JustTrace Unofficial FAQs

Along with yesterday's introduction of JustDecompile, Telerik also introduced the beta for another new developer productivity tool: JustTrace. JustTrace is .NET memory and performance profiler, designed to make the process profiling local (WinForms, WPF), Silverlight, and ASP.NET applications as easy as hitting F5 in Visual Studio. With the help of JustTrace, you should be able to find problem areas in your code and then work on refactoring (perhaps with the help of JustCode) to improve your application performance and/or memory footprint.

Of course, a new product introduction means lots of questions. So to help provide some answers while we are in this JustTrace BETA, I have prepared a list of "unofficial FAQs."

(If you're looking for answers to JustDecompile questions, see yesterday's U-FAQ list.)

JustTrace Beta Q&A

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Q: What is JustTrace?
JustTrace is a new (beta) .NET memory and performance profiler from Telerik. JustTrace enables developers to quickly profile executing .NET applications and see results that help identify slow running code or code that is consuming large amounts of memory. JustTrace supports profiling of local applications (WinForms, WPF), Silverlight, and ASP.NET (including ASP.NET MVC). It is available as a standalone application and it also ships with Visual Studio integration for profiling directly from the VS IDE.

Q: Why is Telerik making a .NET performance and memory profiler?
Consistent with Telerik's over-arching goal of being a complete, end-to-end provider of solutions and tools for software development, JustTrace is complimentary tool to Telerik's existing developer productivity tools, JustCode and JustMock. Where JustCode helps with writing code and JustMock helps with testing code, JustTrace helps with optimizing code.

In addition to being complimentary, JustTrace aims to improve upon existing .NET profiling tools and provide a better, integrated development experience with the other Telerik tools.

Q: How is JustTrace different from existing similar tools?
Clearly, JustTrace has a long way to go from today's beta to v1 and beyond to fully cover all areas that existing .NET profiling tools cover. But even from the first beta, we are doing some things fundamentally different that we think are improvements for the .NET profiling space:

1. Simplified Licensing/Combined Power- While some tools make you pay twice- once for Performance Profiling, once for Memory Profiling- JustTrace combines both capabilities in to single, simple to use tool. Don't get caught it the arbitrary limits of Memory vs Performance vs Standard/Pro version schemes. JustTrace just works and let's you focus on productively optimizing your code.
2. Fast Snapshots - Some profiling tools give you enough time to grab a cup of a coffee and catch-up on your RSS backlog while waiting for a snapshot. JustTrace aims to make the process of capturing snapshots fast so you don't lose focus or valuable productive time.
3. Simple Tools - Many developers avoid profiling because it seems complicated and difficult to do. JustTrace is focused on making the process super simple, while still providing powerful results. With Visual Studio integration, just hit F5 and JustTrace will handle the rest.
4. Live Data - Why wait for snapshots to see what's happening with your app? JustTrace provides a "Live Data" view that let's you see real-time stats during Performance Profiling so you know exactly when to take a snapshot.

As we push towards v1, JustTrace will continue to improve baseline features (like performance), while working fast to add improved analysis tools, like rich data visualizations and views for understanding the collected data.

Q: How much does JustTrace cost?
JustTrace pricing has not yet been set, though it will likely be a cost leader. Please stay tuned for pricing information around the time of the official release. JustTrace will not be a free product.

Q: When will JustTrace be available?
The JustTrace beta is available now! The first official version of JustTrace will ship with the Telerik Q2 2011 release this summer.

Q: Will JustTrace be part of the Telerik Ultimate Collection?
Yes, JustTrace will be part of the Telerik Ultimate Collection and also available as a separately licensed product. JustTrace will not be part of the Telerik Premium Collection.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

Q: How do I install JustTrace?
JustTrace must be installed as an administrator. If UAC is disabled on your machine, simply run the installer. If UAC is enabled, you may have to perform a special work around described in this forum thread to successfully run the beta installer. This will be improved for the final release.

Q: What kinds of applications can JustTrace profile?
JustTrace can trace local applications (WinForms, WPF), Silverlight, and ASP.NET (including ASP.NET MVC and WebForms). JustTrace also supports attaching to a running local process for fast tracing of applications already executing.

Q: Does JustTrace support profiling for Windows Phone?
The current JustTrace beta does not offer direct support for profiling Windows Phone apps, but this is feature on our roadmap. More details on support for mobile profiling will come in the future.

Q: What types of profiling does JustTrace support?
The JustTrace beta ships with three different profiling options:

1. Sampling Profiler - Least impact on app runtime performance, but slightly less accurate as it relies on interval polling to collect data
2. Performance Profiler - Usually slows down a runtime app, but much more accurate/complete collection of profiling data
3. Memory Profiler - Unlike the Sampling and Performance profilers, which look at app method execution times, the Memory Profiler looks at objects counts and size created by your app.

