Q2 Service Packs now available

Looking for some updates for your Q2 2010 Telerik tools? If you’ve got the Telerik Extensions for Visual Studio installed, you’ve probably already seen the automatic notification that newer bits are available (one of my favorite Telerik VSX features!). If not, here’s your official notice that Q2 2010 SP1s are now available for download on Telerik.com. Over the last week, we’ve shipped service pack updates for most of tools in the Telerik Ultimate Collection, from JustCode to WebUI Test Studio. Here are some quick highlights of what you’ll find in these SPs, along with the new version numbers and links to the release notes for quick reference:

• RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX (2010.2.826)
• Fixed support for ASP.NET 4 new ClientIDModes
• [RadAsyncUpload] Added detailed error info to Flash upload module
• [RadListView] Added support for custom item drag handles
• [RadCalendar] Added keyboard navigation between dates
• [RadEditor] 15 fixes, including improved cross-browser content generation
• [RadGrid] 20 fixes, including improvements export formatting and behavior
• Team blog post
• RadControls for Silverlight/WPF (2010.2.0812)
• [RadGridView] TONS of work, including new commands, performance improvements, and visual
• [RadRichTextBox] TONS of work and refactoring. This release improves greatly on the first Q2 release, but there could be breaking changes. I highly recommend starting with this SP if you’re going to work with RichTextBox!
• [RadChart] Added option to hide zero-value labels + 14 fixes
• [RadDataPager] Added new unbound mode support
• [RadTreeView] Added IsChecked property of type Nullable<Bool> to nodes
• [RadRibbonBar] Added keyboard navigation
• [RadMediaPlayer] Added poster frame support + property to disable seeking
• [RadBook] New support to preload pages
• [RadTransition] New transition effect: Pixelate
• Assembly Minifier performance and optimization improvements
• Team blog post
• RadControls for WinForms (2010.2.10.806)
• NEW! Conversion Wizard to help auto-convert obsolete PanelBar, TabStrip, ComboBox, and ListBox controls to the newer, more powerful RadPageView, RadDropDownList, and RadListControl replacements.
• [RadGridView] Over 25 fixes and improvements
• [RadListControl] A few breaking changes. See the release notes for details!
• [RadScheduler] Improved layout behavior and performance
• Team blog post
• JustCode (2010.2.826)
• Auto-update can now check for new “internal” builds
• Visual aids OnMouseOver can now be disabled, keyboard access added
• Many Good-Code-Red issues fixed (thanks for reporting scenarios!)
• Many improvements to JustCode Unit Test Runner
• Team blog post
• JustMock (2010.2.810)
• NEW! Added support for mocking F#
• ReturnsCollection method moved to Telerik.JustMock.Helpers namespace
• Many improved mocking scenarios. See release notes for full details.
• WebUI Test Studio (2010.2.830)
• Project upgrade wizard (auto backup of project and upgrade to new version)
• [Silverlight] Improved support for handling pop-ups, tooltips.
• Improved translators for RadControls for Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX
• Many, many improvements across recording, test playback, and Dev/QA Editions. See releases notes for long list of details.
• Team blog post

Obviously missing from this list are Telerik Reporting and OpenAccess ORM. At present, neither of these tools will be shipping a Q2 2010 SP1 and are instead working hard on big new features for Q3 2010. For updates to these tools, make sure you check the Latest Internal Builds page on Telerik.com (OpenAccess currently has a 2010.2.804 build, and Telerik Reporting a 4.1.10.729 build).

Enjoy the new round of bits and stay tuned for Q3 2010 news! As the hot days of summer start to (hopefully) cool, we march ever closer to the next major Telerik release. Road Maps for Q3 2010 will start going live this week, so keep your RSS readers locked-in to Telerik Watch for more updates.

Download all of the Q2 2010 SP1 Telerik tools

Q2 Extensions for MVC official

And just like that, the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC Q2 2010 have left beta and are now officially available on Telerik.com! As you know, the Telerik Extensions were released as a beta with the rest of the Q2 2010 bits to ensure that the official release could deliver well-tested new UI extensions- most significantly, a new rich text editor. The extra time has been used extremely efficiently by the product team, and not only do we get polished beta features, we get some new features in the official release:

• In the new Editor, we’ve added:
• Font name and size tools
• Background and foreground color tools (basic)
• Smart indent
• Support for custom tools(!)
• Localization support
• Support for ASP.NET MVC 3 Preview 1
• Support for the new Razor syntax

This is a major update for the MVC Extensions and it delivers one of the most unique rich text editors available for ASP.NET (any “flavor”). We hope you enjoy the new bits.

