Very new to both Strataframe and .NET ( decided from my VFP experience that picking a great framework was the key to getting productive in a new environment quickly - I am delighted that I appear to have done that by choosing Strataframe ! )



I'm a big believer in making money off the brilliance and hard work of others.



I have no doubt that once I get reasonably proficient in SF I am going to be looking for more libraries of guru gizmos that are going to make me look good to my clients.



Is there any consensus about the best third party libraries for a SF developer ( based on Microfour support, value, overall features etc )



Front runners seem to be DevExpress and Infragistics. I've been watching some of the videos on the DevExpress site ( incredible plummy Brit doing the narration ) and enjoying that very much.



I understand there are evaluation versions of both of these available but my knowledge of SF and .NET is not currently up to doing them justice.



Would very much like to hear opinions of SF developers using those libraries so I can be looking ahead as I plan my first serious client work.



TIA



Charles

Hi Charles.

I have evaluated both Infragistics and DevXpress. On the components, I've just commited to Infragistics, and bought their Advantage .NET package. I'm still using the trial from DevXpress though, as I haven't decided about a Report Engine yet, so I'm using their XtraReports. There's the ActiveReports too in this matter, and I hope to come to a final decision soon.

Following your philosofy in a way, I tend to stick to what the SF guys decide to use themselves, I've always got the best advices from them.

Abraços.

Hi Charles;



I've been a customer of DevExpress for many years (from Delphi days). One thing I admit, their products are very good and support is very good (but SF support is best).

You can get the entire .Net package for Windows and web as one package, including full reports.



However, with Infragistics (IG), you have to buy the .Net Advantage and ASP Advantage and Active Reports. That can get expensive.



But Ivan brought up a good point, that SF team uses IG tools and I also have faith in what SF team choses for their work.

So, I need to talk to SF team more about this when I get to TX for class to make a decision!

..ßen

I made a mistake making that statement. Just ckecked their site, and they do have one package that includes both Windows and ASP. Sorry!

..ßen

Hi Ben.

I was just going to tell you that, it is the NetAdvantage for .NET.

Ah, and if any of you decide to buy it, it is cheaper in the ComponentSource site, than it is in the Infragistics site itself... go figure...

Yes, Thanks!



Have you finalized your decision on reports yet?

..ßen

No, guess who I am waiting for...

Hey Charles....and guys   DevExpress and Infragistics both have good controls.  DevExpress has a good collection but there are some speed issues the larger the forms or application becomes.  Infragistics has a very solid team of developers and infrastructure behind the company (not that DevExpress doesn't).  The Infragistics controls are going to be slightly smoother in implementation and controls such as the masking controls (i.e. a date control) have much more nimble or granular adjustments that give you, the end developer, the most control.  Both DevExpress and Infragistics come with source code, which is a minor point, but the nice thing about Infragistics is there comments and extremely clean and structured code.  Just looking at the code gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.  DevExpress comes with the source, but they strip out all white space and comments before shipping, so it is much more difficult to work through a problem and write towards their controls. 

Honestly, though, you are not going to spend a lot of time in their source, nor should you.  The only time we are in the source is when we are creating object models that will properly interface with their controls.  Infragistics makes this much easier from our perspective and so this will probably be the side that gets the most attention in the future.

In the past years, I had started using different third party components and as time went on, I felt like I was stuck in quick sand. The more I tried to move around, the deeper I got into problems with compatibilty issues, lake of support for newer versions or going out of business. I had provided so many nice features for the end user. At the end of the day, I realized, even if I had given them a simple and straight forward app, they would have been happy. All the extra fancy stuff caused me so much grif.



This time, I'm trying to avoid [as much as possible], the third party nightmare.



My question to Trent is as following: Can we simply develop a comnplete App, just using the components you [SF Tab] give us? Beside, we need to get reporting tools.

How far can we can with your compoents? What else do we really "NEED"?



Thank you in advance!

..ßen