UltraSuite 3.0 - 30 Oct 2009

Hands On

UltraSuite3.0

AGreatest-hits Set of User-interface Tools

By Mike Riley

TheWorld Wide Web brought about tremendous positive, forward-thinking changes inthe world of computing. The Web provided the means to access any number ofservers in a standard browsing fashion. Unfortunately, this common-denominatorapproach had the downside of reducing every browser experience back to the daysof 3270 dumb terminals. Especially lacking were the rich GUI controls andwidgets many Windows users were accustomed to seeing.

Fortunately,though, with the advent of Web Services, rich user interfaces will be back instyle, as the ability to transact with cross-platform servers around the worldis married with rich Windows client interfaces. Infragistics is a company thatresulted from the merger of ProtoView Development Corporation and SheridanSoftware Systems Inc. That means Infragistics essentially has been in theWindows GUI widget business for nearly 20 years and has been at the forefrontof Windows component development since the early days of COM. Infragisticsproduct UltraSuite 3.0 represents a culmination of Infragistics best GUIwidgets, updated for today s XP-oriented Windows design styles. Think ofUltraSuite as a boxed set of an artist s greatest hits.

A Suite of Components

UltraSuitecontains Infragistics extensive library of COM-based user-interface controlsmore than 45 in all. The product either can be ordered on CD or purchased anddownloaded over the Internet. Regardless of which distribution mechanism youselect, you must activate it over the Internet before you can use it. This isbecoming a popular trend in software licensing today, and, with the release ofWindows XP, software activation certainly will become a standard part of installation.However, unlike Windows XP, Infragistics products require users to establish anaccount and provide personal details (name, address, e-mail address, etc.)during the activation and registration process.

Eachcomponent within the suite is amazingly flexible and provides access to nearlyevery design property imaginable. The product includes helpful, easy-to-followVB-based tutorials for each product in the suite. Visual C++ and InternetExplorer examples for most of the controls are provided, also. The product sdocumentation is formatted in Microsoft HTML Help and is integratedconveniently into the context-sensitive help of the Visual Studio 6.0 IDEs. Themost significant components are categorized into five Infragistics productofferings: ActiveTreeView, Data Explorer, ScheduleX, UltraGrid, andUltraToolBars, plus an additional 16 components exclusively available in theUltraSuite collection. Sold separately, this library of components would costmore than $1,500. Each of the major components is still available for purchaseseparately.

TheActiveTreeView control provides multiple ways to display a hierarchical treeview (see FIGURE 1). Its use is straightforward and provides an easy way toorganize data taxonomies visually. Like other UltraSuite components, theActiveTreeView provides the ability to add icons and to change font size andorientation of the display via clearly defined property sheets.

FIGURE 1: The ActiveTreeViewcomponent offers remarkable flexibility by visually representing hierarchicaldata.

TheDataExplorer component provides synchronized access to data for optimal displayin tabbed tree views. DataExplorer can be used to direct data into otherdata-aware components, as well.

ScheduleXoffers a look and feel that s identical to the Calendar and Tasks displays inMicrosoft Outlook (see FIGURE 2). In addition, ScheduleX can import and exportOutlook file data with simple method calls. ScheduleX consists of the Calendar,WeekView, DayView, TaskPad, DateEdit, and TimeEdit controls, each of which isincluded as a separate ActiveX component.

One ofthe most interesting and flexible controls is the UltraGrid. Traditional griddisplays offer little more than columns and rows of identically formattedcontent. UltraGrid provides developers the ability to embed buttons,multi-column drop-down lists, and other ActiveX controls within any cell.Nearly every aspect of the presentation color, fills, fonts, icons, indents,rotated text, and row and column height and widths can be modified easily.Alpha levels can be changed to create transition and translucent, watermarkedform effects. And because the control is data-aware, data can be preloaded,filtered, and sorted automatically to provide adaptable client-side data views.Then, the grids can be grouped visually to provide expanding tree views withindata tables. Grid data also can be searched using different search types, suchas complete, begins-with, and ends-with queries. The control even includes aprint-preview-display function, which is especially helpful because UltraGridcan change visual data representation dramatically. The level of customizationcapable within this grid component is one of the most extensive I have seen.

