WebUI Studio.NET 2008 R2

CloserLook

WebUI Studio.NET 2008 R2

Only Your Creativity Will Limit You

By Anand Narayanaswamy

Intersoft Solutions began by releasing twocomponents for .NET programming way back in 2003. Today, their range ofproducts includes more than a dozen components that can be used to developcutting-edge Windows, web, and Silverlight applications. I happily found therehas been tremendous improvement to WebUI Studio.NET compared to the previousversion (WebUI Studio.NET 2007 R1; www.aspnetpro.com/productreviews/2007/07/asp200707an_p/asp200707an_p.asp),which I reviewed for aspnetPRO. Inaddition to offering upgrades, Intersoft has introduced in the current buildseveral additional components, both for ASP.NET and Silverlight applications.

Getting Started

The installation package for WebUI Studio.NET 2008R2 is available for download from the Intersoft website, but you must completea simple registration process. At around 270MB, the file was bigger than the85MB of the 2007 build.

WebUI Studio.NET 2008 R2 (www.intersoftpt.com/WebUIStudio/)not only ships with the same five products found in the previous version(WebGrid.NET Enterprise 6.0, WebCombo.NET 4.0, WebInput.NET 3.0, WebDesktop.NET2.5, and ISDataSource.NET 1.0), but also includes three new products(WebTreeView.NET 1.0, WebAqua.NET 2.0, and WebScheduler.NET 2.0). Aninteresting feature of WebAqua.NET 2.0 is that it ships with two uniqueproducts, WebCoverFlow.NET 2.0 and WebFishEye.NET 2.0, which can be used todevelop cutting-edge image and video applications.

The vendor also has added several new features tothe components included with the previous version of the studio bundle (visit www.intersoftpt.com/WebUIStudio/Default.aspx?page=enhancementsfor details on upgrades). This review will focus on the new components and someof the significant upgrades; refer to my previous review for more in-depthcoverage of WebUI Studio.NET.

Decorate Items in Tree Format

If you ve installed Visual Studio, you likely arefamiliar with the Tristate checkboxes, which allow you to select two or moreitems from the TreeView list. If you d like to include such a feature in yournext application, test drive WebTreeView.NET 1.0, which includes such featuresas load on demand, sophisticated drag and drop ability, standard keyboardnavigation, built-in animation during expanding, and collapsing the node.

Immerse Your Applications with WebAqua.NET 2.0

With the help of WebAqua.NET 2.0 it is now possibleto develop applications with visually appealing user interfaces. It ships withtwo unique products, namely WebCoverFlow.NET 2.0 and WebFishEye.NET 2.0. Ifyou ve used music players you will be familiar with the concept of cover flow(see Figure 1). WebCoverFlow.NET 2.0 enables users to scan through the variousimages and videos in a unique fashion.

Figure 1: WebCoverFlow.NET 2.0 in action

WebCoverFlow.NET 2.0 has built-in support forSilverlight and ships with tons of new features, like multiple-focus mode forproducing a better web experience. Moreover, you also can set the border stylefor the selected item with the help of the ActiveItemBorder property.WebCoverFlow.NET 2.0 ships with a powerful component designer that can beactivated from the Visual Studio environment.

On the other hand, WebFishEye.NET 2.0 is a powerfuldocking control that allows a developer to arrange icons in several ways (seeFigures 2 and 3). With the help of WebFishEye.NET, it is possible to buildapplications where end users click on an icon and it automatically enlargesbased on several preset modes. For instance, icons will be rendered in Gridformat when a user hovers over them. I think this control will help developerscreate user-friendly and clutter-free Web 2.0 .NET applications.

Figure 2: WebFishEye.NET 2.0 beforeactivation

Figure 3: WebFishEye.NET 2.0 after activation

Plan Effectively with WebScheduler.NET 2.0

A key feature of the product is the addition of WebScheduler.NET2.0, which targets enterprise-level web applications with features such astimeline view. As the name suggests, this control mainly is used to recorddaily activities. It includes highly extensible editing capabilities not foundin other competing products, such as binding many custom fields on to theediting form with the help of OnTheFlyPostBack architecture.