Each profiler can be easily selected from either the standalone JustTrace application or the Visual Studio integration profiling launch window.

Q: Does JustTrace support 64 bit application profiling?
Yes! Part of the focus with JustTrace has been on doing things right from the beginning, and that includes offering full support for profiling x86 and x64 applications.

Q: What kind of data does the JustTrace profiler report?
JustTrace has two primary types of reports: data collected by the performance profilers (Sampling, Performance), and data collected by the Memory Profiler.

The performance profilers provide live views of the counters being collected (showing info like Class Name, Hit Count, and Method Name), and the snapshots further reveal Call Tree, Method List, Hot Spots, and Loaded Assemblies.

The memory profiler does not provide a live data view, but a snapshot reveals Type List (with instance and total size counts), Hot Spots, Incoming References, and Outgoing References.

Q: Does JustTrace work with IIS for profiling ASP.NET applications?
Currently the JustTrace beta only supports the Visual Studio Cassini development web server, but support for IIS and IIS Express are high priorities for upcoming builds. Support for IIS and IIS Express will be in the official release.

Q: Can JustTrace profile and capture multiple threads?
Yes! JustTrace will automatically capture and profile multiple threads in an application. It is also capable of profiling multiple child processes if your application spawns new processes during runtime.

Q: Can you compare multiple JustTrace snapshots?
No, not in the current beta, however this is a planned feature for the official v1 release.

Q: Does JustTrace integrate with Visual Studio?
Yes, JustTrace integrates with Visual Studio when the installer is run. It will add a "JustTrace" menu option to the Telerik Visual Studio menu. From this menu, you can enable/disable JustTrace in Visual Studio. When enabled, simply hitting F5 to run your application will automatically display the JustTrace prompt to let you quickly begin profiling your app.

Q: Can JustTrace be used to profile the behavior of OpenAccess ORM?
No, JustTrace is not designed to be a profiling tool for data. Fortunately, OpenAccess ORM will be adding a dedicated data profiling tool in the Q2 2011 release.

Q: Will JustTrace offer more visual tools for analyzing profiled data?
Definitely! This is an early beta preview of a v1 product, so there is lots of work left to do. One of our key areas of focus for future JustTrace improvements is in adding more rich visualizations of the profiled data. Stay tuned…

Q: Where do I report JustTrace Beta issues?
You can report any JustTrace beta issues or feedback in the official JustTrace forums on Telerik.com.

Hopefully this helps you get started with the JustTrace beta. We are working hard to add many more features and improve those already previewed in the beta before the official release in Q2 2011. Download the beta today and join the conversation on the Telerik forums!

JustDecompile Unofficial FAQs

Today Telerik proudly introduced the beta for a  brand new .NET assembly browser and decompiler called JustDecompile. This new tool is designed to make assembly browsing and decompiling easier than ever before by integrating many of the innovations created for JustCode, Telerik's Visual Studio productivity plug-in, with a tool dedicated to the tasks related to assembly browsing. Oh! And it's a free tool. Forever. For everyone.

Obviously, anytime a new tool is introduced there are MANY questions that need answers, even during a beta. So without further pretense, enjoy this collection of answers to some of (or what will soon be) the most common JustDecompile BETA questions.

JustDecompile Q&A

Q: What is JustDecompile?
JustDecompile is a free tool from Telerik for .NET assembly browsing and decompiling. In other words, it lets you take an existing compiled assembly (.dll or .exe) and easily browse the symbols it contains, and then just as easily decompile the assembly language back to easily readable C# (and in the future VB, IL, and possibly other languages). JustDecompile is a standalone tool and it does not require Visual Studio.

Q: How much does JustDecompile cost?
JustDecompile is 100% free and it will remain that way forever. Assembly browsing and decompiling is a basic .NET developer toolbox necessity and Telerik is happy to provide the ultimate tool for that action for free. This perfectly complements Telerik's other "money making" developer tools, like JustCode, so we will not charge for JustDecompile in the future.

Q: Is JustDecompile and open source tool?
While JustDecompile is free, it is not open source. It is available from Telerik free of charge for perpetual use (there are no "time bombs" in the software). Since JustDecompile incorporates code and innovations from the commercial JustCode product, we cannot make the JustDecompile source available.

Q: Why is Telerik creating an assembly browser/decompiler?
A few reasons. First, Telerik is helping address a "gap" that was created in the .NET market when a popular assembly browser/decompiler ceased to be freely available (with all future updates are behind a "pay wall"). Secondly, Telerik is helping reimagine the assembly browser/decompiler. Existing tools have not evolved greatly over the last few years, while .NET and development has seen huge amounts of change. Telerik is aiming to innovate in the user experience and decompiling code quality with JustDecompile.