TheUltraToolBars set of controls is a collection of basic Windows objects updatedfor the XP generation. These controls have been evolving in the Infragisticsfamily since the first days when Visual Basic consumed third-party Visual BasicExtensions (VBXs). Active Tabs provide the ultimate flexibility in creatingtabbed dialog boxes, providing developers with the ability to modify tabheight, width, alignment, orientation, style, fore-color, and back-colorproperties and the ability to add images. The control s events are extensive,also. Menus, toolbars, buttons, and check boxes all can be moved and paintedwith an XP style. They also adopt a user-defined custom look and feel. Buttonscan change their appearance with a mouse rollover, to give forms a moreintuitive, modern, responsive look. The transition control provides the abilityto transition form backgrounds using 37 different styles. To complete the basicform GUI objects library, the set also includes the ActiveTabs, Resizer,Scroll, Splash, Transition, Option, Command, Check, Frame, Panel, Ribbon, and Splittercomponents. All of these help developers maintain a consistent look and feelfor all their Windows form compositions, and all of these components work asadvertised.

Exclusive to the UltraSuite Bundle

Like agreatest-hits set, UltraSuite provides its users with an additional selectionthat s exclusive to the suite.

FIGURE 2: UltraSuite controlscan be embedded into Web pages and easily manipulated using VBScript.

Thesecontrols are offered as additional rewards for developers: ComboBox, ColorCombo,Dial scrolling, Font Selector, ImageCombo, Line3D, OLE DB bindable ListBox,Marquee, MaskEdit, Multibutton, Picture, ProgressBar, PropertyBrowser,ScreenPrinter, Shape3D, and Text3D.

Thoughnot nearly as powerful as the major components, these widgets have their placeand maintain the high-quality and consistent property selections the featuredcontrols provide.

Almost Perfect

Allcomponents and samples appeared to be bug-free except a Visual C++ PropertyBrowser example that failed with a memory exception when I attempted to executeit. Conversely, the VB version ran without incident.

On thedownside, the collection could be prohibitively expensive if a majority ofcomponents are not leveraged. Additionally, you could obtain some of thecapabilities featured in the package on the Web for free or at a lower cost,but few offer the support and commitment Infragistics provides. This isespecially applicable in corporate development environments in which the extracosts toward support and component vendor stability are paramount.

And thenthere s Microsoft s Visual Studio .NET product that eventually will force theseand other ActiveX components into obsolescence, similar to the way VBX controlsgave way to OLE Custom Controls (OCXs). Recognizing this issue, Infragisticsrecently made friends with its customers by combining its COM-based UltraSuitecomponents with its .NET-based NetAdvantage components into the same package.Check out their announcement of this merger at http://www.infragistics.com/corporate/news/053002.asp.

Incidentally,if developers expect to optimize their UltraSuite component-enabled projects onthe .NET platform and would like to leverage the .NET enhancements Infragisticshas planned for their future .NET components, the product s annual subscriptionlicense would be the most cost-effective option to consider.

Insummary, the UltraSuite package represents the culminated years of experienceand product stability Infragistics can offer developers, most notablyadvertised in the product s detailed read me file. UltraSuite is certainlynot the least expensive component collection on the market, but it is probablythe most feature-rich and easy to use.

Mike Rileyis a chief scientist with RR Donnelley, one of North America s largestprinters. He participates in the company s emerging technology strategies usinga wide variety of distributed network technologies. Readers may reach him at mailto:[email protected].

Just the Facts

InfragisticsUltraSuite represents the best, most comprehensive and most expensivecollection of ActiveX user-interface components available on the market today.It has more than 45 controls, each with extensive properties. On the con side,it s expensive and the free upgrade to .NET-aware components requiressubscription purchase.

Infragistics

Windsor Corporate Park

50 Millstone Road

Building 200, Suite 150

East Windsor, NJ 08520

Phone: (800)231-8588 within the United States; (609) 448-2000 outside the United States.

E-Mail: mailto:[email protected]

WebSite: http://www.infragistics.com/

Price: US$995 for a single-developerlicense; US$1,495 for an annual subscription (five- and 10-developer licensepackages are available).