Future bug in new Prometheus Futures build

Did you eagerly download today's "Prometheus" Futures build only to be confounded by strange JavaScript errors? Don't worry, it's probably not you. It appears today's Futures build was released with a build date in, well, the future. As Telerik's own Atanas Korchev detailed in a blog post early last month, products built on ASP.NET AJAX have a problem if the assembly's build date is in the future (relative to your local system clock). As you probably know, the RadControls are developed in Bulgaria which means the build clock is about 7 hours ahead of Eastern Time, making the assembly build date "in the future" for most of today's US work day.

To solve the problem, simply set your system clock to some time after 5:10 PM today. With your computer safely operating in the future, reload your Prometheus Futures page and your JavaScript issues should disappear. I've found that you can then set your system clock back to the correct time and the page will continue to function correctly, even after clearing your browser's cache.

Hopefully the next build will be built in the past so you don't have take your computer back to the future (thank you, I'll be here all week).

[Thanks to Shaun for reporting this in the forums.]

In case you missed it: part III

Keeping with my general pace of delivering a new installment in this series about once a month, it is high time I brought your attention to some great blog posts on the Telerik blogs...(wait for it)...in case you missed it (well, in case you missed them, in this case, but that wouldn't match the series title). The blogs have been busy with new faces and great installments from long time writers, so if you haven't subscribed yet, you should. Without further delay, here are some of the great posts from the last month:

• Ultimate .NET Credit Card Utility - a brief post talking about a new article I recently added to the Code Project.
• How to: Create RadRotator Programmatically- a detailed how-to on creating RadRotators with templates programmatically
• Online Help Skin- a sneak preview of the new skin coming to the Telerik Online Documentation
• ASP.NET Web Control Performance Test in Selenium- Telerik's masters of QA show you how to use Selenium to run performance tests on web controls
• Q2 Skinning- the RadControl default embedded skins are changing in Q2 and this post gives you a preview of the new look
• ASP.NET AJAX Tips & Tricks- this brief post shows you some tricks for optimizing ASP.NET AJAX updates

And that's just a small sample of the content on the Telerik blogs right now. There have been almost 20 new posts in August and many more that weren't highlighted in July. So if you're looking for something interesting to read today, you've got plenty of great material to pick from.

Prometheus Futures delayed, available today (update)

When you're trying to release beta components there is fine line between releasing unfinished code to meet an announced deadline and delaying a release to finish a few more beta features. In the case of the second "Prometheus" Futures release, we have obviously opted for the later path so that we can deliver the highest quality beta code. At this point, you already know what's coming in today's release, but for those that missed it, the major update will be RadEditor Prometheus.

And while we're waiting on the release, let me mention a few of the new things you'll find in this totally re-built WYSIWYG online editor:

• CSS sprites used for toolbar buttons- that means fewer images to download from the server, which means better page load times.
• Background script loading- instead of loading all of the client-script for all of the Editor features on the initial page load, RadEditor "Prometheus" will load the client-side scripts for specific features asynchronously. That means less code to download on initial page load and faster page load times.
• Single file deployment- while all other RadControls have moved to embedded web resources in previous releases, RadEditor remains the one control that still requires the RadControls folder. That changes in RadEditor "Prometheus", which now supports the easy single file deployment.

Obviously, RadEditor "Prometheus" is a major step forward for the award winning component, so we're eager to get your feedback on the changes. Watch for the "Prometheus" Futures release today and check back here for an update with a direct link to the download.

UPDATE: The "Prometheus" Futures update is now available! Grab the download from your Client.net account and check out the new online demos.

Telerik Silverlight survey live

Silverlight 1.0 is almost here, and you've already got a project scheduled to use it, right? Or do you? Either way, Telerik wants to know. As the official release of Silverlight dawns and the release of Silverlight 1.1 rapidly approaches, we want to know how you plan on using Silverlight in your projects. Take five minutes to complete the new Silverlight Survey and tell us what you think of Silverlight. Your feedback will help shape the products Telerik delivers for Silverlight 1.1 and will be key in setting our development priorities over the next 6 to 8 months. As a thanks for your time and feedback, you'll get 1500 Telerik points added to your Client.net accounts.

So take a break, visit the survey, and help shape the future of Silverlight at Telerik. The survey will run through September 17th.

Houston TechFest wrap-up

In case you missed it, the first annual Houston TechFest has come and gone and it seems like it was a great success. I've already shared with you the interesting tid bit keynote speaker Brad Abrams provided regarding Silverlight, but the fun didn't stop there. I had the pleasure of demoing the Telerik RadAjaxManager for ASP.NET AJAX (or RadAjax "Prometheus" for the initiated) to a standing room only crowd of about 60 people. It seems next year we'll need a bigger room!

For those of you that were able to attend the session, thanks for stopping by and for bringing some great questions. The slides from the presentation, the demo code, and even a recorded web cast version are all available online if you want to take a closer look at anything we covered. If you still have questions about ASP.NET AJAX or the RadControls, always feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to help you on your road to learning both.

If you weren't able to make the conference, the online resources should help you catch-up on what you missed. You'll definitely want to try to join us at our next event, though. It is great to visit with "real" developers and we'd love to meet you face-to-face. 'Til then, have fun with ASP.NET AJAX and thank you for your interest at the TechFest!

exclusive: Silverlight 1.0 getting official this week

At today's Houston TechFest, Microsoft's Brad Abrams was the keynote speaker and he delivered what has become (more or less) the standard Silverlight overview presentation. He showed off Silverlight applications running on his Mac PowerBook and showed off the incredible new media capabilities that Silverlight is aiming to provide in the near future. If you've seen a Microsoft delivered overview on Silverlight before, then you pretty much know what was covered in this keynote (the Airlines demo, the chess demo, etc.).

But the one question on everyone's mind is when will all of this Silverlight stuff officially be released (you do remember that even Silverlight 1.0 has yet to be released, don't you?). While Brad claimed that the "people" at Microsoft would not let him provide exact dates, he did provide a juicy clue that indicates Silverlight 1.0 will be officially released within the next week. As Brad put it today, "Silverlight 1.0 will be released before the milk in you refrigerator goes bad." I don't know about the milk you buy, but milk that's in my frig now will probably expire in about a week, maybe two.