JustDecompile also perfectly compliments Telerik's other developer productivity tools, like JustCode, JustMock, and JustTrace. Telerik continues to build on its promise to be an end-to-end provider of solutions for all aspects of software development.

Q: What makes JustDecompile special?
JustDecompile is doing a number of things that are cool and new for assembly browsing/decompiling:

1. Side-by-side Assembly Loading
   Load different versions of the same assembly side-by-side without being forced to always unload and reload
2. Innovative Code Navigation
   Borrowing from the useful JustCode code navigation found in Visual Studio, JustDecompile provides fast code navigation. Support for keyboard short cuts, CamelCase searching, and searching for Types and Symbols.
3. Integrated Code Analysis
   In other tools, full analysis requires multiple actions (Used By, Instantiated By, Exposed By, etc.). JustDecompile roles these all-up in to a single easy to execute "Find Usages" action, complete with code context snippets and highlighting.

Check-out the product team blog on JustDecompile and JustTrace to see more about what's in the first JustDecompile beta.

Q: When will JustDecompile be available?
JustDecompile Beta is available now for immediate download. The first official release of JustDecompile will be part of the Telerik Q2 2011 release this summer. After v1, JustDecompile will join the Telerik update cycle, getting 3 major updates per year + intermediate service packs and hotfixes as necessary. We have a huge road map for JustDecompile with lots of great enhancements planned for 2011 and 2012.

Q: Does JustDecompile support languages other than C# (like VB, IL, F#, etc)?
The beta currently only decompiles to C#, however JustDecompile has been designed to output to other languages. Before the first official release, JustDecompile will also support outputting VB. After that, we will add language support based on customer and community feedback, most likely focusing MSIL next.

Q: Does JustDecompile support 3rd party extensions/plug-ins?
JustDecompile is built on Microsoft's Managed Extensibility Framework which provides a familiar model for creating and adding plug-ins to JustDecompile. In fact, JustDecompile's core features, like Find Usages and History Navigation, are simply plug-ins.

In the beta, we have not had time to fully address a polished API for supporting 3rd party extensions, but it is a high priority item on the backlog. Based on continued request for this feature, we will likely add support for plug-ins in 2011.

Q: What are the system requirements for JustDecompile?
JustDecompile requires .NET 4.0. Otherwise, it should just work on Windows systems, 32- or 64-bit.

Q: What do I do after I install JustDecompile?
Unfortunately, the beta installer does not add application shortcuts to the Start Menu or Task Bar. To run JustDecompile after installing, navigate to the install directory (usually, "C:\Program Files (x86)\Telerik\JustDecompile\Libraries") and run JustDecompile.exe.

We recommend pinning JustDecompile.exe to your Start Menu or Task Bar for quick repeat access. In the future, the installer will provide the expected application shortcuts and Windows integration.

Q: Does JustDecompile integrate with Visual Studio?
Not directly, but JustCode does provide native decompiling in the Visual Studio environment. For JustDecompile like functionality natively in Visual Studio, we recommend downloading and installing JustCode.

Q: Can decompiled code be directly exported from JustDecompile?
No, not with today's beta, however we have logged this feature and will likely add it in an upcoming release.

Q: Can obfuscated code be decompiled with JustDecompile?
No, you cannot decompile obfuscated code with JustDecompile. We will gauge interest in adding this feature in the future and consider adding support at that point. For now, this is not on the immediate road map.

Q: Where should I share JustDecompile beta feedback?
Direct all feedback to the JustDecompile beta forums on Telerik.com. We're eagerly waiting to hear from you so we can make the first release the best possible decompiling/assembly browsing tool.

Q: Will decompiling JustDecompile rip a hole is space/time?
Good question from one of the webinars. Answer: No. That's the first thing I checked and we're all still here.

I think that about covers it. I'll add more questions and answers if I've missed something major. For now, be sure to review the product team blog post on JustDecompile and download the beta!

Q3 2010 betas available now for testing

Want to start trying the new features coming to Q3 a few weeks early? Want a chance to impact design of the new features before we ship? That's what betas are for, and several of the Telerik products have now published (or soon will) their Q3 2010 betas. This is your time to try-out near final versions of the Q3 2010 bits and share feedback on the active Telerik Forums.

Betas are available right now for the following products:

• RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX
• Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC
• RadControls for Silverlight (and WPF <- XBAP link, use IE for best results)
• TeamPulse Standard Edition

Each link above will take you to the live Beta demos, where you can check-out some of the new features hands-on. Downloads for all betas are available in your Client.net account download page.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll share more details about all of the new major features available in these suites, as well as in all of the other Telerik products being updated in Q3 (which, for those counting, is now 11 different products!). There are some very exciting improvements in everything from OpenAccess ORM with a radically enhanced Fluent API to Telerik Reporting with its new XML report definitions, so I encourage you to set some time aside to look at the value in  the full Telerik toolbox and try a product you've perhaps overlooked in the past.