Remember, the Telerik Extensions are still free and open source (GPLv2). We’ll be updating the CodePlex download very soon, too, so that you have the option of grabbing the tools there, if you prefer. We’ll also soon announce our road map plans for Q3 2010. We’ve got some exciting ideas for the final release of 2010 that should make the Telerik Extensions even more useful in a broad range of web applications. For now, download Q2 2010 and keep sending us your feedback.

Updated Telelerik Extension online demos

And the final Telerik winner is…

After a couple of weeks of incredible software giveaways here at Telerik, celebrating both the release of Q2 2010 and the official launch of TeamPulse (and even the upcoming beta of Sitefinity 4), it’s been hard not to feel like it’s Christmas in July if you’re a .NET developer. The giveaways have been so popular that we even exceeded the limits of GoToWebinar (which only holds 1,000 people live at a time)! Still, after all of this, we ran one more contest last week asking you to help us spread the message about all of the new products Telerik is delivering to make .NET developers and teams more productive.

The “Tweet and Win” (or “Facebook and Win,” if you preferred) contest gave you the chance last week to talk about some of the various Telerik products for a chance to win one of three Telerik Ultimate Collections (worth $1999 each) or one of the “super popular” Apple iPads.

Before I announce the winners, let me thank everyone that tweeted and commented on Facebook. We love hear about the Telerik tools helping real people with real projects! Some of my favorite quotes:

• Sakari Hilama - “ASP.NET AJAX (and the Silverlight controls) are the big time savers and work perfectly in SharePoint 2007/2010. These are the controls that you want to use when developing stuff that needs to work and look good.”
• Todd Davis - “My company currently standardizes on Telerik controls, because the controls and the customer service are just ‘that good.’”
• Tony Morehouse - “When reviewing controls to use in my projects, Telerik stood out above the rest. I was initially looking for a reporting solution and Telerik Reporting had the best features and ease of implementation.”
• Steve Kaschimer - “Loving TeamPulse! Finally a nice solution for Agile Development with .NET and TFS.”
• Robert Varga - “We've been using Telerik controls for about 2 years and can't imagine development without them, particularly ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight controls are the best on market for web developers.”
• Francis Frank - “I feel like 10 programmers in 1 using Telerik.”

And now the randomly selected winners. After compiling hundreds of tweets and comments, the lucky random winners of the Telerik Ultimate Collection are:

• Craig Morehouse (FB)
• Huseyin Ulker (FB)
• @pedrolamas (Twitter)

And the winner of the Apple iPad is: Roger Ward!

Congrats to the winners and thanks again to everyone for joining Telerik for an exciting round of product releases and introductions. There’s plenty more planned for 2010, so enjoy the Telerik Q2 2010 bits and start saving time now to join us for the Q3 2010 release!

Tweet about Telerik Products and Win

If you haven’t “won” something from Telerik in the last couple of weeks, you’ve got one more chance this week (after today’s TeamPulse giveaway, of course). And this contest doesn’t require you to stay up at all hours (depending on your timezone – thanks to those of you in Australia, Japan, and surrounding countries that attended the webinars last week)!

With the Q2 2010 release and the addition of the JustMock and TeamPulse products to the Telerik portfolio, we want you to help spread the word about all of the different types of products Telerik provides. Telerik now offers products in four distinct divisions:

1. Developer Productivity
   • AJAX, MVC, Silverlight, WPF, WinForms, Reporting, ORM, JustCode, JustMock
2. Team Productivity
   • TeamPulse (officially launched today!), TFS Work Item Manager and Project Dashboard
3. Automated Testing
   • WebUI Test Studio – Dev and QA Editions
4. Web Content Management
   • Sitefinity CMS

For this “Tweet and Win” contest, your challenge is to tell the (Twitter) world about everything Telerik is doing these days. To enter the contest, simply:

• Tweet about 4 Telerik products from at least 2 of the Telerik product divisions
• Include #Telerik in your Tweet
• Follow @Telerik (important if you want to win since we’ll be DM’ing the winners)

If you do that between now and this Friday, you’ll be in the drawing for 3 Telerik Ultimate Collections and an Apple iPad!

Got it? Here are some example tweets in case there is any confusion:

• “AJAX=RadControls, CMS=Sitefinity, Testing=WebUITestStudio, Agile=TeamPulse #Telerik”
• “DevProductivity=JustCode, JustMock, TeamProductivity=TeamPulse, Testing=WebUITestStudio #Telerik”
• “DevProductivity= AJAX, Silverlight, ORM, MVC, JustCode, JustMock, Reporting, WinForms, WPF! TeamProductivity=TeamPulse #Telerik”

You get the idea. At least 4 products from at least 2 Telerik divisions. Tweet by Friday midnight (Eastern) and you could win valuable prizes.