Brad seemed very eager to share (dang corporate shackles), so I'd be inclined to think his "hint" meant we'll see the official release of Silverlight 1.0 this week. "So what?" you say. As Brad put it again, the official release of Silverlight 1.0 marks the beginning of the Silverlight adoption clock. Partners that have "real" applications built on Silverlight- like MLB and Fox- will begin to turn on their new Silverlight services with the official release and we'll finally start seeing adoption of the Silverlight plug-in outside of the group of early-adopters (a.k.a. Microsoft developers)- a critical step in the evolution of Silverlight if it is to compete with Flash's 98% global adoption.

So there you have it. Silverlight 1.0 will (most likely) be officially released this week and you heard it here first.

RadGrid 5.0 beta coming soon

As the dog days of summer start to come to an end, it's time to start looking forward to the exciting new features coming in the Q2 2007 release. Four months have passed since the huge Q1 release and about three weeks remain before Q2 will hit the streets. Many controls will be getting new features in the next release, not the least of which is RadGrid.

RadGrid, which will get a major upgrade to version 5, is going to be sporting some very interesting new features. I almost hate to tell you the features here and ruin the surprise, but with a beta due late next week it's time to share. Aside from the normal round of bug fixes and performance improvements, RadGrid 5.0 will also feature:

• Support for the ObjectContainerDataSource
• Improved accessibility
• Frozen column support in scrolling with static header scenarios
  
• Built-in export to CSV
• and Built-in export to PDF!

Clearly the last feature is the big one. You will now be able to export data from your RadGrid directly to PDF. This feature has been one of the top requests for a while now, and our developers are happy to finally deliver the powerful export option in the Grid.

The other features are no slouches, either. Frozen column support, export to CSV, improved accessibility, and client-side performance optimizations all contribute to making RadGrid 5.0 one of the (if not the) best ASP.NET grid components available. Certainly the best Telerik has ever released. Watch for an early beta of this new control late next week and get ready to give us your feedback as we put the finishing touches on another great Q release!

Telerik WinForms CAB Enabling Kit beta released

For any developers in the Telerik community that develop WinForms applications using the Composite UI Application Block, this is some very exciting news. Today we announced and released the beta of our new RadControls for WinForms CAB Enabling Kit. This new kit provides seamless integration of the RadControls in CAB-based smart client applications and makes the process of using Telerik's WinForms controls with the CAB among the best in the industry.

The new CAB Enabling Kit is going to be actively supported and updated by Telerik, earning status as a separate Telerik product. Obviously, it will be freely available to all WinForms subscription holders. Before the official release in Q2, the Kit's WPF Woodgrove Finance-like demo will receive some need fit-and-finish, but other than that it is ready for you to start downloading and testing. We look forward to supporting CAB developers in the future and to enhancing the Kit to make it the best development experience available for developing rich CAB-based applications.

Download the CAB Kit beta today and then give us your feedback in the forums. The most active beta testers have the opportunity to earn up to 5,000 Telerik points!

PayPal getting a face lift, new logo

Many Telerik developers (self included) run sites that use PayPal to process online payments. Of those that don't, almost all use PayPal from time to time to make purchases online. Therefore, I thought this audience might find it interesting that PayPal is about to get a major face lift and a new logo.

The new web site is currently a live beta and it definitely has a "lighter" more corporate look than the current site enjoys. Gone are the bold blue rounded tabs and in are sleek silver square tabs (rounded tabs seem to be so Web 1.0). It's not the best looking redesign I've seen, especially considering it seems almost entirely cosmetic. Once you log-in, the organization of the tools and content looks very familiar. I think PayPal could have done more to actually improve the site's usability, such as making it easier to locate purchased merchant services through your account page.

The beta site does not feature the new logo, though. To see the new logo, you'll need to check out PayPal's stealth "Paypal-promo" site (checks out as a real PayPal site in the Whois records). The new logo reminds me of Visa's recent logo redesign, relying on simple statements of color and oblique lettering to show that all important forward motion. The new logo is not that different from today's outlined version, but it does look more professional and on par with other "big players" in the credit industry. Either way, the new logo means you'll need to update any PayPal logos on your site so that "customers know you are a current PayPal merchant" as a recent email states.

Expect the new logo to drop publicly "in the coming weeks" and get ready to make some site updates if you support PayPal purchases. And everyone should try out the PayPal beta site and submit your feedback via the Site Feedback link to let the PayPal web team know what you think of the changes. This concludes this public service announcement.

Prometheus Futures update due next week

Have you been wondering what happened to the Futures updates we promised a "few" weeks ago? Well stop wondering and take off your thought reading helmets, the time has finally come to update the Prometheus Futures. Next Tuesday, August 28th, we will release a major update to the Prometheus Futures build, and hopefully the scale of this update will make the wait worth it.

In the next Futures release you'll find stable betas of RadWindow, RadInput, and the totally new RadEditor. Of these newly "prometheus'd" controls, RadEditor is clearly the most significant. RadEditor has been completely re-built for Prometheus and its performance has been radically improved. If you're a fan of RadEditor, you'll definitely want to start playing with this beta next week.

The controls that have already been introduced in the Futures build will see some updates next week, too. RadScheduler and RadChart have a number of new features to show-off as all of the controls get ready for the big Q2 release in September. So stay tuned and watch for the release announcement next week!

DevReach 2007 details now available

If you don't have the opportunity to visit with Telerik at the upcoming Houston TechFest, your next chance to mingle is DevReach 2007. Hosted near Telerik HQ in Sofia, Bulgaria, DevReach is the premier developer conference organized by Telerik for Microsoft developers across Eastern Europe. This year's event will take place on October 1st and 2nd and will feature notable speakers like Tim Huckaby (Microsoft Regional Director), Carl Franklin (DotNetRocks), and Dino Esposito.

I will be making the trip to DevReach this year, too, so the event is not strictly limited to developers in Europe. If you just happen to be in Bulgaria October 1st, pay the 80 EUR registration fee and come join us for a good time.

For complete details on this year's event (and to reserve your spot), check out the beautifully designed DevReach website that launched this week. It features the full list of speakers, an early list of sessions, and a new blog supported by the DevReach team that will keep you informed on all DevReach happenings. And, of course, it runs on Sitefinity 3.0.

