ComponentOne Studio Enterprise v4

asp:review

ComponentOne Studio Enterprise v4

Enhance Virtually Any User Interface

By David Mack

ComponentOne has released Studio Enterprise v4, and thereare literally hundreds of user interface controls included. The controls coverthe gamut of ASP.NET, .NET, ActiveX, and even mobile devices. In essence, thereis something in this suite for everyone who is doing user interface developmenton a Windows-based platform.

Studio Enterpriseuses the same model as does Microsoft with its MSDN subscription. Afterpurchasing the subscription, you get all the controls they produce, as well asany upgrades or enhancements, for one year. Because an exhaustive review ofthis extensive product wouldn t be practical, I instead focused on the newcontrols or enhancements for the purposes of this evaluation. To supplementwhat is covered here, I highly recommend that you visit ComponentOne s Web siteto see a complete list of controls.

The installation of Studio Enterprise is easy to followand separated into sections so that you can install the controls you want. Theinstallation takes several minutes, however, so don t think it s frozen it s simplyregistering all the controls you selected.

I started playing around with the Flash for .NET controland found it very easy to use. You won t have a problem using the new Flashcontrol if you are familiar with using the Graphics classes in .NET. Theability to create slide shows in Flash is very nice. You can even make theminteractive by adding buttons with your animation. I was also able to havecontrol over how Flash content was displayed by using the C1WebFlash control. Aswith all the Studio Enterprise v4 components, there are samples included withthe installation.

The other control I looked at was C1WebTopicBar. Thiscontrol lets you expand or collapse a menu very similar to the Windows Controlpanel. I had a little trouble synchronizing the C1WebTopicBar with the othercontent on the page, but a quick search of the knowledge base on ComponentOne sWeb site took care of that. Being able to dynamically update that informationand display it when appropriate definitely enhanced the interface. Oneenhancement that ComponentOne made to several menu controls, includingC1WebTopicBar, is the implementation of an auto-format property, which helps maintainthe uniformity of your interface.

I have to compliment ComponentOne on their Web site andall the support that is available. There is a great deal of information on thesite, and it s organized for easy navigation. I was pleased to see forums forall the components that ComponentOne offers and even more impressed when Irealized the forums are actively monitored by ComponentOne. Based on thepostings in the forums that I followed, ComponentOne is open to suggestions (andthey implement the ones that they can).

Studio Enterprise v4 by ComponentOneis a great suite of tools; there is truly something for everyone. The suite oftools allows you to enhance your interface without taking the tedious time towrite a control. It s definitely worth the money and time to invest in thissuite of tools.

David Mack is atechnical lead for the National Intelligence Division of Titan Systems and anindependent consultant. He has more than 10 years of experience inobject-oriented programming. Reach him at mailto:[email protected].

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Web Site: http://www.componentone.com

Price: Startsat US$599.95/per year