Not on Twitter?! (Shocking…) Facebook more your style? We’re extending the contest there, too. On the Telerik Facebook Page, you’ll find a post on the wall about this contest (see image below for fool proof reference). Simply “Like” the post and leave a comment with the “4 from 2” rules above to enter to win.

Q2 2010 Webinar Week underway, Videos on Telerik TV

Quick! If you’ve already missed the first two Webinar Week webinars, you’ve still got time to catch the remaining events this week and next. Everyday this week at 11 AM Eastern, we’re hosting a live webinar to help you get started with the Q2 2010 bits from Telerik. Yesterday, we kicked things off and talked about What’s New in AJAX and MVC (recording embedded above). Today we just wrapped-up an overview of What’s New in Reporting and WinForms. And tomorrow we’re talking XAML.

To register for any of the upcoming webinars, visit this post and follow the quick registration links.

Also, don’t forget about our upcoming “Ask the Experts” webinar on Friday, August 5th. It’s the perfect time to bring your questions and get answers live from Telerik Evangelists, Developer Support Specialists, and Telerik MVPs.

Otherwise, we hope you continue to enjoy Q2 2010 and all that it has to offer. If you’re still try to get your hands on a Q2 2010 Ultimate Collection license, you’ll definitely want to join the webinars where you’ll have a chance everyday to win Telerik software!

What’s being said about Telerik Q2 2010

It’s only days after Telerik shipped the major Q2 2010 release, and already the internet is abuzz with praise for our latest round of bits. Both “traditional” media and the always buzzing social media are talking about Q2 2010. From the traditional press, you can find good articles talking about Q2 2010 bits here:

A Busy Week, But a Good One
Dr. Dobb’s – M-Dev Update (by Jon Erickson)

Telerik Pushes Design, Testing Tools
SD Times (by Dave Worthington)

Meanwhile, from the vocal Twitterland, developers are spreading the word about the Telerik release and adding their two-cents (or stotinky, if you’re in Bulgaria) as they go:

“Congratulations to @Telerik - JustCode excellent updates on the Q2 2010 with this great news :D”
(by @djonatastenfen)

“…the HTML that that #Telerik control outputs is perfect - images are imbedded! What we were looking for.”
(by @lancelarsen – he’s talking about the new RichTextBox for Silverlight)

“New #telerik Silverlight Demo based on 2010 Q2 controls, is available. Looks super clean!”
(by @BenHayat)

“Started up visual studio with a nice surprise alert: new version of JustCode from #Telerik is out!”
(by @SelAromDotNet)

“AWESOME http://demos.telerik.com/silverlight/#Controls”
(by @ssdulawat)

“Liking what I see in Telerik Silverlight controls Q2 2010: http://bit.ly/9R7Ezf. Like the XAP minifier.”
(by @gillcleeren)

“…Cool re freebies from Telerik. They just released Q2 of their toolkit today. Looks ace.”
(by @graemehumphrey)

“Telerik have just released a new beta of their mvc extensions. Some very nice stuff in there. http://bit.ly/aSoj1u #dotnet #mvc”
(by @seancross)

“Just bought the Telerik suite for silverlight and wpf. Lovin it”
(by @JoshGraham78)

“Wow, Telerik's OpenAccess ORM looks impressive http://tinyurl.com/3anzsvh”
(by @coridrew)

Even the blogosphere (yes, people still blog in this ago of “social updates”) is spreading love and excitement for the Q2 release:

HTML Editor in Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC
(by David Hayden)

New goodies in the Q2 Release of Telerik OpenAccess : Part I
(by Stephen Forte – an “insider,” but a great intro post)

What do you think of Q2 2010? Hopefully you’re discovering and enjoying the new features, controls, and tools. Be sure to join us next week for the “What’s New Webinars,” which will help answer any questions you have about the new bits. Until then, keep on enjoying Telerik’s Q2 release and be sure to share your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter!

60+ Q2 2010 videos on Telerik TV

Looking for a way to get started with the Q2 bits while you wait for next week’s Q2 2010 What’s New webinars? Then why not swing by the recently improved Telerik TV, where you’ll find over 60 new videos created to help you learn the Q2 2010 controls and features. Videos for everything from Telerik Reporting to JustCode to WebUI Test Studio have been posted, and most are “bite size” in length, making it quick and easy for you to use the video to learn a specific lesson.

