RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX SP2 now available

Today Telerik released the second service pack for the Q3 2008 RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. It's been about a month and a half since SP1, and in that time a lot of great fixes and improvements have been added to the controls. The release notes, as always, have the full run down of what's changed in this release, but here are some especially cool highlights:

• New! Telerik HTTP Compression Module that works with AJAX and web services
• New! Code-less support for client-side binding directly to ADO.NET Data Services in RadGrid
• Top and Bottom pagers now supported with client-side data binding in RadGrid
• New! Web service validation in RadInputManager (and new Required Validation property for all input controls)
• New client-side events in many controls, including RadToolTip, RadTreeView, RadGrid, RadWindow, and RadCombobox
• Tons of fixes for all controls (11+ RadCombobox, 30+ RadEditor, 25+ RadGrid, 15+ RadScheduler)

All service packs are helpful, but this one really has a lot of great enhancements (in addition to the requisite fixes) that should make it worth your time to download and check-out. I'm particularly excited about the enhancements in RadInputManager and the new HTTP compression module. With the new web service validation support and required field property, RadInputManager is quickly becoming the fastest and most efficient way to add form input validation to your ASP.NET project. Check out my post on the Telerik Blogs for a deeper look at how easy form validation is with RadInputManager.

The compression module is also a cool new tool in the RadControls suite that will give you even more power to optimize your AJAX web applications. You can find a first look at this tool on Vladimir Enchev's blog, but I'll be sure to bring you an in-depth look at it's capabilities and performance impacts soon. Until then, enjoy SP2 and stay tuned for more details on Q1 (which is rapidly approaching).

Download RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Q3 2008 SP2 (2008.3.1314)

(Quick Note: The RadControls for WinForms service pack is coming early next week, too.)