Until then, enjoy the betas and send us your feedback. Q3 is just around the corner!

BONUS! Here are some quick links to blog posts on the Telerik.com blogs talking about Q3 beta features:

• Telerik MVC Extensions Q3 2010 Beta Preview
• The Telerik ASP.NET AJAX Q3 2010 Beta release is here
• Telerik Silverlight and WPF controls Beta preview of Q3 2010
• TeamPulse Standard Edition Q3 2010 Beta is Ready for Download

Minimize Silverlight application size with Telerik Assembly Minifier

There is one major change in thinking that occurs when you move from ASP.NET or WinForms application development to Silverlight development. Okay, there are a lot of changes in thinking, but one very important change that’s easy to overlook. In Silverlight, your application assembly size matters and has a big impact on user experience!

In ASP.NET, assembly size doesn’t really matter because DLLs always live on the server. Only the final HTML and resources are sent to the user. In WinForms, assembly size can definitely make for a larger install, but generally all of the bits needed to run an app are locally installed and ready to go when the user is ready to begin.

In Silverlight, DLLs live in the XAP. Before a Silverlight application can run, the entire XAP must be downloaded, and if you’ve got a ton of DLLs referenced and in your XAP, that can mean megabytes of download and a slow application “startup” experience for your users. To maximize the Silverlight experience you need to minimize the size of your XAP.

Which leads to the new (free!) tool introduced by Telerik last week, the Assembly Minifier.

When you use 3rd party Silverlight controls, like the RadControls for Silverlight, you should only reference the assemblies for the controls you’re using to avoid adding unnecessary DLLs to your XAP. But that only gets you so far. An assembly like Telerik.Windows.Controls or Telerik.Windows.Controls.Input holds many controls, and using just one brings the rest along for the ride. How do you only “pay for what you use” in your XAP size?

Simply use the Minifier. Today it allows you to quickly “extract” only the controls you’re going to use in your app from Telerik Silverlight assemblies. You just upload your Telerik assemblies, select the controls you want, and then use the new minified output in your project. Depending on the controls you use and assemblies you minify, you can see reductions in uncompressed DLL size greater than 50%. Give the beta a try today and let us know what you think in the forums.

Read all about using the minifier on the Telerik Blogs, too.

How do you make your XAP even smaller?

The Assembly Minifier you see today is just the beginning. As a hosted Silverlight-based tool (which has been minified, too!), we will be constantly updating it leading-up to and then past Q2. We will be working on delivering features in the future that make it even easier to minimize the size of your XAPs, including non-Telerik assemblies! We wanted to start “simple,” though, and then build-up to the “all powerful” minifier we know you need.

For now, enjoy the beta and spread the word. Let’s start minifying Silverlight applications together and start making users’ lives better with radically improved download times!

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

Telerik TV v2 beta now live!

As you know, video is increasingly becoming an important part of learning on the web, and at Telerik we’ve been embracing video for a while now. The current version of Telerik TV moves more than 2 terabytes of data every month and it continues to grow in popularity. It has served its purpose, but as we continue to add products and more videos, we recognized the need for a better portal.

The main goal for Phase One of Telerik TV v2 (or TTV2, as we call it) is to make it easier to find videos. In the current system, you have very limited options for finding videos, and often older videos are very difficult to locate. The system aims to resolve that by introducing multiple “paths” to a video so that people with all styles of browsing preference can find Telerik video content.

In the Phase One beta, you’ll find many new features, including:

• Multiple featured videos on the home page (presented with Telerik’s Silverlight CoverFlow)
• Video series (a collection of ordered, related videos)
• Video ratings (tell us if you love or hate a video)
• Video feedback (send us comments about a video)
• TweetMeme and Facebook Like support (FB like is disabled in Beta)
• Dedicated page for every Telerik product with helpful video resources (including “Getting Started” video series)
• Progressive Enhancement tooltips (hover over a video to see more details)
• Improved video search
• Browse videos by Category and Tag

TTV2 is built on ASP.NET MVC 2 using the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC and OpenAccess ORM for data access. And, yes, we are still using Flash for video delivery, but that is changing in Phase Two (more on that in a moment).

Check-out the live Beta of Telerik TV 2 now and let us know what you think!

What’s Next

We don’t plan a long beta for TTV2. In fact, we are primarily running this beta to make sure there are no major issues and to make sure all configuration of the new site is complete (we already know a few areas need some more attention). If everything looks good, we’ll be taking TTV2 to production as early as next week.