More videos will be streaming out to Telerik TV this week, so check back often for even more Q2 video learning. Specifically, you’ll soon see more videos covering the new features in OpenAccess ORM, RadControls for AJAX integration with SharePoint, and getting started videos for the new beta features in the Telerik Extensions for MVC. Stay tuned!

For now, you can get started with the quick four minute “overview” what’s new video for Q2 2010 (pre- a much needed hair cut on my part!):

http://tv.telerik.com/watch/telerik/whats-new-q2-2010

Q2 2010 is live, Download today!

And just like that, the next major Q release from Telerik is available on Telerik.com! Today marks the official release of all Q2 2010 bits, which means all ten developer products in the Telerik Ultimate Collection have been updated! I’m always amazed (even as an insider) at our ability to consistently deliver high quality releases full of new features and innovation on time, and I’m sure you’re going to enjoy what you find in this release. While there is tons that could be talked about in a release this big, let me draw your attention to a few major improvements you’ll find:

1. (Real) RichTextBox for Silverlight
   Sure, Silverlight 4 ships with a “richtextbox,” but anybody who has worked with it knows its limits (no “end-user features,” support for only XAML formatting, etc.). The RadRichTextBox for Silverlight that officially ships today finally gives developers a native Silverlight text editor that can import/export HTML(!), Word’s DOCX format, and XAML. It also includes built-in support for paged(!) printing. Enjoy. (TIP: If you see the old Q2 online demos, try clearing your browser’s cache.)
2. Assembly Minifier for Silverlight
   If you’re building Silverlight apps, you know how important (and challenging) it is to keep them small. Telerik goes the extra mile in Q2 2010 by giving you a new tool to help you minify your Telerik RadControl assemblies. Check it out online and watch for some powerful improvements in this tool in upcoming releases.
3. Improved Automated Testing for Silverlight Apps
   Now that the Telerik Ultimate Collection includes the Dev Edition of WebUI Test Studio, I expect many more of you are starting to experience the benefits of automated UI testing. In this release, Telerik extends its industry leading support for testing Silverlight by adding support for creating Out-of-Browser Silverlight app tests, support for testing ChildWindows and Pop-ups, improved support for virtualized lists, and a cool new pixel-based image verification (for “visual” validation of an app).
4. Round-Trip Mapping in OpenAccess ORM
   One of my favorite features in Q2 2010 is the new Round-Trip Mapping support in OpenAccess. Not only does the Visual Designer now support forward and reverse mapping, it lets you “switch” between forward and reverse mapping at any time in a project. No more “either or” decisions about making projects forward or reverse mapped. This makes OpenAccess very flexible (more than any other ORM I’m aware of) and enables some new cool scenarios (such as, reverse map to start a project, then forward map as your project evolves).
5. Official Release of JustMock!
   And finally, JustMock, our newest developer productivity tool. JustMock makes mocking as easy (as possible) in unit tests by fully leveraging the language features of .NET to provide an intuitive, fluid API. It also integrates with JustCode to help you write some of your mocking code, making it easy to start mocking even if you’ve never done any in the past.

That’s already a lot of value, and I haven’t even mentioned the new controls and features in the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, Telerik Extensions for MVC, RadControls for WinForms, or the other 12 new controls in the RadControls for XAML, OR the new interactive features in Reporting! Clearly, too much for one blog post, so for now, the most important thing to do is download the new bits and try things out for yourself. So…download the new bits and enjoy Q2. More details and coverage to come!

Ask the Experts webinar scheduled for August

By now, you should know that the Telerik Q2 2010 release is mere weeks away and that the Q2 2010 Webinar Week registration is open. (You should also be registered for the Webinar Week now, too, so if you’re not, now is a great time to register before you forget.) When mid-July arrives and you download the Q2 bits, you’ll quickly get started by enjoying the “release notes on steroids” (also known as Webinar Week), but what happens if you have questions after you’ve spent some time using the bits in the real world?

To help answer those burning questions that form in the first week of working with the Q2 2010 bits, Telerik is hosting another Ask the Experts webinar on August 5th at 11 AM Eastern.

What is Ask the Experts? It’s a unique webinar format driven entirely by your questions. Telerik MVPs and product experts host the event and spend over an hour answering any questions you have about the Q2 release. The event is full of on-the-spot demos and quick tips and tricks from real masters of the Telerik products. It’s the perfect Webinar Week follow-up.

Register for the Ask the Experts webinar now and then join us on August 5th with your questions!

Q2 2010 Webinar Week registration is open (update)

As the hot summer months start to set-in, it’s almost time for another Telerik release! The Q2 2010 release is just a few short weeks away (bits are shipping in mid-July), and with it another action-packed “What’s New Webinar Week.” For the uninitiated, a Webinar Week is 5 days of webinars designed to help you discover all of the major new features Telerik is shipping in a release. As another Telerik Evangelist said, “it’s like release notes on steroids.”

