Sunday, November 18, 2007

Prometheus SP2 out, Q3 coming soon

Hello again dear blog readers. If there is anything that seems to be universally true about the software industry and end of the year is that it is a very busy time. That's at least the case for me and the reason this blog has had a dearth of posts of late. But fear not, I'll do my best to keep bringing you the latest Telerik news in the midst of it all as we head in to the holidays.

Along those lines, in case you missed it, the official "SP2" release of the RadControls "Prometheus" officially shipped about 12 days ago. After a couple of short delays to ensure a high quality release, the SP2 release shipped with a lot of helpful fixes. Most of the work centered on bringing RadEditor "Prometheus" up to par with the ASP.NET 2 version, and I think that task is definitely complete. RadEditor "Prometheus" is now by far the best rich text editor available for ASP.NET development. You can check out the full release notes for the 2007.2.1107 release to see what else was fixed in this service release.

With no SP2 planned for the regular ASP.NET controls, it's now on to Q3, which is only 4 short weeks away! Hard to believe. What can you look forward to in Q3? Glad you asked. Here are some "public" highlights:

  • ASP.NET
    • RadGrid, RadTreeview, RadUpload, RadMenu, RadCombobox, and RadSpell are all getting Prometheus'd (leaving just TabStrip, Toolbar, Panelbar, and Rotator for Q1)
  • WinForms
    • Totally refactored RadGridView with significantly improved performance/stability
    • Many new controls, like MaskedEditor, Rotator, StatusStrip, and DateTimePicker
    • Significantly enhanced and expanded documentation
  • Reporting
    • ExportToExcel (based on new ExportToExcel engine)
    • New table layout feature
    • Additional report converters
  • Silverlight 1.1
    • Previews of RadControls for Silverlight 1.1
Clearly another big release and a great way to end 2007. Watch for more details in the coming weeks and get ready for some early Christmas presents.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Todd, please enhance your expression:
With no SP2 planned for the regular ASP.NET controls, it's now on to Q3
If I read the releasenotes NOTHING will happen with the ASP.NET version, the "only" thing that happens in in the Promotheus version.

And when I'm already asking I take one more *g*
What happened to the RAD Image they promised? That was one of my main focus cause I really work alot with integrated print/Web. Is it busted out completelly?

Adrian said...

Todd, I just renewed my Telerik subscription, afterwards I asked my self, does it include the upcoming silverlight 1.1 subscription as well?

Todd Anglin said...

@Pelle-

Let me clarify a little. While most of the work in Q3 is on finalizing the transition of all RadControls to "Prometheus" (a.k.a. ASP.NET AJAX), there will be new features and enhanced performance in the "classic" controls in Q3. Expect a much faster RadEditor in Q3 as well as some improvements in RadGrid and other controls. Beginning in Q1 of next year (with the Prometheus transition complete), you'll start to see the more "normal" pace of innovative new controls in Qs.

As for the RadImage control, it did get shelved for a number of reasons- but it is not forgotten. Stay tuned next year for some updates as we turn our attention past Prometheus and seek out what you (developers) need most from Telerik.

Hope that helps.

-Todd

Todd Anglin said...

@Adrian-

I don't think the final licensing for the Silverlight 1.1 controls has been determined. If you have a full subscription license (in other words, the license for everything Telerik makes), I'm sure you'll get the Silverlight 1.1 controls. If you just have the ASP.NET subscription, you may need to upgrade to use the SL 1.1 controls in the future.

Either way, their will be plenty of free trials and betas for you to experiment with before the 1.1 controls are ready for licensing. Be sure to stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

-Todd

Anonymous said...

Todd, thanxs for clarified. I understand lot is focused on promo series. i did became a little dissapointed on Net3,5 that demanded Win2003, time to reinstall all old Win2k that works perfect :( M$ knows how to make money.

I missed the Preview of Promo last month :(

Todd Anglin said...

@Pelle-

Not sure what you mean by missing the Prometheus promo last month? Did I promise one and forget or are you talking about something else?

Either way, I think you'll enjoy the improvement being made in Prometheus and will find the upgrade from Win2k to Win2k3 well worth it. By the way, you can also use the Prometheus controls with .NET 2, so only upgrade if you need specific features of .NET 3.5.

Hope that helps.

-Todd

André Paradis said...

Todd,

Do we have to expect significant upgrade work to move to the new Prometheus controls with Q1 2008, or is it API compatible with the regular controls ?

Sorry if it's a dumb question, i did not look at Prometheus controls yet. We are currently using the regular controls and are up to date with all service packs.

Todd Anglin said...

@Andre-

Good question. The answer is it depends completely on the controls you upgrade. You can run Prometheus and "classic" controls side-by-side without any problems, which means you can upgrade specific controls in your project at your own pace.

Some of the controls, like RadEditor, have breaking changes that were introduced to set developers for enhanced features in the future. Others, like RadAjax, can be upgraded with a simple search and replace of a few tags. Whatever the case, all such requirements are well documented in the control documentation so you know exactly what's required.

In general, the effort is not too hard. You'll definitely need some time to test and verify the changes, but it's nothing like the transition from .NET 1.x to 2.

Hope that helps-
Todd