Phase Two
After Phase One ships, we’ll be working quickly to prepare Phase Two. Some of the things we hope to achieve in Phase Two with TTV2 are:

• Silverlight-based media encoding and delivery (with uncompromised delivery performance)
• With the possible addition of HTML5 video playback to enable TTV viewing on iPads and iPhones
• Chapters in videos
• Enhanced video analytics (so we know more about how you’re using videos, and then make them better)

Post-Phase Two
We also recognize that the future is not just video. It’s multimedia- or “transmedia” as it’s now being termed. So as we look past Phase Two and in to Phase Three for TTV2, we will be delivering innovative web-based experiences that blend code snippets and text, synchronized with video, in an immersive online learning experience. Similar to the innovation already found in our Telerik Trainer, but made more accessible through the web. Our goal is to provide the best web-based learning experience available for software products.

For now, enjoy the beta and send us your feedback. We hope that these changes help make your lives as developers even easier.

JustCode Beta 2 now available, Support for VS 2010

JustCode, Telerik’s new Visual Studio productivity tool, continues to march towards its official v1 in the Q1 2010 release. The next major milestone in its journey dropped today: JustCode Beta 2. This release addresses many of the bugs that you have helped report over the last few months and it introduces some cool new functionality.

Among the most important enhancements in this release: support for Visual Studio 2010! This is something I’ve been waiting for now for a while and I’m very excited to add JustCode to my VS2010 experience. There are a few known issues with 2010, but we’ll continue to polish our support for Microsoft’s new IDE leading up to its official release in mid-April.

Some of the new features I find most interesting in this release:

• New “Type Assistance” that automatically adds closing braces/brackets
• New refactorings moving classes to new files and renaming files to match type names
• Ability to set global filters for files that shouldn’t be analyzed for errors

You can get this update via JustCode’s automatic updates or you can download it directly on Telerik.com. And don’t forget about PITS! If you want to track the open, in progress, and resolved issues for JustCode, you can do that in real time.

Q3 2009 betas available now, Official release soon (update)

While I may be busy galloping around the world speaking at different events this fall, that hasn't slowed down the Telerik dev teams from marching forward with Q3 2009. The third and final major release of the year is rapidly approaching and that means that now is your last chance to download some Q3 betas and start previewing for yourself what the new release will deliver.

Late last week, Telerik shipped the final two three betas that will be available before the official Q3 2009 release:

• RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Beta 1
• RadControls for Silverlight/WPF Beta 2
• [UPDATE] RadControls for WinForms Beta 1

Both of these suites are shipping new controls in Q3, and both are pushing hard to maximize performance on their platforms. For example, all of the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX will be getting a performance boost in Q3 (about 30%) because our dev team has refactored out almost all reflection-based code in the source. The RadControls for Silverlight, meanwhile, will also be getting a boost due to radically revamped UI virtualization techniques in controls like RadGridView.

I will post more details on each suite later this week as I spend more time previewing the upcoming Q3 bits, but for now, grab the betas and share your feedback. This is your chance to let us know what we should tweak before the bits are "official," so download the betas and share your thoughts in the forums!

RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Beta

[Live Demos] [Download] [Official Beta Forum] [Release Notes]

RadControls for XAML Beta 2

[Live Demos] [Download] [Release Notes]

[Side Note: This does mean that there will not be time for betas for the RadControls for WinForms, Telerik Reporting, OpenAccess ORM, or WebUI Test Studio. Fear not! There are very cool things coming in those suites, too. More details later this week.]

UPDATE: Somehow I missed the fact that the RadControls for WinForms would also be releasing a beta, available today! Beta details below:

RadControls for WinForms Beta 1

[Download] [Official Beta Forum] [Release Notes]

First Q3 2009 Beta shipping tomorrow, RadControls for XAML (update)

Looking for a way to get over the midweek hump? How about a freshly minted beta from Telerik to play with? Tomorrow, Wednesday Thursday [UPDATE 2: problems solved, beta now available], Telerik will be shipping the first of the Q3 2009 betas. Tomorrow's beta will focus exlusively on previewing some of the new controls and features that will be part of the Q3 2009 RadControls for Silvelright and RadControls for WPF (remember, these suites share the same codebase and API). Among the things that will be featured in the Beta1 release:

• New Controls (for Silverlight and WPF)
• TileView - a flexible, animated, lightweight layout container
• OutlookBar - a new UI component intended to provide functionality similar to (you guessed it) the panel bar in Outlook.
• RibbonBar - Telerik's first RibbonBar for XAML (SL only)
• Coverflow - All new and leveraging the 2D perspective engine in Silverlight 3 (SL only)
• Improvements
• TabControl - will get support for overflowing and scrolling tabs
• Scheduler - will get new timeline view and resource grouping
• Window - will get added to the WPF suite (already exists for Silverlight) (Oops! Window already exists for WPF. What I meant was...)
• Docking - will get added to the WPF suite (already exists for Silverlight)

And that's just the quick highlights. Stay tuned for more details, previews, and videos once the beta ships. You can already preview some of these controls on the Silverlight and WPF road maps.

