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Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:58:56 GMT

Hi All;

I'm trying to finalize my tools before starting the app. The App. will be partly Windows and partly ASP.Net sharing data.

I like to get some thoughts and experiences from SF team and those how have chosen one v.s. the other and why?

a) SF comes with a limited number of Windows components that are nicely tied with SF framework and also takes advantage of SF theme system. This helps building a uniform application, but the components are limited, especially when it comes to the ASP.Net part (I mean for grid and new Web gadgets that IG offer).

b) Infragistics (IG), offer a very nice and complete components, with a powerful "Application Stylist" design for Windows and web. This gives you a wide range of designs, [b]BUT[/b] you loose the SF themes (like the navigation tool bar, application header and etc.) and also we loose some of the SF integrations that are already in SF components.

Due to my lack of experience (being new to SF and IG), I really would like from those who have gone through this road to share their suggestions.

Thank you in advance!

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:58:56 GMT

[quote]Sorry, did I hear that Trent has left to work at Infragistics and Steve is on medication because of that now?[/quote]
LOL

:D:D:D

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ivan George Borges — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:56:20 GMT

Sorry, did I hear that Trent has left to work at Infragistics and Steve is on medication because of that now?

:exclamation:

:doze:

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Paul Chase — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:42:59 GMT

Lol

I'm sure Trent always gives the best advise possible and that things do change over time (like dosage's):P

It really is very very confusing trying to figure out first of all if you should use a 3rd party product and second of all which one to use etc. As Ben pointed he was reading conflicting information from the same source and seemed confused. Trust me I was trying to help not start trouble :)

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:10:50 GMT

[quote][b]Steve L. Taylor (04/25/2007)[/b][hr]

Paul,

[quote]Now Trent say's [/quote]

What can I say; he has been off of his medications this spring. I will let you know when he renews his meds. On second thought I have noticed that the controls were much more colorful last fall. :)

Who said, "Doctor Shopping?" :w00t:

[/quote]

Speaking of Trent, where is he? On Vacation again...?:)

Can't wait to meet up with you guys!

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Steve L. Taylor — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:50:21 GMT

Paul,

[quote]Now Trent say's [/quote]

What can I say; he has been off of his medications this spring. I will let you know when he renews his meds. On second thought I have noticed that the controls were much more colorful last fall. :)

Who said, "Doctor Shopping?" :w00t:

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:31:35 GMT

[quote][b]Michael Reese (04/24/2007)[/b][hr]Hey Ben,

Just kidding. Welcome to the SF/Infragistics family! Like Paul and now yourselfI have also had to find theoptimal development (some ofthem very expensive)solutions utilizing SF.

It would be nice to have 3^rd party thread to share experiences.

Michael

[/quote]

Hi Michael;

Thanks! I posted this thread to get some feedback from those who use IG with SF. Trent was kind enough to share his. I like to know how the IG ASP.net components work with SF, especially the components that are AJAX enabled and they are data aware.

If you could please your experience with IG, I greatly appreciate it!

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Michael Reese — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:51:53 GMT

Hey Ben,

Just kidding. Welcome to the SF/Infragistics family! Like Paul and now yourself I have also had to find the optimal development (some of them very expensive) solutions utilizing SF.

It would be nice to have 3^rd party thread to share experiences.

Michael

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:43:35 GMT

[quote][b]Michael Reese (04/24/2007)[/b][hr]Be careful, they may back away from any kind of experience sharing/recommendation:w00t:[/quote]

The purpose of this thread wasn't to point finger at SF team. And I don't think Paul was really criticizing SF team, but more giving me a hint to follow my own liking. I think we are all grownups here and since we all share one common thing (SF), we should help each other. I always consider developers as friends and family... and I personally don't hold anyone responsible for any outcomes!

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Keith Chisarik — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:26:42 GMT

[quote][b]Michael Reese (04/24/2007)[/b][hr]Be careful, they may back away from any kind of experience sharing/recommendation:w00t:[/quote]

the thought of that happening made me start to sweat and twitch......please no :)

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Michael Reese — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:31:15 GMT

Be careful, they may back away from any kind of experience sharing/recommendation:w00t:

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Paul Chase — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:45:26 GMT

Steve,

Last year after you released the Dev-Express wrapper Trent stated the you guys were using Dev-Express in your medical system. This statement weighed quite a bit on my decision to use Dev-Express as I figured if you are using it in your medical system chances are that you guys will run into issues etc and be familiar with that set of controls.