RadControls Learning Guide available in print

At the beginning of the summer we introduced an incredible new learning resource to the Telerik community in the form of a full book dedicated to the RadControls for ASP.NET. Clocking in at just over 620 pages, though, this free PDF is not exactly laser printer friendly. To save you the hassle of waiting on 620 pages to print and to save you from the glares your co-workers would certainly provide as they wait on their print outs, we have decided to make the learning guide available in print!

Taking advantage of the latest in on-demand publishing, Telerik is offering the Learning Guide in print through top-rated printer Lulu.com. What does on-demand publishing mean? It means you'll be able to buy a copy of the Learning Guide that looks just like a tech book you'd buy at your local bookstore with the latest Learning Guide content at an incredibly affordable price. The only downside to on-demand publishing is that you'll have to wait a couple of extra days for your book to ship since (as many fast food chains claim) they don't make it 'til you order it.

The service is quite incredible and a great way to get the Learning Guide in print if you prefer reading books over on-screen PDFs. And at $29.99, I challenge you to find another 620+ tech book that gives you so much for so little. Order your copy today and add it to your essential tech book library.

Telerik at Houston TechFest August 25th

Your next opportunity to meet with Telerik face-to-face and to hang out with a few hundred .NET developers is quickly approaching. The first annual Houston TechFest will be held Saturday, August 25th, and yours truly will be there meeting with developers and doing a session on ASP.NET AJAX with Telerik's RadAjax "Prometheus". The Houston TechFest is being put on by the Houston DNUG (.NET Users Group for the uninstructed) and it will be held on the campus of the University of Houston. As a Platinum sponsor, Telerik will also be distributing free CDs and t-shirts to all event attendees, so don't miss your chance to get your hands on some genuine Telerik cotton.

The keynote speaker for this event is Brad Abrams (Microsoft, Group Program Manager for the UI Framework and Services). He'll be delivering a talk on Silverlight- past, present, and future- that should be very interesting to any developers considering near-term adoption of this young framework. So if you're in the Houston area, register for the TechFest and come join us for a fun filled day of .NET learning.

Adobe PDF previewer finally available

This post has little to do with Telerik (though I'm sure I could make some loose connection), so hopefully you'll forgive the exceedingly rare off-topic post. But since I thought one of the greatest shortcomings of Outlook 2007 when it shipped was the lack of a PDF previewer, I thought I'd share with this audience the widespread availability of the missing previewer. Released back in early June, Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1 finally ships with a PDF preview handler that enables you to preview PDF files directly in Outlook. Why this wasn't available when Office shipped in November is anyone's guess, but at least there is now a solution.

If you're like me, you probably stopped using (or upgrading) Acrobat Reader long ago. There are many free programs on the Nets that make opening PDFs a much faster and painless experience. The inclusion of the previewer in 8.1, though, finally offers a enough reason to revisit the old bloatware and upgrade to the latest version. If you're using Outlook 2007 and you've missed this too, download the latest Adode Acrobat Reader and have fun previewing PDFs next week.

Grade your website's performance with YSlow

One of the better tools for web developers that exists today is FireBug, a free extension for FireFox. FireBug enables web developers to quickly inspect CSS rules, analyze document structure, and debug JavaScript errors. If you haven't added it to your web development toolbox yet, then do it now. But this post is not not about FireBug, it's about a new tool from Yahoo! called YSlow that extends FireBug (an extension extension?) with incredible performance optimization tools.

YSlow integrates directly into FireBug and when activated it grades the active web page based on Yahoo!'s thirteen simple rules for speeding up your website (another excellent resource). The results of the scan are conveniently presented with a list of scoring metrics, induvidual grades for each metric, details for improving each grade, and direct links to Yahoo!'s resources on performance improvement. I don't think there is any other free tool that exists that makes it this easy to identify easy site performance improvement opportunities.

Clearly, some of the metrics are better suited for larger sites (such as measuring your use of content delivery networks for static content), but for the most part the tips are very helpful. If nothing else, the tool's Stats and Components tabs will help you analyze the total size of your page (pre- and post-cache), the expiration date of your static content, and the size of your cookies- all good things to know when you're trying to optimize an application.

I've got to to give credit to Adam Kinney for blogging this first and bringing it to my attention. Do yourself a favor and download this free tool now and start optimizing your web applications today. With any luck a lot of hard work, maybe you too can earn Google's near perfect score of 99.

Input needed: RadGrid for WinForms v4

If you are a WinForms developer and you want to help shape the next version of RadGrid for WinForms, now is your chance to share your priorities. RadGrid is obviously one of the most important components in our WinForms suite and we've been working double-time to improve its quality (read: speed and performance). Now that the quality is much closer to being on par with the "Telerik standard", we want to make sure we focus on implementing the features that matter most to you.

Do you want export functionality first? Or do you want full hierarchal grids first? Your input in the RadGrid Survey will set our development agenda and help us deliver the correct feature set first. You have until August 31st to cast your vote in the survey, and to thank you for your time you'll get 300 Telerik points added to your Client.net account just for voting.

So what do you have to lose? The survey takes less than two minutes and you get to help set the direction of RadGrid. Vote today or forever hold your peace (well, at least until version 5).

Telerik wins big in SYS-CON 2007 .NET Reader's Choice Awards

It has been a good year for Telerik and awards. After winning 8 asp.netPRO Reader's Choice Awards in May and earning a nod as Best of TechEd 2007 for our WinForms controls in June, we can add 2 awards from the SYS-CON 2007 .NET Reader's Choice Awards in July. Nominated and voted on by .NET Developer's Journal readers, Telerik won the following two awards:

• Best .NET Editors and IDEs for RadEditor
• Best .NET Libraries and Controls for RadControls for ASP.NET

This is the second time that RadEditor has been recognized as best in class this year, further strengthening the point that RadEditor is the best online rich text editor. Winning the award for the best .NET library is also a great honor. In addition to beating out industry veterans likes Nevron and Infragistics for the title, this marks the first time this year that the RadControls suite has taken top honors in a Reader's Choice award show.