This beta will not preview all new functionality destined for the XAML suites in Q3, so you can expect to see more new controls (like RadMap) and features in Beta2 and in the final release. In our aim to incorporate as much feedback as possible in to the Q3 release, though, we're releasing Beta 1 with plenty of time for you to check it out and tell us what you think. Speak now or forever enjoy the Q3 2009 release in peace! (At least until Q1 2010...)

UPDATE: The betas for both WPF and Silverlight are now available for immediate download. Look for the "Beta version available" link under the WPF and Silverlight product downloads.

Q2 2009 beta for ASP.NET AJAX controls now available

And just like that, the first taste of the Q2 2009 release is ready for your public consumption. Today we have published the beta for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Q2 2009. In the beta you'll find all of the new controls I described in the "Q2 Preview" and a number of additional enhancements I did not cover. To save you some time and clicks, here are direct links to some of the new stuff in the online beta demos:

• RadListBox - Brand new control
• RadCaptcha - Brand new control
• RadBinaryImage - Brand new control (for displaying binary image data from database)
• RadXmlHttpPanel - Brand new control
• RadFormDecorator - New and improved rendering, heavily CSS-based (instead of JavaScript) now that support for IE6 has been "forked" (IE6 will still us JS-based approach)
• RadGrid - New GridBinaryImageColumn (for auto displaying images from a database), Improved keyboard support, NestedViewTemplate relations support
• RadScheduler - New "advanced templates in window" support (for display advanced appointment edit form in pop-up window instead of in-line)
• RadCalendar - New screen boundary detection for Date/Time Picker controls

Check out all the online demos and let us know what you think of the new bits. This is obviously the beta build, so there will be improvements between now and the final release in July. If you find serious issues, though, or things you think we should address, let your voice be heard early so we can work on addressing things before the official release builds are produced.

You can find the full release notes for this beta online and you can download the beta directly from your Client.net accounts. Enjoy the beta and get ready for the official release in a few weeks!

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

Sitefinity 3.6 Beta, WinForms SP2 released

I don't usually "bundle" news items in to a single post, but since it's Friday and I have a couple of releases to announce, I'll make an exception.

First, early this week Telerik released the second service pack for the Q3 2008 RadControls for WinForms. This SP addresses a number of issues across the entire suite, but you can find some highlights in WinForms Evangelist John Kellar's blog post. If you're using the RadGridView for WinForms, this release does a lot to improve the memory management and resource footprint of that control, so it's probably worth your time to download the latest bits. Full release notes, of course, are available online.

Second, today Telerik released the Sitefinity 3.6 Beta. Sitefinity 3.6 is the next "major" release of Silverlight and it's packing a lot of new and improved functionality. The Sitefinity Team and Sitefinity Evangelist Gabe Sumner have both blogged about the new features, so I encourage you to follow those blogs if you're a Sitefinity developer. For those not willing to follow the links, here are some of my favorite improvements in SF 3.6:

• All built-in templates are now Embedded Resources (making it much simpler to customize SF control templates and -significantly- reducing the SF file count)
• New, simplified custom module architecture (backwards compatible)
• Latest versions of both RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight
• Support for hierarchal categories (great when tagging related content)
• "Unbreakable" dynamic links

Even though this release is only a "minor" version tick, it's got enough improvements to warrant major version status. Sitefinity continues to be one of the easiest "CMS" (or, from the developer perspective, "development platforms") for ASP.NET developers to learn and extend since it does not "break" (or modify) ASP.NET the way many other CMS systems do. If you haven't checked it out yet, grab a free copy of the community edition (which you can use for commercial projects) and have fun!

Telerik Watch Minute: Silverlight RadGridView Beta

The first Telerik Watch Minute of the new year kicks-off with a quick look at the new RadGridView for Silverlight beta that shipped in mid-December. You'll see how you can quickly get started with the RadGridView in a Silverlight project, and you'll get a close look at one of the GridView's more "advanced" features: grouping. I also show you the RadGridView beta and the standard Silverlight DataGrid side-by-side, so you can quickly see how the beta stacks-up to the OfTB (out-of-the-box) grid control. Clearly, what you're seeing today is just a beta, so the final version that ships towards the end of February is going to have many more features (and themes), but I think it's a good early look at what you can expect in about 8 weeks time. Also, a production note: since the new Telerik TV portal is now live, you can now watch this video in its full "native" size (and thus at the best quality possible) by visiting the video on tv.telerik.com. In fact, Telerik Watch Minute has a full "channel" on the new Telerik TV portal, so feel free to catch any old episodes while you're there. Hopefully this will make your Telerik Watch Minute fix even better! Watch this episode of Telerik Watch Minute in HD on Telerik TV

