to potential customers almost every day who are trying to solve the problem of the OP, and they have all looked and cannot find one they are happy with - but of course they would not be calling us if they had so we are dealing with a biased sample and I understand that.
So I just want to clarify that there are in fact plenty of examples of HTML / JavaScript grids and spreadsheets which are usable. It's just that I don't want to have to use them because I expect certain keys to do certain things and a particular level of responsiveness which is just not there today with any of the HTML / JavaScript solutions I have tried (and I look at them regularly because my company could definitely sell such a product if it were feasible to build one that we could be proud of).
How about FarPoint Spread?
I'm in the middle on evaluating FarPoint Spread for ASP.NET, and so far I've been happy with the result.
We ended up using Sigma Grid ... thanks for all the other replies!
Well.. not sure, but I am looking for something similar and I found:
Nitobi
Not sure if it does exactly what you want, although youcan definately move around with cursor keys, and edit inline....
EDIT
Also Essential Objects have a good editor too... seems very like excel...
http://demo.essentialobjects.com/Default.aspx?path=Grid_i1_i20
RealWorld Grid is probably what you are looking for. I'm using it in my projects, and it works perfectly.
Here's their CooglePlex page
I don't think it supports the arrow keys, but it makes multirow editing a breeze.
p.s. seems like you're looking for client-side grids ... this one is server-side. I'll leave the comment there, somebody might find it useful.
I have used the Infragistics grid with success. However, the learning curve is huge (and there's practically no support) and I don't know if there is multi-line editing.
I've used Syncfusion's components and they're quite good, they boast an "Excel-like" editor, though I didn't see multi-line mentioned.
For intranet and IE users Office Web components can be an option. While flying in the face of all things a good web application should be, they let users feel at home in office on the web.
I had great success using the pivot table control combined with MS OLAP a few years ago. User loved it and no wheels needed to be reinvented.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=982B0359-0A86-4FB2-A7EE-5F3A499515DD&displaylang=EN
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164070.aspx
I think http://codethat.com/grid/ is quite good!
Excel Like GridView allows for multiline editing and navigating using the arrow keys, as well as resizing columns and rows.
http://darkroastjava.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/creating-an-excel-like-grid-for-asp-net/ is an extension of that which also supports pasting multi-cell values from the clipboard.
Unfortunately, both only work in IE so far, but that meets my personal needs at this point of time.
dhtmlxGrid (client-side, JavaScript grid) supports multiline feature (demo), keyboard navigation and comes with server-side connector for ASP.NET. In case, someone is still looking for such a grid. Disclosure: I'm a part of the DHTMLX team.
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We are building a web application using C# and SQL server. We are thinking about buying the DevExpress ASP.NET controls. Anybody have any opinions about this tool or have any they would recommend?
I've made extensive use of the DevExpress ASPxGridView and many of their other controls.
As mentioned earlier, the DevExpress controls can create a lot of markup, however, they other a ton of functionality and features. They're pretty easy to use. If all you're needing is a really simple grid control, then it's probably overkill. However, if you want to have features like sorting/grouping, drag-drop re-ordering of columns, hiding and adding columns at run-time, AJAX support, etc. then these controls are awesome.
Recent versions (2009.2 and 2009.3) have introduced a number of performance improvements mainly around reducing the volume of traffic and cycle time involved in round-trips to the server. This has made the controls feel even snappier at the end-user side.
One other key benefit of the DevExpress controls is the support. These guys are excellent at getting back to you with meaningful answers to questions in a timely manner. I also enjoy the fact that they have several releases per year which include enhancements and new functionality. You can see their release history by looking at their release history for the ASPxGridView: http://devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/ASP/Grid/whatsnew.xml
All in all, I think it's a good value for the money.
By the way, I have no affiliation with DevExpress, I'm just a happy customer.
I can't comment on the DevExpress control, but as you were also asking for alternatives:
I was mainly using Telerik RadControls for ASP.NET Ajax in the past. This is a full suite of controls with many controls (have a look at the demos to get an idea). I think these controls are quite powerful, although you'll need to consult the documentation to take advantage of all the features. In addition, I'd like to point out that telerik offers great support (in my experience).
i think the tool is good, but if you are just starting the building of the application i would recommend using asp.net mvc instead of asp.net webforms
I used the DevExpress grid controls on a project and they were excellent. Easy to skin and customise with some great features out of the box like filtering, sorting and AJAX support.