[quote]For whatever it is worth, we use the DevExpress controls for our medical system and they have been great! Before we got into the whole "licensing" issue with Infragistics, we sat down corporately to evaluate all of the UI control options out there. Infragistics had some good ideas in the their masking and they definitely have more in the charting area. But as far as the grid and editors go, DevExpress won hands down. And this is where a developer spends 90% of their time. So we made the decision to go with DevExpress. As for our charting needs, we have looked to Dundas. Their charting controls are much more advanced than Infragistics or DevExpress. [/quote]

Now Trent say's

[quote]I have already given my opinion on another thread: http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost8373.aspx. As I mentioned, we use the SF controls with a few Infragistics editor controls within our medical software. We have no wrapper for any 3rd party web controls and do not have any plans at the moment to create any. You can use the IBusinessBindable interface to integrate native StrataFrame data-binding for any 3rd party control, so the choice is yours in this area.[/quote]

The point I am trying to make is that the decision to purchase and use a 3rd party UI control set should not be based on what you guys are using rather on which control set you believe has the best features etc. You guys do an excellent job of providing the wrappers as well as the interfaces and the selection of a 3rd party UI control shouldnt matter.

Paul

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Steve L. Taylor — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:44:30 GMT

Paul,

[quote]Ben is correct on that last year you were all fired up about Dev Express and Infragistics was not in the picture. I ended up dropping Infragistics and using Dev-Express as DevEx seemed to be the direction the SF was going for enhanced UI controls and figured I would rather use something that you guys were supposed to be using yourselves. Now you are saying Infragistics is where it is.[/quote]

I agree you should use whatever controls that provide the features you want and are comfortable using. The SF source code provides a plethora of samples on how to plumb a new or third party control. Paul, I do not agree with your characterization of SF moving from one control base to another. I may remind you it was our desire to use Ingragistics initially but we could not obtain the necessary legal release to include a wrapper in our code. It was only at the insistence of Larry Caylor that Infragistics caved-in.

We included Dev-Express and Infragistics because they are the most commonly used. Beyond these two products trying to create a wrapper for all third party controls is beyond any benefit we would receive.

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:13:30 GMT

Hi Paul;

Sometime one vendor may have nicer components, but then in another release, another vendor can jump over them. Previously, DevExpress has been very good, I even own them (but have not used their .Net stuff yet), but now, IG seems like has taken larger steps. At this point, I'm just concerned that all the AJAX stuff in IG components work properly through BO.

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Paul Chase — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:30:44 GMT

Trent,

Ben is correct on that last year you were all fired up about Dev Express and Infragistics was not in the picture. I ended up dropping Infragistics and using Dev-Express as DevEx seemed to be the direction the SF was going for enhanced UI controls and figured I would rather use something that you guys were supposed to be using yourselves. Now you are saying Infragistics is where it is. :D

Ben,

Don't make the mistake I did. Choose the UI control's you want to use because you like them:) I liked Infragistics alot better than I like Dev-Express

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:44:52 GMT

[quote][b]Trent L. Taylor (04/23/2007)[/b][hr]I have already given my opinion on another thread: http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost8373.aspx. As I mentioned, we use the SF controls with a few Infragistics editor controls within our medical software. We have no wrapper for any 3rd party web controls and do not have any plans at the moment to create any. You can use the IBusinessBindable interface to integrate native StrataFrame data-binding for any 3rd party control, so the choice is yours in this area.[/quote]

Thanks Trent; Yes I had followed that,
[quote]For example we use the Infragistics text edit control with their integrated spell checking. We also use the Infragistics grid. We will also use some of the Infragistics calendar and scheduling controls in teh future, but it basically stops about there. [/quote]
and I even went back to last year's threads where back in Sept or Oct, you mentioned you had evaluated DevExpress and IG, and for Editor, you selected DevExpress. But the recent thread, shows that you had switched to IG for better performance.
[quote]For whatever it is worth, we use the DevExpress controls for our medical system and they have been great! Before we got into the whole "licensing" issue with Infragistics, we sat down corporately to evaluate all of the UI control options out there. Infragistics had some good ideas in the their masking and they definitely have more in the charting area. But as far as the grid and editors go, DevExpress won hands down. And this is where a developer spends 90% of their time. So we made the decision to go with DevExpress. As for our charting needs, we have looked to Dundas. Their charting controls are much more advanced than Infragistics or DevExpress. [/quote]

I do have the full DevExpress system, however I spent a lots of time yesterday looking at IG components for ASP.Net, and they are much better and smoother. Their new AppStylist gives you a nice control over the Look&Feel of your app.

So, Trent as long as I use "IBusinessBinding" interface, I'm free to use IG databound components? Even the ones that use AJAX to get/set data via client?

As I was watching some of the videos, the guy was saying how AJAX controls use database gateways to communicate with the database server and that alarmed me about using BO on the server side.

Can you elaborate how the AJAX component will work through BO?

Thanks!

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Trent L. Taylor — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:20:44 GMT

I have already given my opinion on another thread: http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost8373.aspx . As I mentioned, we use the SF controls with a few Infragistics editor controls within our medical software. We have no wrapper for any 3rd party web controls and do not have any plans at the moment to create any. You can use the IBusinessBindable interface to integrate native StrataFrame data-binding for any 3rd party control, so the choice is yours in this area.

RE: Using Infragistics components v.s. SF template driven components

Ben Hayat — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:44:10 GMT

The second part to this question is, will I be able to use any of the IG ASP.Net components with SF? I'd like to know if there are known problems before investing in IG NetAdvantage.

Any comment or input, is much appreciated!