NetAdvantage 2004 Volume 2

asp:review

NetAdvantage2004 Volume 2

ACornucopia of Presentation Layer Components

By Mike Riley

Designingfunctional, data-driven .NET applications is hard work. Designing suchapplications in an aesthetically appealing way is even harder. Luckily forthose developers challenged with solving form and function in a way to satisfy- and even excite - end users, Infragistics has harvested its years ofcomponent experience to produce a comprehensive package that supports the broadrange of Microsoft GUI technologies (see Figure 1).

NetAdvantage2004 Volume 2 represents a culmination of ActiveX/COM, WinForm, ASP.NET, andTablet PC presentation layer components that roots extending back to when thecompany (actually two companies, Sheridan Software and ProtoView Development,which merged in 2000) developed the leading data-aware grid controls and GUIwidgets for early versions of Visual Basic.

Figure 1: Designing Web forms withNetAdvantage controls is a breeze. Note the Enable HTML Intellisensemenu option to help identify HTML source wrapped inside NetAdvantage codeblocks.

Comprehendingthe number of components delivered in the NetAdvantage bundle would have beenan onerous task had it not been for Infragistics' Help Center libraryapplication that sits in the system tray (see Figure 2). This advanced helpinterface provides links to local and remote resources about the NetAdvantagecollection, and quickly indoctrinates new developers to the NetAdvantageapproach to presentation layer component employment.

What'seven more amazing is the wealth of knowledge that is continually updated andshared online via Infragistics' newsgroups and support forums. It would havebeen ideal to include an optional SOAP or RSS message-based alert system withinthe Help Center to alert agile developers to new updates, design templates, andtips associated with each component. Still, even in its currently static form,the Help Center is an invaluable tour guide when orienting with the collectionfor the first time.

Figure 2: The Help Center should be thefirst utility developers review when exploring the product for the first time.

TheNetAdvantage 2004 Volume 2 package ships with more than 100 individualcomponents. The controls that will most interest ASP.NET developers includeWebChart, WebDataInput, WebGrid, WebListBar, WebNavBar, WebNavigator,WebSchedule, WebTab, and WebToolbar. Counterparts of these controls exist forthe .NET Windows Forms as well as controls specifically designed for the richclient-side experience, such as the WinEditors (a collection of editor buttonsand widgets such as progress bars) and WinExplorerBars (including FileExplorerand TaskPanes). Infragistics has also bundled their UltraSuite collection tosupport legacy Win32 COM-based applications in an almost sentimental way.

The onlyarea of the Microsoft technology user interface spectrum not covered by theNetAdvantage suite is the mobile device arena. Custom controls for the WindowsMobile and Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit are conspicuously absent in anotherwise complete collection. Perhaps the challenge to wedge these richcontrols into the claustrophobic confines of a mobile device eroded thepotential benefit they could have provided. Regardless, it's a challenge thatInfragistics may need to address in the future as wireless Pocket PCs andsmartphones continue to proliferate throughout the digital communicationlandscape.

One ofthe slickest presentation tool additions to the NetAdvantage 2004 Volume 2release is the incredibly easy-to-use Quick Design tool (see Figure 3)specifically designed to facilitate the look and feel of Infragistics' Web formcontrols. Gone are the days of cycling through changing property attributes,saving the changes, and running the page to review the impact of those changes.The Quick Design Tool provides access and immediate feedback to all theattributes publicly exposed by a NetAdvantage Web form control.

Additionally,preset design templates (over 25 variants ship with the product) that establishthe look and behavior of the Infragistics Web controls can be applied and savedin XML format to share with other NetAdvantage users. Unfortunately, the QuickDesign Tool only executes within the Visual Studio.NET environment, limitingthe tool to licensed VS.NET users. Perhaps Infragistics or one of its communitymembers can author a standalone designer to allow color-coordinated graphicdesigners the ability to export these XML description files for import bycolor-challenged programmers.

Figure 3: The Infragistics Quick Design toolallows developers to immediately render, save, and apply design attributes toWeb controls.

Anotherhelpful tool of note is the Infragistics .NET Project Upgrade Utility (seeFigure 4). Any developer who has had the painful experience of manuallysearching and replacing all the changes of a revised version control number andany related dependencies will heave a sigh of relief when executing this longoverdue helper application. The utility addresses an obvious deficiency in Microsoft'sapproach to component revision control that hopefully will be addressed in afuture version of VS.NET.

Figure 4: The .NET Project Upgrade Utilitywill save developers migrating from an older version of NetAdvantage countlesshours in search and replace namespace dependency changes.

Theproduct is sold in three different license configurations. The least expensiveoption ships with only the components. The mid-tier price includes an annualsubscription service that includes automatic updates (both major and minor)throughout the year. The most expensive option includes the subscriptionservice, priority support, and the actual C# source code for all thecomponents! This option may be of most interest to the discerning largeenterprise ASP.NET developer.

Insummary, sophisticated ASP.NET developers should acquire NetAdvantage 2004Volume 2 without hesitation. Not only will this collection provide them withtremendous design flexibility and professional, dynamic Web application userinterfaces, it will also bring back a sense of creative adventure as developersiterate through and implement the numerous design possibilities afforded bythese flexible, easy to use, and powerful controls. Good stuff!

Rating:

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

Price: US$495 to US$995