We have used the Infragistics WebGrid. They have great knowledge base and help available from their website.
The feature I liked and implemented was the client side edit of data simulating excel functionality. You can edit the cell by simply moving the arrow keys and without using mouse.
Take a sample look at http://samples.infragistics.com/2009.2/WebFeatureBrowser/Default.aspx
I've used both and my honest opinion is that they are over-engineered (esp. Telerik) and create a lot of muck in the markup. Also, there is always a learning curve involved in successfully adopting any of these offerings. However, if you really do have to have the eye candy, go for it:-)
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We've used the no-longer-supported RichTextBox control as part of our (ASP.NET-based) CMS for a long time, and we'd like to replace it with something lighter-weight and with better cross-browser support. We were originally looking at various ASP.NET components, but I'm wondering if we'd be better off just using an open-source, all-Javascript solution instead.
I'm a recent convert to jQuery, and I've been amazed at what can be done purely on the client side with very compact add-ons like Flexigrid and of course the excellent WMD. I've done a little poking around for all-Javascript editors, and this is what I've found so far:
Batiste jQueryEditor
Xinha
YUI Rich Text Editor
Tiny MCE
FCKeditor
After a superficial review, Tiny MCE looks like a good choice; but I'd be interested in hearing from people in the SO community who have actually used these. Let me know what you think.
I've used TinyMCE. Great across browsers; easy to configure to be extremely light weight and allows you to control what your user can do. Some of the plug-ins (such as the image manager) are great and easy to implement. Nice that it also support the Google Spellchecker so you don't need any libraries installed on your server.
I've used TinyMCE and I must say I'm not a fan. The main issue with it is that when new versions are released, the API can change drastically, making it very difficult to manage upgrades. There seems to be little regard for backwards compatibility.
The YUI editor is quite nice, and really easy to use. It's still beta as far as I know, so I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend it in a production environment.
FCK is a nice editor, and it has ASP.NET support.
I've used FCKeditor, it's a good editor. Pretty easy to use. The newer versions have very good cross browser support.
It's been mentioned, but the memories of that year lost to RadEditor still haunts me.
On the bright side, they have an incredibly vigilant, and apparently numerous support-staff;
so whenever you need to find that little whatnot that's causing that particular day's RadBugs;
you know you can always have them brew up some custom and obscure mini-fix.
After one year of tangoing with that beast, I had to retreat to pastoral C64 GOTO adventures to preserve my sanity...
Alas, we all need our WYSIWYG editors from time to time, and after trying out both (F)CKeditor and TinyMCE in .NET settings, I am humbled by both.
Would choose TinyMCE at gunpoint though...
I was looking for a good editor too last week, tried WMD but is just not easily customized enough compared to markItUp. It's so easy to extend and customize markItUp, function-wise and theme-wise.
OpenWYSIWYG was on my list too but after trying markItUp I got stuck with it. Plus OpenWYSIWYG is not jQuery, it's JavaScript, but open-source and cross-browser.
WebKit.org has a demo of a very nice/subtle text editor, but i don't know if it works in IE at all (It does work in WebKit based browsers (obviously) and Firefox)
I can't tell if you're specifically looking for a free/open-source solution or not. Others have mentioned many great open-source editors.
If you're willing to look at commercial solutions, Telerik offers the RadEditor. It is highly integrated with ASP.NET and supports all the major browsers.
Event if you will have a lot of connection bandwidth and patience :)
Actually, Telerik is an ASP.NET product and it require asp.net ajax frameworks for runtime and it need to ajax scriptmananer on the running page.
In my opinion, Telerik not good example for this subject.
i'm currently looking for the same kind of editor - lightweight, jQuery and with ASP.Net support. i've came accross Batiste Bieler's jQuery Lightweight Rich Text Editor which seems very simple, nice, pure jQuery lightweight editor.
and there is interpid studios variation that states to be ASP.Net compatible and based on the original above mentioned library (although, doesn't explain what is the thing with being ASP.Net compatible and what doesn't make the original compatible with it too...)
i haven't tried any of those yet, but it seems that i will in the next several days, because i'm looking to replace FCK Editor because it has some quirks and strange behavior to my app users. so i might update this post with my own experience with this/these editor(s).
If someone tried those already, please comment to let others know what do you feel about this.