Follow-up: Telerik in an ALT.NET World

It's a little past midnight here in the "Amateur Sports Capital of the World" (Indianapolis for the uninformed), and several hours ago this was the scene for my talk to the Indy ALT.NET user group. The ALT.NET user group is still very young (this was their 3rd meeting), but it's already got a great active base of members. The meeting was lively with good audience interaction, and- despite a few "predictable" demo glitches- the talk went very well. Thanks again to everyone that came out tonight and for proving that ALT.NET developers really aren't that mean.

As promised in my announcement of this trip to Indy, my talk tonight focused on showing you how you can leverage many open source .NET tools (like NHiberante, LinqToNHibernate, NAnt, NUnit, NHibernateDataSource, and Dynamic LINQ) in conjunction with the latest features in RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX (like client-side data binding , web service integration, and LINQ support) to build a demo app with an architecture much more fit for "real world" use. The result is a demo with a powerful data architecture that helps you see how to build a "better" practice (I'm not the person you should look to for "best" practice anything) application with Telerik's tools.

Since my demo code uses features coming in next week's Q2 2008 release, I can't make it available for download yet- sorry! In the mean time, you can grab the slides from tonight's session below, and as soon as the Q2 2008 release is public, I'll publish the code here for you to download, too. I hope you enjoy the resources. Watch for a "re-play" of this session at my future conference appearances and maybe even a webcast version. Anyone interested?

Telerik in an ALT.NET World downloads
Slides
Code [Coming Soon - after Q2 2008]

RadChart for WPF CTP sneak peek video

One of the new products that Telerik will be releasing next week during the big Q2 2008 release activities is our brand new charting product for WPF. Officially dubbed RadChart for WPF, our latest entry in the charting field is really stepping-up what Telerik has done in the past with charts. The new charting engine is going to deliver unprecedented 3D and 2D charting capabilities in a characteristically easy to learn and use Telerik component package. Everything from directional light sources to animated charts to gauges will be part of the new data visualization package, so we think you're really going to enjoy the new tools.

Now, what's being released next week during Q2 won't be version one. Instead, it will be a CTP that's designed to give you an early preview of our work in this arena. The final release will likely coincide with our Q3 release later this year. And while we wait for that date, Telerik will be actively listening to your feedback and striving to build the most useful charting tools you need.

And don't forget Silverlight! Remember, we build our WPF and Silverlight controls on the same code base. That means you'll eventually see RadChart for Silverlight, too, and when you do the API will be nearly identical to RadChart for WPF (though some of the more advanced 3D features may not be available in Silverlight, for obvious reasons). That means code you write for RadChart for WPF will be reusable in all of your Silverlight applications and vice versa. That should impress your boss and make your life a lot easier when management comes asking for a web version of your cool WPF application.

Download the RadChart for WPF CTP next week and start letting us know what you think! Until then, check out this quick sneak peek video I've created to give you a glimpse of the features we'll be packing-in to next week's CTP.

Q2 2008 comming next week

We've been building-up to this release for a while now- well, about 3 months, really- and it's time to prepare for the big event. The 2nd major Telerik release for 2008 will ship next week, and with it will come exciting new improvements, controls, and suites! Q2 2008 will not only bring many new features to the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and WinForms, but it will also officially introduce two new RadControl suites: RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight (though the Silverlight release will be "beta" until the plug-in is finalized). With so much in this release, it's easy to miss some of the important details. So while you wait for the big day, I've prepared a list of essential posts (both from this blog and the Telerik.com blogs) that you can read to get all the details you need to prepare for Q2:

RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX

• Q2 2008 Futures now live (RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX)
• New features in RadComboBox, RadTreeView, RadUpload and RadScheduler
• What's new in RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX in Q2 2008
• Q2 ASP.NET Skinning
  

RadControls for WinForms & Telerik Reporting

• Q2 2008 Road Maps updated for WinForms, Reporting
• Design your RadCarousel with just drag & drop in Q2
  

RadControls for WPF & Silverlight

• RadControls for WPF Beta 2 released
• Telerik RadControls for Silverlight 2 CTP released
• RadWindow for Silverlight
• Optimizing the load size for Telerik Silverlight controls
• RadControls for WPF and Silverlight
• Announcing RadChart for WPF

Enjoy the posts and keep your RSS readers (or your browsers, for those not in to the "reader thing") locked-in here for the latest updates as Q2 draws near!

Join me in Indianapolis for ALT.NET Telerik session

Do you live and work in the Indianapolis area? If so, come on out to the next Indy ALT.NET meeting this week where I'll be the guest speaker. The meeting will be held this Thursday, July 17th and it will start around 6 PM (local time) with food and drink and socializing starting around 5:15. You can find all of the details on the Indy ALT.NET website.

For my part, I'll be doing a new talk titled "Telerik Tools in an ALT.NET World," which will highlight more advanced features of the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX running in what could be considered a "real world-ish" demo application. "Real world" because it will be a multi-tier, NHibernate-powered, TDD built, DDD inspired application- not some simple one-tier demo app. In the talk I'll show you how you can use the RadControls with open source tools like NHibernate and NUnit to build powerful, scalable applications, and I'll show you how you can use many of the new features in the RadControls to improve the performance of your web apps.

It should be a fun talk with lots of new stuff- I'll even be doing some LINQ to NHibernate- so come on out if you're in the area. If you're not, I'll make the slides and code available here shortly after my talk. See you on Thursday!