Clearly, you don’t want to miss these webinars. Only people attending the live events will have a shot at winning Telerik Ultimate Collections (our newest “super bundle,” $1999 value), so don’t wait for the Telerik TV recordings. We’ll give away at least one Ultimate Collection per webinar.

Q2 2010 What’s New Webinar Week starts on Monday, July 19 at 11:00 AM Eastern. Registration links for all 5 webinars are below. Sign-up right now and then invite your friends, family, and pets.

Mon, Jul 19: What’s New in RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and Extensions for MVC Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/391602961

Tues, Jul 20: What’s New in RadControls for WinForms and Telerik Reporting Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/840774105

Wed, Jul 21: What’s New in RadControls for Silverlight and WPF Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/296364240

Thurs, Jul 22: What’s New in JustCode, JustMock, and OpenAccess ORM Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/665018560

Fri, Jul 23: What’s New in WebUI Test Studio Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/119429289

[UPDATE] Tues, Jul 27: Official TeamPulse Launch Webinar Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/737864569

Thurs, Jul 29: What's New in Sitefinity 4 Beta Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/406935048

Fri, Aug 5: Q2 2010 Ask the Experts Webinar

Now that you’ve registered, don’t forget to play with the Q2 2010 betas. Your time for providing beta Q2 2010 feedback is quickly fading.

Q2 2010 betas now available

We’re back from a busy, award-filled week at TechEd 2010, and we’re closer than ever to the next major Telerik release. A few weeks ago, we covered in detail what you can expect in the Q2 2010 release, but now you can actually start to get your hands on some of the new stuff. Available right now on Telerik.com are betas for the RadControls for Silverlight/WPF, RadControls for WinForms, and JustCode. Betas for most other Telerik products will be shipping later in June.

As a reminder, the betas for XAML only include builds for Silverlight/WPF v4. All new controls and features are targeting the v4 of these platforms, so there are no v3 beta builds. The final Q2 release will include native v3 builds, but it will be bug fixes only.

Otherwise, don’t waste any time downloading the latest betas! These bits deliver everything from a unit test runner (JustCode) to new desktop alerts and reminders (WinForms) to a seriously cool Word-like editor for the browser (Silverlight). We need to hear your feedback now so we can get everything just right for the July release!

Beta Feedback Forums
Silverlight / WPF
WinForms
JustCode

Looking ahead to Q2 2010, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I started sharing with you highlights from the rapidly approaching July Q2 2010 Telerik release. We looked at the road maps for ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC, and WinForms and I hand-picked a few of the updates for each product that should get you really excited about what’s coming in less than 8 weeks time. But this is 2010 and a Telerik release means updates to 9 developer products!

What else should you be looking forward to in Q2 2010? Here are some ideas:

• RadControls for Silverlight/WPF
• [!NOTE] Only SL4/WPF4 builds will get new controls (v3 will be bug fixes only)
• [NEW CONTROL] RichTextBox (incredible, Word-like editor)
• [NEW CONTROL] TreeListView
• [NEW CONTROL] RadFilter
• New BusyIndicator being added to all controls for auto remote-request UX
• [RadGridView] New multi-cell selection (foundations for advanced copy/paste)
• [RadCart] New annotations, exploding radial series, log axis
• [RadScheduler] Improved perf (UI virtualization), improved rendering, grouping
• New theme and animations
• Improved VS2010 support (Collection Editor, SmartTag)
• OpenAccess ORM
• Support for WCF Ria & Data Services
• New DataTransporterObjects (self-tracking entities)
• DataAnnotations support
• Improved RLINQ visual designer (support for reverse & forward mapping!)
• [NEW DB SUPPORT] SQLite
• JustCode
• [NEW] Unit Test Runner!
• Enhanced XAML navigation and refactoring support
• New visual cues for easier access to all features
• At least 3 new refactorings
• Improved code navigation and code analysis engine
• Telerik Reporting
• [NEW] Interactive reports (hyperlinks for drill down, navigation, & external links)
• New data source components for OpenAccess ORM and EF
• Improved Silverlight support

On top of all that, Q2 will also introduce the first official release of JustMock (including basic JustMock integration with JustCode) and TeamPulse (our new team planning tool). Combine that with the list of new stuff from my last post, and once again you’ve got a huge release coming your way this summer.

Fortunately, betas for Q2 are just around the corner. Betas will start shipping as early as next week (with a JustCode beta) and then continue shipping throughout June. Keep your RSS reader locked here for more updates as we make our way to Q2.