Telerik updated their Public Road Map today, revealing a number of new details about the forthcoming Q1 (and Q2!) 2007 releases. Well, actually, part of the news is that there will no longer be "Q" releases. In 2007, telerik will be moving to three major releases per year instead of four. This move will enable the telerik developers to deliver a number of more advanced controls (such as the image editing control announced for Q2) than the fast quarterly schedule would allow. Remember, it's not quantity but quality that matters and I think this move will deliver bigger, higher quality releases in 2007. The Road Map offers more explanation, so be sure to read it today.
Now that we've got that covered, let's take a look at the laundry list of new controls we can look forward to in 2007. First up is a new "Manager for ASP.NET AJAX" that will deliver the same level of functionality we've come to know and love with the r.a.d.ajax Manager but built entirely upon the ASP.NET AJAX framework. This should help anyone with a great deal of time invested in learning the telerik ajax framework transition smoothly to ASP.NET AJAX. We can also look forward a handful of new "widget" controls, such as a color picker (!), tooltip, slider, spinner, and split button. It's not clear how these "widgets" will be implemented other than they will be built on top of the ASP.NET AJAX framework.
In a rare glimpse down the long term road, telerik also revealed that a new image editing control will be part of the "Vol 2" release. This has been a community favorite "wish list" item for quite some time, so I expect many people will look forward to this control. V2 will also deliver major version upgrades to grid and editor.
It will definitely be a busy year for telerik, but it appears 2007 will continue to "deliver more than expected" to the r.a.d.control suite. Watch for the Q1 V1 release to drop in April and the V2 release to drop sometime in September. What do you think of the 2007 plans? I, for one, can't wait for April!
6 comments:
I am a big fan of Telerik and have been for a while.
However, one thing that concerns me is that with the pace of new controls being announced/released, they're going to lose sight of some of the "core" controls that are still not quite right and market-competitive.
For example, Rad Editor continues to have major issues that just about makes it unusable. The performance for the Image Manager dialog is very, very slow. Paste from Word doesn't work right, etc.
dharmesh,
I think telerik agrees with you in part. One of the big changes for 2007 is moving away from a quarterly release schedule (by far the most agressive in the market) to a more paced 3 major releases per year. This change reflects a shift towards releases that focus on improving control quality versus racing to release new controls and features.
I'd have to disagree that the r.a.d.editor is unusable, but there are definitely things that can be improved. Hopefullly the major update to the editor control this year will help address some of your problems. Also, don't forget to visit the forums on telerik.com if you're having trouble with features like Paste from Word.
I think 2007 will be a big year for improving existing controls (we've already seen huge improvements in chart), so don't lose heart. The "core" controls will not be ignored.
Thanks~
I think you guys need to listen to what dharmesh is saying. That core control is extremely slow and needs to be addressed. We're considering tossing it out. Fix it.
Anonymous-
I assume you're referring to RadEditor? If so, I'm sorry to hear you're also having a bad experience. Telerik's RadEditor is by far one of the best online editors available in any programming language. If you load all of the features in the tool without spending any time to optimize the experience, that can make the experience slower since many tools have to initialize. If you only load the tools your users need, though, you can greatly improve the load time.
Also look for some major improvements in the "Prometheus" version of RadEditor with new load features on demand capabilities. Visit Telerik.com for help optimizing and more info on Prometheus.
Thanks~
Todd
I appreciate the candor and willingness to discuss the topic in such an open environment. The main point is it doesn't seem telerik is making a sincere effort to address/aknowledge this specific issue. My limited understanding is that Rad editor is run-time control, so the first time a user hits it, if its not in memory, that's where the delay stems from. unfortunately, this often occurs when people are initially getting trained, sales demonstrations etc. Doesn't make for a great first impression. Would love to see technical suggestions from telerik engineers on the topic.
Anonymous-
I understand your concern and assure you that Telerik is definitely not overlooking performance in any control.
This setting is really not the best place to discuss the full details, though. I encourage you to carry these concerns over to the forums on Telerik.com (http://www.telerik.com/forums) where you can get the full attention of the community and Telerik support teams. I'm confident any concerns you have about performance can be addressed there.
Hopefully I'll see you over in the forums (whoever you are ;-))!
Thanks~
Todd
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