New SPs available for Telerik Silverlight and WPF controls

Listen-up all you XAML developers. There are two new service packs available from Telerik this week that are just for you. First, the RadControls for Silverlight suite has received its second service pack (making this Q3 2008 SP2, for the record) and a special "futures" build with some previews of controls coming in Q1 2009. The service pack is your "standard" bug-fix SP with the addition of some improvements to the Silverlight "Vista" theme and a brand new "Office Black" theme. The "futures" build includes two controls: RadDocking for Silverlight CTP and RadGridView for Silverlight Beta. When installing the latest bits, you should use the SP2 installer OR the Futures installer. You cannot install both. The SP2 release is just a subset of the Futures release (sans the new controls), so for most, installing the "Futures" build probably makes the most sense. For WPF, this week brings the Q3 2008 Service Pack 1. The WPF SP has got a little more happening than the Silverlight SP2, and the bulk of the fixes can be found in the RadScheduler for WPF. There you'll find improvements in the drag/drop experience, the templating support, and even a new demo showing you how to use XML data with the Scheduler. Other controls getting some attention in this SP are the RadGridView, RadCarousel, and RadChart for WPF. All controls, like Silverlight, also received the new Office Black theme, so now that theme can be used with any Silverlight or WPF RadControl. There's tons to talk about with these releases- especially with the new Silverlight Docking and GridView controls- so stay tuned for more detailed posts focusing on those controls. Until then, check out the release notes and download the SP bits today!

IE 8 beta 2 available for download

Looking to get your hands on the latest and greatest version of Internet Explorer? Then don't miss the just released update to Microsoft's new IE 8 browser. Now in its second beta, Microsoft unleashed the bits yesterday for general consumption, so you can download them now and start testing your sites in the version of the browser still set to launch officially in Q4 of this year.

There is not much "surprising" news with this release, but there are quite a few enhancements both in performance and features. The most notable new feature is the "InPrivate" browsing mode (similar to Safari's "Private Browsing"), which will probably damage Safari's reputation as the browser of choice for porn. Frankly, I'm surprised Firefox didn't add this feature to FF3, as they are now the outsiders when it comes to providing built-in private browsing.

Speaking of Firefox, it is clear that the IE team now has its sights squarely set on toppling the upstart that challenged its dominance on the web. The latest IE beta includes modern in-line Find (finally!), groupable, color-coded tabs (FF does this with a add-in), and vastly improved developer tools (a la FireBug). Add to this IE's big steps forward in performance and memory management and you start to have a compelling alternative to Firefox. Now, if only it were cross platform...

Either way, the sleeping giant has awakened and I think Mozilla has been put on notice with the latest IE8 beta. What do you think?

Download the IE 8 beta 2 bits now

IE8 Beta 2 Release Notes

Get all the IE 8 details on the IE Team blog

RadControls for Silverlight beta 2 released

While Telerik has been busy releasing service packs for the "production" products this week, the Silverlight team has also been busy releasing an update of their own. On Tuesday, Telerik released a new beta for the Silverlight controls (that's RadControls for Silverlight 2 beta 2 for those keeping track). With the official release of the Silverlight 2 plug-in imminent, this will probably be the final beta release from Telerik before the RadControls for Silverlight get a v1 release. And this release is no slouch. Here are some highlights from the release notes:

• New! RadTimePicker control for adding time picker functionality to Silverlight 
• New! RadExpander control (this is essentially a sliding content panel control)
• Significantly updated documentation
• Tons of bug fixes and improvements across all existing controls

Check out the complete release notes for all of the nitty-gritty detail and then download the latest beta from your client.net accounts. The Silverlight controls will be "official" soon enough, so keep sending us your feedback so we can have a solid v1 release!

RadChart for WPF CTP sneak peek video

One of the new products that Telerik will be releasing next week during the big Q2 2008 release activities is our brand new charting product for WPF. Officially dubbed RadChart for WPF, our latest entry in the charting field is really stepping-up what Telerik has done in the past with charts. The new charting engine is going to deliver unprecedented 3D and 2D charting capabilities in a characteristically easy to learn and use Telerik component package. Everything from directional light sources to animated charts to gauges will be part of the new data visualization package, so we think you're really going to enjoy the new tools.

Now, what's being released next week during Q2 won't be version one. Instead, it will be a CTP that's designed to give you an early preview of our work in this arena. The final release will likely coincide with our Q3 release later this year. And while we wait for that date, Telerik will be actively listening to your feedback and striving to build the most useful charting tools you need.

And don't forget Silverlight! Remember, we build our WPF and Silverlight controls on the same code base. That means you'll eventually see RadChart for Silverlight, too, and when you do the API will be nearly identical to RadChart for WPF (though some of the more advanced 3D features may not be available in Silverlight, for obvious reasons). That means code you write for RadChart for WPF will be reusable in all of your Silverlight applications and vice versa. That should impress your boss and make your life a lot easier when management comes asking for a web version of your cool WPF application.