None of this would be possible without your support and your votes, though, so thank you again for choosing Telerik as your .NET UI provider of choice. You are what helps make Telerik great and we are committed to matching your enthusiasm for our controls with continuing innovation and outstanding support!

Silverlight 1.0 RC released, Telerik beatboxed

In case you've forgotten, Silverlight 1.0 still hasn't officially been released. With most of the attention these days is on Silverlight 1.1 (which still doesn't have an anticipated launch date...but that's another issue), it's easy to forget that Silverlight has yet to release a production version. That said, after Friday's release of the Silverlight 1.0 release candidate, we're getting a lot closer.

The first release candidate finally delivers a feature complete version of Silverlight 1.0 to the community. The Silverlight Team claims they've fixed thousands of bugs in the framework and improved general performance two to three times. To do that, though, they had to break backwards compatibility (again), so if you've done anything with Silverlight you'll probably need to update your code to work with the new release. The Team "promises" that this will be the last time a backwards breaking change is introduced- we'll see.

To show-off the new Silverlight plug-in, Microsoft Technical Evangelist Steve Marx has created a simple beatboxing application using nothing but Silverlight 1.0, ASP.NET AJAX, and ASP.NET Futures. The application is fun to play with and is good example of what can be done with simple Silverlight 1.0 code. And while I can't provide a direct link, look for the "Telerik in Rhythm" saved beat on the site to hear what Telerik sounds like in beatboxing!

Visual Studio 2008 beta 2 released

In what is surely the last step before Visual Studio 2008 (no longer VS "Orcas") gets official, Scott Guthrie announced the release of Visual Studio 2008 beta 2 yesterday. In addition to the IDE update, Scott also announced the release of .NET 3.5 beta 2 and a beta version of VS 2008 Express. Both of these updates bring a lot of new features to the table- from a WPF designer in Visual Studio to a new ListItem data control in ASP.NET- so they're definitely worth downloading and taking for a spin if you've been using beta 1. Plus, the new release also ships with a "Go Live" license, which means you can "officially" use VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 to build and release production applications.

I have been using VS 2008 beta 1 full time for months, and I think this IDE is a major step above VS 2005. If nothing else, the new Split View and integrated unit testing features (now not exclusive to VSTS) make it worth the upgrade. And as I've chronicled in the past, the RadControls already work very well in the new VS.

Based on the the timing of this release, I expect we may see the official VS 2008 ship as early as September (which, for those that are watching, is right around the Telerik Q2 release). Expect Telerik to fully support VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 when they ship. For now, download the free bits and have fun with the new IDE.

RadControls in the real world: ActiveFocus 2007

While seeing Telerik's RadControls in simple demos is helpful for learning, people often want to see a "real world" example to see how well the controls really perform. Enter ActiveFocus 2007 by Falafel Software. ActiveFocus is a web-based project management application built with many of the RadControls for ASP.NET. The application was first demoed at TechEd 2007 and its speed and performance blew people away.

The Falafel Software team uses RadAjax (among many other controls) to build a modern project management tool that delivers response speeds that rival desktop applications. The team worked hard to optimize the application's ViewState and Ajax messages and the result is a blazingly fast application. But you don't have to take my word for it. There is a free online demo that can you easily access to see for yourself how snappy this application is.

So if you're the eternal skeptic that needs to see "real" demos with the RadControls to believe they can be used in high performance applications, jump over to the ActiveFocus demo and have some fun.

RadControls for SharePoint 2007

What's that you say? Telerik doesn't have RadControls for MOSS anymore? Well, technically you are correct. We do not have a separate product line just for MOSS 2007 like we used to for MOSS 2003, but that does not mean we do not have controls for MOSS 2007. Quite the opposite. We have one of the most robust and feature rich set of controls for SharePoint 2007 since all of the RadControls for ASP.NET work flawlessly in SharePoint.

This week we are launching a number of new resources specifically targeted at MOSS 2007 (or WSS 3, for that matter) developers that want to use the RadControls. These SharePoint resources are unmatched by any other component vendors (so far) and we're sure they'll help you make your SharePoint projects much easier. Here's what's now available online:

• Whitepaper: How to integrate RadControls in SharePoint 2007 by MOSS MVP Andrew Connell
  
• Screencast: How to integrate RadControls in SharePoint 2007 by Andrew Connell
• Dedicated community forum for SharePoint developers

In addition to these resources, I am also working on building out a live MOSS 2007 web site that features all of the RadControls running in SharePoint. So far we've got a simple demo online that shows RadMenu and RadRotator running in MOSS, but in the next couple of weeks we'll add demos for the rest of the RadControls (and improve the overall look and feel of the demo site, obviously).

We hope you enjoy these new resources and find them helpful if you're working on a SharePoint 2007 project.

RadControls for Silverlight beta released

It has been about a month since the RadControls for Silverlight 1.0 CTP was made available and now the first public beta has been released. The beta does not introduce any new controls to the Silverlight 1.0 offering, but some new details have been published. The Silverlight 1.0 controls will be distributed for free and will be made generally available when Microsoft officially ships Silverlight 1.0. The controls will only be supported through the forums, though, and all future Silverlight development will be done on the 1.1 controls (with the exception of minor improvements and bug fixes, of course).

Telerik's Silverlight 1.1 controls will be much more robust and full featured thanks to .NET integration in the framework, so these controls will not be distributed freely. Licensing details are not yet public, but we have announced that all valid RadControls for ASP.NET subscription holders will get a Silverlight 1.1 license for free. Expect the first RadControls for Silverlight 1.1 to ship in September.

So if you need controls right away to work on Silverlight 1.0 projects, be sure to download your free beta today. If you're just curious and want to see what we've done for Silverlight 1.0, check out the new online demos, complete with our new Silverlight media player control.

Official ASP.NET site redesign now live

You may have seen this coming when the new ASP.NET forums were introduced a few months ago, but now the word is official. Microsoft's official ASP.NET community website is getting a face lift and a live preview is now online. The new ASP.NET site format closely matches the style that was introduced in the forums, adopting the busier portal style website over the more design oriented approach. The new homepage has more of an MSDN feel to it, featuring recent blog posts from prominent Microsoft bloggers and latest news front and center. For better or worse, the new format definitely packs more information into less space.