Another Telerik Reporting RadWebinar scheduled

Back by popular demand, Falafel has decided to offer another repeat of the Telerik Reporting RadWebinar. The third production of this webinar will be held on Tuesday, July 22nd at the "normal" time and place- 9:30 AM PST on GoToWebinar. I've already well covered the details of the Telerik Reporting RadWebinar in previous posts, so I won't rehash them here. If you're interested in some relatively cheap ($99) live Telerik Reporting training, sign-up for this new session now and enjoy the training expertise from Falafel. Also, don't forget to sign-up for the RadGrid training going down on July 29th- seats are going fast!

RadControls for WPF Beta 2 available for download

This highlight comes a little late, but I don't want anyone interested in what Telerik is doing for WPF to miss this. Last week Telerik released the second beta of our RadControls for WPF. This beta is the last public preview before the first official v1 release in Q2 2008, so it's your last chance to give us input on how you'd like the controls to be tweaked before their APIs become "set in stone" (or at least much harder to change).

One of the highlights of the beta 2 release is the first introduction to Telerik's highly coupled Silverlight and WPF development approach. There are 5 new controls in beta 2, and all of the controls are ported versions of controls that we have built for Silverlight. The benefit of this approach for you as a developer is that you get complete code reusability between your RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight development. If you build your app with Telerik's tools for Silverlight and then want to build a WPF version of the app, all of your UI coding work is done. Cool.

The new controls in this release are RadTreeView, RadPanelBar, RadSlider, RadNumericUpDown, and RadProgressBar. By the time we ship v1 in a few weeks, there will be even more new controls in the WPF suite and more enhanced features in the existing controls, RadGridView, RadCarousel, and RadCalendar. And shortly after v1 in Q2 2008, we'll ship a Futures release for the RadControls for WPF that will feature our early work on RadScheduler for WPF. Exciting times.

For now, enjoy the beta bits and get ready for the official release during Telerik's big Q2 2008 release week.

IE Users: Try the RadControls for Beta 2 online demo (XBAP)
Fifefox users beware- XBAP links usually crash the Fox for me.

Q2 2008 Futures release now live

Want to be among the first to play with the changes coming to the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX in Q2 2008? If so, you need to download the just released "Futures" build for the ASP.NET AJAX controls (read my old post for clarification of the "Futures" term- we'll probably revert to the term "Beta" next year...maybe). This release showcases everything that will be happening in Q2 2008, including the first preview of the revived RadRotator control. Among the things coming to the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX in Q2 are:

• New, built from scratch, RadRotator- a new beginning for an old control
• New sorting, filtering, and client-side events in RadCombobox
• Huge improvements in RadGrid
• New client-side data binding
• Tons of new client-side objects, methods
• Many important bug fixes
  
• Important new features in RadScheduler
• Improved client-side loading time (claimed 30% faster)
• New Exchange data provider!
  
• Two-thumb sliders now supported in RadSlider
• New common skin for all controls: Gray
  
• Like new Telerik skin, just gray - see post pic for RadGrid example
  

You can see all of the new features running right now in the Futures live demos. The only new control in this release is the re-built RadRotator, and in the Futures build it is still an acknowledged weak control. There is a huge focus on that control in the run-up to the official Q2 release and you can expect it to be much improved by the end of July (and even more so in SP1).

Other gotchas in this release:

• There are some breaking changes in RadUpload. The changed features are minor and relate only to localization, but if you use RadUpload localization you'll want to take note.
• Two embedded skins are being retired in Q2: Default2006 and Mac. The Telerik skin has also be updated, so be prepared to check for design consistency if you use those skins. The old skins will remain available as extra downloads for use as external skins if you need them.

Hopefully you enjoy the features in this release. Q2 has been a very short dev cycle for Telerik as we continue to transition to our tri-annual (3 releases per year) release calendar, but I think we've managed to do a lot. Enjoy the "beta" bits and watch for the final release in a couple weeks.

RadWebinar on RadGrid, July 29th

One of the most popular UI components Telerik makes is RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX. Thousands of developers around the globe use this component every day to bring rich, standards-based grid functionality to their applications, and that creates a lot of interest in resources for learning how to maximize the Grid's power. And if all the documentation, on-demand videos, KB articles, Code Library examples, Telerik Trainer tutorials, and online demos aren't enough, we're giving you one more option. On July 29th, Falafel will host the first RadWebinar covering RadGrid!

Officially titled "Developing with Telerik RadGrid," this live training session will follow the format used for the first two Telerik Reporting RadWebinars. The session will start at 9:30 AM (PST) and last for a couple of hours with dedicated time at the end to answer your questions. The price is still a very affordable (for live training) $99 and the registration is open now. If you're interested in attending this training, I suggest you sign-up early since the popularity of RadGrid is likely to cause this session to fill-up fast. I hope you enjoy the new resource- stay tuned for more RadWebinars in the coming weeks.

Telerik Watch gets a facelift

When you returned from your long holiday weekend (those of you in the US), you may have noticed that your favorite blog (eh..hem) looks a little different. After 375 posts and more than 18 months of solid blogging, Telerik Watch has finally received a much need facelift! The new look is not only more consistent with Telerik's current branding (you've seen our new booth, haven't you?) and "cooler" looking than the old slightly-modified Blogger template, but it is also more functional. With the new template, I will be able to easily draw your attention to featured content on Telerik Watch and the Telerik.com Blogs via my new sidebar "Featured Posts". I've also added direct links to the Telerik Road Maps so you can always check-in with our official Road Maps to see what's coming in our future releases. Finally, the UI of the blog has also been updated for easier reading, with larger post titles, high contrast content text, and a clearly defined post footer area.

I hope you enjoy the new look and find that it improves your experience on the Telerik Watch blog. Content is still king, of course, so I won't waste more posts on the this UX revision. Enjoy the changes and thanks for being loyal readers of this blog!