Download the RadChart for WPF CTP next week and start letting us know what you think! Until then, check out this quick sneak peek video I've created to give you a glimpse of the features we'll be packing-in to next week's CTP.

RadControls for WPF Beta 2 available for download

This highlight comes a little late, but I don't want anyone interested in what Telerik is doing for WPF to miss this. Last week Telerik released the second beta of our RadControls for WPF. This beta is the last public preview before the first official v1 release in Q2 2008, so it's your last chance to give us input on how you'd like the controls to be tweaked before their APIs become "set in stone" (or at least much harder to change).

One of the highlights of the beta 2 release is the first introduction to Telerik's highly coupled Silverlight and WPF development approach. There are 5 new controls in beta 2, and all of the controls are ported versions of controls that we have built for Silverlight. The benefit of this approach for you as a developer is that you get complete code reusability between your RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight development. If you build your app with Telerik's tools for Silverlight and then want to build a WPF version of the app, all of your UI coding work is done. Cool.

The new controls in this release are RadTreeView, RadPanelBar, RadSlider, RadNumericUpDown, and RadProgressBar. By the time we ship v1 in a few weeks, there will be even more new controls in the WPF suite and more enhanced features in the existing controls, RadGridView, RadCarousel, and RadCalendar. And shortly after v1 in Q2 2008, we'll ship a Futures release for the RadControls for WPF that will feature our early work on RadScheduler for WPF. Exciting times.

For now, enjoy the beta bits and get ready for the official release during Telerik's big Q2 2008 release week.

IE Users: Try the RadControls for Beta 2 online demo (XBAP)
Fifefox users beware- XBAP links usually crash the Fox for me.

Q2 2008 Futures release now live

Want to be among the first to play with the changes coming to the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX in Q2 2008? If so, you need to download the just released "Futures" build for the ASP.NET AJAX controls (read my old post for clarification of the "Futures" term- we'll probably revert to the term "Beta" next year...maybe). This release showcases everything that will be happening in Q2 2008, including the first preview of the revived RadRotator control. Among the things coming to the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX in Q2 are:

• New, built from scratch, RadRotator- a new beginning for an old control
• New sorting, filtering, and client-side events in RadCombobox
• Huge improvements in RadGrid
• New client-side data binding
• Tons of new client-side objects, methods
• Many important bug fixes
  
• Important new features in RadScheduler
• Improved client-side loading time (claimed 30% faster)
• New Exchange data provider!
  
• Two-thumb sliders now supported in RadSlider
• New common skin for all controls: Gray
  
• Like new Telerik skin, just gray - see post pic for RadGrid example
  

You can see all of the new features running right now in the Futures live demos. The only new control in this release is the re-built RadRotator, and in the Futures build it is still an acknowledged weak control. There is a huge focus on that control in the run-up to the official Q2 release and you can expect it to be much improved by the end of July (and even more so in SP1).

Other gotchas in this release:

• There are some breaking changes in RadUpload. The changed features are minor and relate only to localization, but if you use RadUpload localization you'll want to take note.
• Two embedded skins are being retired in Q2: Default2006 and Mac. The Telerik skin has also be updated, so be prepared to check for design consistency if you use those skins. The old skins will remain available as extra downloads for use as external skins if you need them.

Hopefully you enjoy the features in this release. Q2 has been a very short dev cycle for Telerik as we continue to transition to our tri-annual (3 releases per year) release calendar, but I think we've managed to do a lot. Enjoy the "beta" bits and watch for the final release in a couple weeks.

RadControls for WPF Beta released!

As promised in my recent TechEd post, here is the first of several exciting announcements Telerik will be making over the next week or so: Telerik has officially released the first beta of its brand new RadControls for WPF! If you've been waiting for WPF to gain the tools it needs to be a competitive alternative to your traditional WinForms development, Telerik's entrance in to this market should make your choice a lot easier. This first beta is only introducing a few controls, though, so don't expect a full toolbox right now. We've been investing a lot of energy in to building a super-high performance WPF data grid for this initial release, but as we move closer to the official release in Q2 you can count on more controls filling-out the suite. Included in the first beta are:

• RadGridView for WPF
• RadCarousel for WPF
• RadCalendar for WPF

We'll be showing-off these new controls at TechEd next week, but if you want to play with them now, you can! Simply visit the RadControls for WPF online demos page. That's right, online demos. We've made the WPF demos available as a browser-accessible XBAP application so you can check the demos out without the need for an install. The demo application is about 11MB and it only takes a few minutes to download and startup over a broadband connection. You'll also need IE7 to view the demos (for now), so Firefox users take note- XBAPs have actually crashed Firefox for me when I accidentally try to load them.

I hope you enjoy the early preview of our work for WPF. We've obviously got a ways to go before things are release quality, but we're working very quickly. The first "official" release of the RadControls for WPF is currently targeting our big Q2 release- less than 10 weeks away!