So what do you think? Is the redesign a step in the right direction for the official ASP.NET community website? The design looks a little dated to me, but that's definitely just one opinion. Check it out and let the ASP.NET web team know what you think.

RadControls on the iPhone (updated)

This is one series that you don't want to miss if you're building applications that might be accessed by the 1,000,000+ iPhone users out there. Even if you're "above" the iPhone mania that is pervasive on the Internet and in the press, you must face the reality that this new device will introduce many "average users" to the fact that you can browse the web with a cell phone mobile internet media communications device. Join me as I look at all of the RadControls on the iPhone and pass judgment on those that work, those that kinda work, and those that you should avoid if you want to keep your "overwhelmingly happy" iPhone users...overwhelmingly happy.

And yes, I bought and iPhone and love it.

Read 'RadControls on iPhone: Part 1'

Read 'RadControls on iPhone: Part 2'

Read 'RadControls on iPhone: Part 3'

Sitefinity SP2 released

If this one slipped by you, don't feel bad. It has only been a couple of weeks since Sitefinity saw its first pack. The team is busy improving the product, though, and SP2 did hit the streets last week. The second service pack is not nearly as big as the first, mostly delivering bug fixes and minor improvements across the system. If you've had any trouble with Sitefinity since SP1, you should probably check out the full release notes and then download the latest release.

Larger updates are still planned for this year that will bring many new features to Sitefinity. Watch for version 3.5 this Fall to be the next major update.

Converter updated: new batch mode added

It has been a while since the Telerik Code Converter received an update worth mentioning, but this update is big! Until now, you have been forced copy and paste your code into the Converter's textbox to perform your (effortless) conversions. While that's handy, sometimes you have many files that need conversion and it would be a long process to do all of the updates via copy and paste. You now have a better option.

Available immediately, the Code Converter now sports a "batch mode" that enables you to upload multiple files and convert them all with one click. The batch mode even supports zip archives, which means you can upload a zipped project and the converter will automatically find and convert all C# and VB files. But wait, there's more. The Converter will also analyze your code for potential conversion problems (code that is known to convert poorly or not at all) and create a report that helps you quickly tweak the auto converted code.

After you code has been converted, it is zipped up so you can easily download it and review the results. For obvious size and security reasons, only C# and VB files will be extracted from your uploaded zip archives- everything else will be ignored. That means you'll need to merge your converted code back into your projects if they contained extra resources (like images, ASPX pages, assemblies, etc.). Hopefully that's an understandable limit.

And as far as security is concerned, you need to use your best judgment. You will be uploading files to our servers that are temporarily saved for the conversion process, but as soon as you click the "Done" button at the end of process, all traces of your files are removed from the server. If you forget to click the "Done" button, we will purge all temporary files on a regular basis- we have no desire to keep your code on our servers. Nonetheless, don't use the batch converter for code that is too sensitive for this process. Use the normal "in memory only" converter for that code.

The Converter has received a few extra updates, too, so you should notice that it handles all code conversions better than before (for example, #region now converts and "Handles" keywords in VB are removed in VB to C# conversions).

So what are you waiting for, visit the Code Converter now and check out all the new features!

in case you missed it: part II

A lot has been published on the Telerik blogs since the last installment of this update, so there is plenty of good reading waiting for you on blogs.telerik.com. , In case you missed it, here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

• Working with Zip files: Part I, Uploading and Expandning
• How to use SharpZipLib and RadUpload to upload zip files and expand them on the server
  
• Selenium Scripts for RadControls; Firebug and XPath Support
• A primer on using XPath to create Selenium tests for RadControls
  
• ScriptResource.axd and and assemblies built in the future
• A practical look at a surprising problem with ScriptResources
  
• Firewalls breaking ASP.NET AJAX!
• An in depth look at a potential problem caused by ASP.NET AJAX's use of custom HTTP header elements
  
• RadEditor for MOSS; Telerik RadControls for MOSS
• An overview of Telerik's commitment to SharePoint 2007 developers
  

If you still are not subscribed to the Telerik.com blogs, subscribe to the feed now. This will be your last reminder for a while. At least until the next installment of this series...

RadControls for WinForms SP2 released, Grid main focus

Although the second service pack for WinForms Q1 2007 is a couple of weeks late, it is now readily available for download from your Client.net accounts packed full of improvements. As I mentioned previously, this service pack was delayed primarily to ensure that a robust round of QA drove out as many bugs and performance issues as possible. And it looks as if the extra time has paid off.

RadGridView received most of the major updates in this update, including a 30% performance increase over previous versions. In addition to performance optimizations and over 18 important bug fixes, RadGridView received a number of new helpful properties, including:

• GridViewDataColumn.IsSorted - indicates if column is sorted
• GridViewDataColumn.IsGrouped - indicates if column is grouped
  
• GridViewTemplate.AutoExpandGroups - automatically expands Grid groups
• GridViewTemplate.ShowColumnHeaders - easily hide/show column headers

RadTreeView and RadChart also received major performance enhancements in this update. If you haven't noticed by now, improving the performance of the WinForms controls is a major focus of current development efforts. The performance of the controls is not bad by any standard, but we know it's not the level of excellence you expect from Telerik. We expect that this service pack and additional efforts in the Q2 release will fix this situation.

For now, check out the full release notes and enjoy the latest WinForms updates.

"Prometheus" Futures released, RadScheduler now available

The first "Prometheus" Futures release hit the Web today and with it the first public preview of the long awaited RadScheduler control. While the release came a couple days later than originally planned, the payoff should make the wait worth it. In this first Futures release, two upcoming "Prometheus" controls are featured: RadScheduler and RadChart. And while we've talked a lot about RadScheduler lately, RadChart likely has some nice "surprises" (such as Smart Labels, Scale Breaks, and Marked Zones).

If you're just itching to play with RadScheduler and can't wait to install the Futures download, check out all of the new RadScheduler online demos now. For everyone else, download the Futures release and expect frequent updates in the coming weeks.

RadScheduler preview available tomorrow

We've heard your cries in the forums. We've poured over your suggestions. And now we're finally ready to ship the first preview of Telerik's latest ASP.NET control, RadScheduler. If you've been following the development of RadScheduler, then you already know that it is bringing some much needed simplicity and flexibility to the world of ASP.NET scheduling components. It's a single control that can be easily dropped on any ASP.NET Ajax-enable page (remember: RadScheduler is part of "Prometheus") and bound to a variety of data sources.

