StrataFrame Forum

beta controls - use them or dont?

http://forum.strataframe.net/Topic26174.aspx

By Keith Chisarik - 2/23/2010

I have never put much thought into the "beta" tag on stuff you guys release because you have always pretty much supported beta releases, and in many cases encouraged them. I have also never seen these warning before, of which I now have a few dozen in that pesky 'warnings' tab a rarely check.

Should I use these controls? or not. I see the warning, the English is very plain but .... removing them will be a little bit of a chore so given the past support, I figured I would ask.

BEGIN SCARY MESSAGES ********************************************** END SCARY MESSAGES

MicroFour.StrataFrame.UI.Windows.Forms.StrataCollapsableContainer' is obsolete: 'The StrataCollapsableContainer is a beta control and not intended for production purposes.  This control has been made available for technical preview purposes only and is not a supported control.  Use at your own risk.

MicroFour.StrataFrame.UI.Windows.Forms.StrataListView' is obsolete: 'The StrataCollapsableContainer is a beta control and not intended for production purposes.  This control has been made available for technical preview purposes only and is not a supported control.  Use at your own risk.

By Trent L. Taylor - 2/24/2010

You always have a nice way of putting things! BigGrin



Use them. I have already removed the tags for the next update because I was tired of looking at them and as you mentioned, we will support them anyway. Trust me, we HAVE to support them. We are using them extensively and have had them released into the field for a while.



Just FYI, there are still new features being added, but this should not affect you. For example, the StrataListView now supports radio buttons and has the ability the set the opacity of the highlighted row allowing you to effectively hide any selection. This came in really handy the other day for us when needing to choose a single list item...so, it made it into the framework.



So in short, forget the "SCARY" message and go for it.
By Keith Chisarik - 2/24/2010

You sir, are the man.

These controls are really nice and a great (and much appreciated) addition to the framework.

By Keith Chisarik - 2/24/2010

Will future releases of the StrataListView support SF Databinding?
By Trent L. Taylor - 2/24/2010

They will...but most likely not the next immediate release. I want the enhancements on the control to "settle in" before we add in the data populating and binding like the original SF ListView so that we don't miss anything. It will be more robust since there are other features that this list supports that never existing in the other. So most likely, update after next.
By Edhy Rijo - 2/24/2010

Trent L. Taylor (02/24/2010)
They will...but most likely not the next immediate release. I want the enhancements on the control to "settle in" before we add in the data populating and binding like the original SF ListView so that we don't miss anything. It will be more robust since there are other features that this list supports that never existing in the other. So most likely, update after next.


Trent, I believe that adding the databinding support will encourage more SF developers to start using and testing these controls right away, myself included. I know that for experience SF developers it should not be too difficult to use them as is, but then you will not get the benefit of many of us testing the beta controls. In my case I use the current ListView in all my projects and in some forms I even have 4 listviews, configuring them takes take with the current type editor, now imaging having to do all that via code will take more time, so I vote for having the type editors as soon as possible in order to test what is already done.
By Dustin Taylor - 2/25/2010

We will. Trust me, I complain louder than any of you guys ever time I have to spend an extra five minutes manually binding the data on one of those schnazzy ListViews of Trent's BigGrin.

It's just a bit of a moving target until we have the feature functionality of the listview settled in. Once it gells a bit, the fancy binding stuff will be soon to follow.

By Keith Chisarik - 2/25/2010

Dustin, how are you "manually binding"? I have been populating these controls "manually" by manipulating the items collection as in the posted examples. If there is a way to databind, even without the editor in place, please point me in that direction.

Thanks.

By Dustin Taylor - 2/25/2010

Sorry, I was a little loose with my wording there. I'm just manually populating as well, not databinding Smile.
By Keith Chisarik - 2/25/2010

Crud, you had my hopes up Crying
By Trent L. Taylor - 3/1/2010

His wording would have probably been a little better if he knew he were talking to a Cowboys fan! w00t