WebScheduler.NET 2.0 also enables end users to viewscheduled events grouped by resources, thanks to the TrueSplitView mode poweredby the TripleLoad mechanism engine, and enables you to easily export the dataeither in PDF or iCal format. All these features will not only help a developerbuild powerful and rich web applications, but also will enable end users to usethem with minimal effort.

Populate Data Quickly with WebGrid.NET 6.0

In addition to the previously mentioned components,the studio bundle ships with an updated WebGrid.NET, offering more featuresthan in the previous version I reviewed. A notable feature of the product isthat the total value of each group will be updated automatically, as and when avalue is edited, thus reducing the valuable round trip between client andserver. It also supports certain provisions under section 508, which will beuseful for end users with visual disabilities.

An interesting feature of this latest version ofWebGrid.NET is the introduction of keyboard shortcuts. For instance, you canmake use of Control or Shift key combinations to select items from within theGrid. Intersoft has nicely inherited the feature from the Windows OperatingSystem. WebGrid.NET also supports Buttons with Images and developers needsimply to set the column type to ButtonImage to implement this functionality.Moreover, all the components included with the suite support the flagshipcontrol, ISDataSource.NET, which likely will help developers build applicationswithout depending on the standard data binding control included with the .NETFramework.

Build Real Desktop-based Applications

WebDesktop.NET introduces the Shadow mode feature,which allows end users to easily move and resize the window in a smooth manner.The WebDialogBox control has been updated to access ContentTemplate fromcode-behind, which enables developers to keep the dialog box visible in ascrollable page and customize the background color of the shadow. With the helpof the updated WebMenu control, developers now can incorporate in to theirapplications Vista Explorer or Office 2007-style pixel-identical context menus.Also, Intersoft has added new features, such as better mouse state interaction,complex images, and dropdown menu support in the WebButton control.

Even though WebDesktop.NET is optimized for betterperformance on the client side, I found that it loads slowly and consumes a lotof system resources in Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1. Intersoft isworking with the ASP.NET team at Microsoft to resolve this problem. That beingsaid, the product works absolutely fine with Internet Explorer 7, FireFox,Opera, and Safari. It was a smooth experience when I viewed the output of theproduct using FireFox. From my point of view, it would be better if the serveris equipped with 64-bit Windows with large memory so developers can take fulladvantage of the product.

By the time I finished writing this review,Intersoft had released a preview edition of their upcoming controls forSilverlight. These new controls shipwith an updated data presenter control with advanced data grouping and cachingcapabilities, client- and server-side paging, integrated and hybrid datadrilling, and an exclusive Silverlight-based data binding control.

Samples and Documentation

Intersoft has provided live samples forall the components included with the suite; these can be viewed either from theindividual product pages or from the Start menu under the corresponding productfolder. However, the Visual Studio solution included with the installationpackage targets .NET Framework 2.0, so I had to convert each project to run itunder .NET Framework 3.5 using Visual Studio 2008. I also found that theintegrated reference documentation (included with each component inside theproduct installation folder) doesn t open, and instead displayed an errordialog box. I hope Intersoft will investigate these issues and resolve them inthe next release of the product.

Intersoft has provided completedocumentation on the web under the developer library channel in Office 2007format. I hope this will help them update the material easily, as and whenrequired. Intersoft also has integrated the help files in Visual Studio, butwhen I tried that I was prompted to connect to the web to access the helpfiles. I would prefer to see an offline version of the documentation for thebenefit of those users who don t have Internet access all the time. Intersoftprovides excellent support; all my queries were answered within a singleworking day.

I have examined only a snapshot of thevarious features included with the product; there are many more interestingfeatures that are not covered in this review. I suggest you test drive WebUIStudio.NET 2008 R2 to get a good feel for what it provides.

Conclusion

You now should be in a position to cogently analyzeand judge the feasibility of this product for your upcoming application. As youcan see, the possibilities are immense, and are limited only by the creativityof the developer and user interface designer. I have no doubt that developerswill be able to build applications for producing a pleasant viewing experiencefor end users with the help of the product, as it contains nearly all thecomponents oriented for the development of .NET applications. Your project willsoar to new heights if the components included with WebUI Studio.NET 2008 R2are employed properly.

Rating:

Website:www.intersoftpt.com

Price:US$1,499

Anand Narayanaswamy ([email protected]) is a MicrosoftMVP. He works as an independent consultant based in Trivandrum, India.