The release that will be made available tomorrow, July 3rd, will be the first of many "preview" releases for RadScheduler and "Prometheus". You will start to see several preview builds of "Prometheus" controls each month as we try to further help you prepare for and begin to test our ASP.NET AJAX based controls. We hope that this additional layer of transparency during our development cycle helps you easily make the transition to ASP.NET 3.5 (which is nothing like the transition from ASP.NET 1.x to 2.0) and helps you get ready for what's coming next.

That said, these are "preview" releases and there will be bugs and unfinished features. These releases are not designed to be used in production environments; they're strictly intended for testing and feedback purposes. We hope that you'll enjoy them, though, starting with RadScheduler tomorrow.

UPDATE: The RadScheduler preview is now available.

FireFox XX Bug

Have you noticed list boxes across the Internet displaying "XX" items in FireFox? If so, you're browsing with FireFox's latest browser release (2.0.0.4), which introduced that annoying little bug a few weeks ago. The bug, which has been confirmed by the FireFox team, adds a "XX" dummy item to empty list boxes on a page if they are modified by JavaScript. The root cause of this bug appears to be the solution that was implemented for another bug, but thankfully the FireFox team has already created a patch that fixes the problem. The next security update release for FireFox will contain this fix and remove the annoying little Xs from the web.

So, if you have any applications with listboxes (like most of us do) and you start to get reports from your users about these weird "XX" items, feel free to pass the blame on to the FireFox team. For an immediate solution, the patch that should ship with the next security release is available for download.

Sitefinity SP1 released

It's a busy week for service packs at Telerik and not looking to be left out of the buzz is Sitefinity, which released its first service pack today. This service pack introduces a number of new features and controls to the accelerated web development platform. Among the new enhancements are:

• Multi-lingual support for pages
• New DynamicHyperLink control
• New SiteMenu control
• New SiteTreeView control
• New SiteTabStrip control

Beyond new controls and features, the team also fixed a number of significant bugs that had been identified since the original release of Sitefinity 3.0 back in May. For a full list of new features and bug fixes in SP1, be sure to visit the SP1 release notes and then download your copy of SP1 at Sitefinity.com.

RadControls for ASP.NET SP2 released, WinForms SP2 delayed

The second service packs for the ASP.NET and "Prometheus" RadControls have been released (a day late due to some problems with the web site downloads). The latest service packs primarily focus on delivering bug fixes and performance enhancements across the controls, but there are some new features. Here are some highlights from the yet to be published release notes:

• Handful of bugs fixed in RadAjax, including problems with Redirects
• New features and enhancements in RadDock "Prometheus"
• Improved Cancel button functionality in RadUpload
• Improved JSON serialization performance across all controls
• New property added to RadTabStrip that enables per-tab PostBack settings
• (Full release notes should be online at the above link soon)
  

Meanwhile, the RadControls for WinForms SP2 release has been delayed until next week. The dev teams needed a few extra days to run final QA on the new code and decided to officially delay the service pack until next week so that they can provide timely support after the release (Fridays are usually bad for service pack releases because of the weekend). We apologize for the last minute change in the schedule, but we hope the improved quality of the release will be worth the wait.

Download the latest releases from Telerik.com

Christmas in June: free license for PeterBlum VAM

Here we are, half way through 2007 (can you believe that?!), and six long months to go before Christmas. Telerik has decided to help you make it through the rest of 2007 by bringing you Christmas in June. We have partnered with Peter Blum to extend an incredible offer to Telerik customers. If you have a Telerik RadControls subscription, you will be able to get a free site license for Peter's VAM: Essential Validators (a $250 value). You will also be able to upgrade to the Pro VAM suite with an exclusive 20% discount (up to $200 value).

If you've never used Peter Blum's controls in the past, then you may not know that his controls are consistently the top rated data input and validation controls by ASP.NET developers. The Essential Validators being offered here have 14 different validators, but Peter offers more than 40 in the full Pro suite. Obviously, these controls are a great compliment to the RadControls for handling all of your advanced validation needs.

This offer will run through July 31st and is available to all RadControls subscription holders. If you've been waiting for a good great reason to upgrade your RadControls trial to a subscription, this is definitely it. Watch for a link to the free license sign-up page in the June issue of Telerik's Newsletter (which should be arriving in your Inbox this week).

View full offer details

Sign-up for free license offer now

Telerik Reporting demos online

One of the best ways to explore Telerik's ASP.NET products is by visiting the online Quick Start Framework (or QSF) demos. What you may not know is that there is also a full set of QSF demos online for Telerik Reporting. That's right, without downloading or installing any software you have the ability to browse through the functionality of Telerik's newest product and begin to see what you're missing in your applications. The online QSFs use Reporting's ASP.NET report viewer, but there is also a WinForms viewer that enables you to easily display reports offline if that's what you require.

Don't have a Reporting license? Then you definitely need to visit the QSFs and download your free trial to participate in the official Reporting Challenge. If you answer at least 7 of the questions correctly in the challenge, you get a free Telerik Reporting license. Hard to beat that.

RadControls for Silverlight CTP available Tuesday

If you're just itching to get your hands on some early RadControls for Silverlight 1.0 (not 1.1) bits, then you're going to love this announcement. The Silverlight team publicly announced today that the first Silverlight CTP from Telerik will be shipping next Tuesday, June 26th. The CTP will include all of the controls that are currently in the Silverlight online demos (such as buttons, a StripLayoutPanel, and the infamous Cube) and a new enhanced media control that we first revealed at TechEd.

These controls target the 1.0 version of Silverlight that should be shipping later this summer, so there is no .NET integration at this point (that comes in AG 1.1). There are also no official announcements with this CTP regarding a ship date for Telerik's first Silverlight control suite. That information will be available later this summer as we evaluate our plans for 1.0 and 1.1.

