Q1 beta available now, RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX

Sorry folks, I'm bringing this news to you a few days late. Still it doesn't diminish its importance! The Q1 2009 beta for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX is now available! This is your chance to get a hands-on look at what's coming in Q1 (for ASP.NET AJAX, at least) and send us your feedback while there's still time to change things before the official release. Here's a highlight of what you'll find in the beta (and, in turn, the Q1 release):

• New "control": RadFileExplorer
• Huge improvements in RadScheduler client-side features
• Improvements to RadGrid Pager and Filter templates
• Official release of RadCompression tool
• New skins: Vista, Default*
• Huge improvements to all skins*

For me, the improvements in RadScheduler and the Telerik skins are the most exciting aspects of this release. Finally we can bind RadScheduler directly to web services and add/remove appointments client-side (without the need for a Ajax server round-trip). And the new skins look great! That said, the observant among you probably caught my "*" items. The new skinning in Q1 does represent a breaking change for custom skins (not a problem for those of you using Telerik skins). We've made some changes to the CSS naming conventions of the controls to better support nested RadControls, and as such, your custom CSS needs to be updated. For more details and an offer from Telerik to fix your skins for you, see this blog post from Telerik Sr. Developer Tervel Peykov. Also, the "Default2006" and "Gray" skins are being retired. The new "Default" skin closely resembles those skins, though, so that is the best migration path for those of you currently using one of the affected skins. We hope you enjoy all of the enhancements and polish in the Q1 release. Let us know what you think and then get ready for the official bits in about 2 weeks! Play with the Q1 2009 beta live demos now Download the Q1 2009 beta