For now, jump over to Telerik.com and sign-up for the Silverlight CTP so you can check everything out next week.

second look: RadControls in "Orcas" Beta 1

It has been about 3 months since I last looked at the RadControls in Visual Studio "Orcas", and since that time a new pre-release version of the IDE has been loosed on the public. In "Orcas" Beta 1, a number of things that were wrong with the March CTP have been greatly improved and the new Visual Studio is really starting to come into its own.

As in the March CTP, the RadControls continue to work fine in the new beta. The toolbox still has to be manually updated with the RadControls, but beyond that the controls seem to work fine in Design, Split, and Source view.

JavaScript IntelliSense
One thing that has been greatly improved in the last 3 months, though, is JavaScript IntelliSense (excuse me, JScript IntelliSense). You may recall that in March I had a very difficult time getting IntelliSense to work correctly due to the unsightly TypeLibBuilder errors. In this beta, those problems have been corrected and JavaScript IntelliSense worked right from the get go.

It is clear, though, that JavaScript IntelliSense is going to be most beneficial for writing standard JavaScript code and ASP.NET AJAX client-side code. Using the JavaScript IntelliSense for working with the RadControls (at least in the current form) is still a little impractical, mostly due to the challenges of getting your ASPX pages to reference the JavaScript files embedded in the RadControl assemblies.

In order for JS IntelliSense to work, your JavaScript file must be statically available to Visual Studio at design time. And while there are some methods for theoretically referencing the embedded resource at design time, they still present the problem of attaching a JS file to your page that you do not need. Michael Schwarz proposes a work around on his blog, but it is definitely hack that you're unlikely to want to do all of your projects.

Nonetheless, JavaScript IntelliSense (when configured with your JS files correctly) works as advertised and is very cool. If nothing else, it will be a great tool for exploring the RadControl client-side libraries and discovering client-side features that you may have otherwise missed.

Unit Testing
One announcement that I missed back in March was that the unit testing tools previously exclusive to Visual Studio Team Suite would start to be included in the Pro versions of Visual Studio "Orcas". This is a great move by the Visual Studio team to help make unit testing more accessible to all .Net developers, and frankly it is long overdue.

The latest "Orcas" beta is a Professional edition product (versus the Team Suite edition that I reviewed in March) and it already includes the new unit testing tools. These tools, while familiar to TFS users, are a huge improvement for all Visual Studio users and make the process of creating unit tests very easy. The tools enable you to either write your test cases ahead of time (standard Test Driven Development practice) or use a wizard to generate test stubs for existing code (very cool time saving feature that's hard to find in other tools).

The addition of unit testing tools to Pro editions of Visual Studio may be the most compelling reason to upgrade when "Orcas" ships later this year (or "very" early next). While many of the other improvements in "Orcas" are incremental in nature- simply improving what has been possible in the past- the unit testing capabilities add a whole new dimension of functionality to the product for a majority of its users.

Conclusions
Visual Studio "Orcas" is definitely shaping up to be a solid and worthwhile upgrade. RadControls integration continues to be solid and any lingering problems will definitely be resolved with the official release of the IDE. To see some of the new features discussed in this review in action, be sure to check out my new screenshot gallery full of screenshots and comments. You can also try the beta for yourself by downloading all eight parts here.

View screenshot gallery of "Orcas" beta 1 review

another round of service packs due next week

It has almost been a month since the last round of service packs was released for the RadControls and the Telerik development teams are already putting the finishing touches on round two. Service Pack 2 for the Q1 2007 WinForms, ASP.NET, and "Prometheus" RadControl suites will be hitting your Client.net accounts in about a week with a release scheduled for Tuesday, June 26th. These service packs will primarily focus on performance improvements and bug fixes across the controls, though a few new features may also be included.

The RadScheduler preview, which will be part of the "Prometheus" suite when it ships, will not be part of this service pack release. Rather, it will probably be made available in early July as a separate download in yet to be announced "new" area of Telerik.com. More on that in the coming weeks.

For now, set your Outlook reminders and log-in next Tuesday to download SP2.

in case you missed it: part I

It is challenging maintaining two blogs targeted at (generally) the same readers covering (at times) similar material. While my blog on Telerik.com is supposed to be for more "technical" articles (versus the "news" that I bring to you here), there are times when interesting "newsy" posts end up on Telerik.com that I don't want you to miss. To help reduce the amount of manual content syndication between the two blogs, I'll occasionally (maybe every month or two) make a post on Telerik Watch that highlights some of the better posts being made on my Telerik.com blog.

To get things started, here are a few interesting posts from the last month that you may want to check out:

• RadControls in Safari for Windows
• Adding Google Gadgets to Sitefinity
• Top 15 Optimization Tips and Tricks for RadControls
• How to: Create custom skins for RadControls

If you don't want to miss any future updates on my other blog, be sure to add the feed to your reader of choice today!

more RadScheduler details

As promised I have a new batch of RadScheduler details for your viewing pleasure. If you were at TechEd then this is nothing new, but for the rest of you this is your first chance to see the early progress being made on Telerik's newest component.

In short, the RadScheduler is shaping up to provide all of the features you'd expect to find in scheduling component. Recurrence, day/week/month views, drag-and-drop tasks- it's all there. So what will make RadScheduler different from existing scheduling components (other than obvious benefits of being a Telerik produced and supported component)?

Quite simply, we are aiming to blend the best of "web 2.0" scheduling tools (think Google Calendar) with the tried and true features of traditional scheduling tools (like Outlook). Many of the current scheduling tools on the market aim to replicate Outlook exactly on the web. While this will be possible with our component, we want our out of the box configuration to move past the "old school" dialog heavy scheduling components and provide a rich, interactive, Ajax-enabled scheduling experience.

Furthermore, RadScheduler will also be a very flexible tool. You will not be locked-in to a Telerik defined data model, so it will be easy to use RadScheduler with your existing scheduling data. If you don't have existing data, you'll be able to drop a RadScheduler on your page (note: this is a single, easy to work with component instead of a complicated collection of components for scheduling) and connect it to an XML file for instant scheduling support in your web app.

The first preview release of this component will be available in a few weeks and the "final" version will ship in Q2 (end of September). What do you think so far?

View RadScheduler Preview Screenshots

RadControl road maps updated for Q2

Now that the Q1 release is a thing of the past (and the first round of service packs is already released), it's time to start talking in more detail about the Q2 2007 release. This release is due in late September and it will be almost as big as the Q1 release with updates (and new products) for WinForms, ASP.NET, "Prometheus", and Reporting. Here's the public highlights so far:

RadControls for ASP.NET

• New major version of RadGrid (v5)
• New image control will be delayed (will not be in Q2)
• More major improvements to RadChart (such as smart labels)
  

RadControls "Prometheus" for ASP.NET

• New controls: RadScheduler (v1)
• New major version of RadEditor (v8)
• Featuring new optimized loading mechanism for client-side features
  
• "Prometheus'd" versions of RadWindow, RadUpload

RadControls for WinForms

• Major performance optimizations for all controls
• New features for RadGridView (such as hierarchal data support)
  

Telerik Reporting (due in October)

• New report wizard
• New report items: HtmlTextBox, Table
• Support for hierarchal data
• More support for expressions
  
• Export to Excel (CSV) support
• Support for passing parameters into a report
  

This is not an exhaustive list of Q2's impending improvements by any standard, so expect more details in the coming weeks. Only 15 weeks to go before the next big release!

Telerik RadControls Support Lifecycle published

While I was away at TechEd, one of the news items at Telerik was the official publication of the Telerik RadControls Support Lifecycle (or TRSL for short). Similar to Microsoft's Support Lifecycle policies, the TRSL aims to give developers (you) a very clear and transparent plan for how Telerik will support "old" versions of its software. With this information, there should be no surprises regarding when support for an old framework version ends. You should be able to make plans well in advance of a product's "sunset" date and make the necessary arrangements to upgrade your projects as necessary.

This policy formalizes what has been the general practice up to this point at Telerik. With .NET 1.x increasingly less common, though, and .NET 3.5 just around the corner we thought it was very important to make it clear how we will transition our support for these different framework versions. We've tried to make things as clear as possible on the policy page, but if we've missed something please don't hesitate to contact us for clarification.

We look forward to helping you leverage all of the latest technologies Microsoft has to offer and to helping you support your existing applications. Hopefully this policy will help make it clear exactly how we will try to achieve that balance.

Telerik at TechEd (part 2)

A busy week at TechEd is now over and in its wake are some sore feet and a great showing of Telerik's latest products. I had hoped to blog more often during the event, bringing you frequent updates from the floor. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, things were so busy during the week (with demos in the day and TechEd parties at night) the updates did not make it online. Nonetheless, there is still some great information to share and I will be blogging "double time" when I get back to the office (where I'll be very happy to sit after a long week of standing).

To get things started, I've uploaded some more pictures of Telerik at TechEd 2007. There are a couple of pictures in this post and about 20 more in this online gallery. You can see we had a great time visiting with all of the TechEd attendees- some our fans, some new to Telerik- and we look forward to seeing even more of you next year. You can also see our very popular t-shirts (the blue "geeket" T for girls and the black ".NET Superstar" shirt for everyone) and Telerik green bean bags.

The end of a long day.

People waiting for the big bean bag giveaway

The "stars" of Telerik's TechEd presentations this year, though, were RadControls for WinForms and the sneak preview of RadScheduler for ASP.NET. Many people that stopped by our booth were amazed at the stunning WPF-like visuals that the Telerik controls for WinForms are delivering. In fact, even some Microsoft employees were in disbelief that the RadControls for WinForms were not using WPF to deliver their next generation visuals. Needless to say, if you haven't checked out the WinForms stuff from Telerik lately, you should!

The RadScheduler sneak preview was also popular. The control is still early in its development cycle, but a public "beta" (it will actually be more like a CTP) should be available online in a few weeks. I will provide more details on the upcoming control along with some pics in a future post.

And that's all from Telerik TechEd 2007 (for now)! Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days and start making your plans to come visit us next year, June 9-13th in Orlando again.

Telerik at TechEd (part 1)

Telerik, as you already know, is in full force at TechEd 2007 and so far this year's event is going very well. There are 11 of us from the Telerik team in Orlando this week, 9 of which made the long journey from Bulgaria to come show-off the latest and greatest we have to offer (like a preview of the new RadScheduler for RadControls "Prometheus" and some never before seen Silverlight previews).

I will be making a few updates this week from the event- in fact, as I type this I'm sitting in our bright booth watching the hordes of attendees gather, waiting to be released on to the expo floor. For now, I'll leave you with a pics of the Telerik booth and crew and bring you more details on the demos we're doing here (along with some more photos) later this week.

Join us at TechEd

TechEd 2007 is just days away and so is your next opportunity to hang out with some Telerik staffers. The developers and team leads from Bulgaria have already started their long journey to Orlando for the event (I do not envy their travel schedule) and I will be heading out tomorrow to join them. When all the activity starts on Monday, come find us at booth #515 and check out the latest from the Telerik "labs".

We'll have some never before seen demos of the Telerik WinForms controls and Telerik's new Silverlight controls at our booth, so you'll definitely want to take time to find us. I'll begin blogging some of these items next week. We are also the bean bag sponsor at this year's TechEd, so if you think you've already seen everything we have to offer you can at least come by to win a prize.

I look forward to meeting some of you next week. Drop me a line if you want to meet formally at the event at todd [dot] anglin [at] {nospam} telerik [dot] com (remove the "nospam" part to get the correct address...you can never be too careful with Internet address scrapers). See you there!

P.S. If you're in town on Sunday night, you can find the Telerik crew at the "Party with Palmero". Telerik is one of the sponsors for this event, so have a good time. It's (partly) on us!

announcing Telerik Reporting challenge

That's right. It's time for another fun Telerik challenge, this time for the new Telerik Reporting product. This new contest begins today and runs through July 13th and it is your opportunity to win some prizes just for checking out Telerik Reporting. To compete in this competition, you need to visit the official Telerik Reporting Challenge page and fill out a short 11 question survey. You'll need to download and install Telerik Reporting to complete the survey (obviously), so make sure you stop by the Client.net area and download your free copy of Reporting before doing the survey.

First prize in this challenge is a 19" NEC LCD monitor, but everyone who gets at least 7 of the 11 survey questions right gets a free Telerik Reporting developer license (which is probably worth more than the monitor). Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to try Reporting and complete the challenge survey. It will be the easiest $400 prize you've won all week!