Have you been missing your weekly dose of new, live Telerik webinar content? After a brief hiatus to let the Q2 2009 Release settle-in, and some time-off to accommodate everyone's summer R&R, it's time to get the Telerik Weekly Webinars back in gear.
Getting things started tomorrow is Telerik DE Evan Hutnick who will be doing a new webinar on using the RadControls for Silverlight in Silverlight 3. Evan will explore the use of new Silverlight features, like validation, .NET RIA Services, and Out-of-browser apps, with the Telerik RadControls. (If you missed the announcement in the ASP.NET MVC excitement, Telerik officially shipped support for Silverlight 3 a few weeks ago.)
Clear your morning and register now for this free event. As usual, the webinar will be this Thursday, August 27th (tomorrow!) at 11:00 AM Eastern. The event will also be recorded and uploaded to Telerik TV for on-demand viewing. Enjoy the webinar and stay tuned for next week's webinar details, where once again I will be your humble host.
Register for free Telerik Silverlight developer webinar
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Weekly Webinars resume tomorrow with Silverlight 3
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
TechPath shows-off use of Telerik Silverlight on Telerik TV
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Making the most of Telerik support resources (update)
- Blogs
- Forums
- KB Articles
- Online Docs
- Videos
- Interactive Tutorials
- Code Library
- Online Demos
- Learning Guides
- Visual Studio Extensions
- Consulting
- And...Support Tickets!
- [UPDATE: I forgot to mention Training, too!]
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Telerik Watch Minute: Silverlight 3 and Extensions for ASP.NET MVC
Building on yesterday's announcement of the new Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC, this quick (about 7 minute) Telerik Watch Minute is another chance for you to learn about Telerik's newest product and hear answers to some of your more common questions. Of course, you can get many of these answers in the "unofficial FAQs" I've posted, but if you prefer to hear answers instead of reading them (or you just want some reinforcement), take a few minutes to watch this "news only" video. I've also tossed-in a quick introduction to another big Telerik announcement from yesterday that got buried in the ASP.NET MVC excitement- Telerik has released it's "official" support for the Silverlight 3 platform. Get the details in the video embedded above an enjoy another TWM. Watch this Telerik Watch Minute on Telerik TV (full resolution)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC Unofficial FAQs (updated)
With the introduction of our brand new Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC, I know there are a lot of questions in the community about this new product. New products always generate questions, but when you factor in the CTP nature of this release and the fact that this is Telerik's first open source product, the questions abound.
To help ensure you get answers to all of your burning questions, I've compiled some answers to the most common questions I'm seeing (or expect to see) in the community. The "unofficial FAQs." If you have a question not answered, be sure to add it to the comments and I'll update the post with an answer (if I can).
Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC Unofficial FAQs
Q: Why did Telerik build these extensions?
ASP.NET MVC represents a very different way of building standards-based websites with .NET, and Telerik recognized that the current efforts to provide UI "components" for MVC were not fully embracing the principles of the platform. Telerik is providing a UI Extension framework for deploying reusable UI components in MVC views that is purpose built for the ASP.NET MVC platform- no postbacks, no Viewstate, no page life cycle. These new UI extensions will finally give MVC developers more productivity while creating views without sacrificing the concepts (like testability, clean HTML, SoC) that make MVC an important step forward for ASP.NET developers.
Continue reading Telerik Extension Unofficial FAQs
Q: Is Telerik transitioning to ASP.NET MVC? How does this affect the future of WebForms components?
Definitely not! Just as Microsoft makes clear with the ASP.NET MVC framework, MVC is an option, not a replacement for ASP.NET WebForms. Telerik remains fully committed to the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and has a great road map of planned features for those controls. We are offering the Extensions for MVC for those developers that have decided to use MVC and want a more productive way to create rich views with .NET.
Q: Are the Telerik Extensions really open source?
Yes! In fact, they're licensed with the same OSI-approved license that covers the ASP.NET MVC framework- the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL). This is one of the simplest open source licenses out there, and one of the most "open." You are free to use the Telerik Extensions in any open source or commercial product.
Q: What if I want support? What do I do if my company doesn't allow open source software?
Telerik will make a commercial license for the Telerik Extensions available with the official release. This license will include Telerik's "legendary" dedicated support and it will make it possible for you to use the Extensions in an environment where open source software is hard to get approved. Pricing and additional commercial license details are not available at this time.
Q: What's so special about the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC? How are they different from other UI components for MVC?
The Telerik Extensions are the first UI "components" natively built for MVC. These are not "ports" of WebForms controls. Many of the solutions for MVC you see available today are trying to cram the WebForms model (or some hybrid version of it) in to MVC. The Telerik Extensions are built from scratch to embrace ASP.NET MVC. The Extensions are designed to easily work with MVC controllers and they render lightweight, clean HTML. They also work with any ASP.NET MVC view engine!
Q: What are these wrappers for jQueryUI? Why would I use them?
For this CTP release, we did not have time to begin building custom UI rendering on top of our new UI Extension framework. To show-off the framework's power, though, we created wrappers for several jQueryUI components. These wrappers demonstrate how the server-side API works and give you a sense for how our "homegrown" components will work in the official release. The wrappers are also open source and you can use them to gain a native .NET approach for adding jQueryUI components to your MVC views.
Q: Will the jQuery wrappers be updated in the future? Will you cover more controls?
Not by Telerik. These wrappers are "proofs of concept" designed to show-off the framework. Their source will be published and we encourage the community to adopt and enhance the wrappers to make jQueryUI as accessible as possible to MVC developers. Future releases of the Telerik Extensions will feature new UI components not built on jQueryUI.
Q: When will we see Telerik components built-on the Extensions framework?
In our next release, you will begin to see new, homegrown components added to the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC. Our plans are to start with three components for the first release: Grid, Menu, and TabStrip. These UI components will more closely match the skins of the existing RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and will offer more rich functionality that Telerik customer's expect.
Q: Wait! Telerik is building a TabStrip? I thought there was already a Tab component in the CTP?!
True, but remember that the CTP components are simply previews of the framework's power. The components themselves are jQueryUI components, not custom designed Telerik UI Extensions. The CTP wrappers are not considered components in the official release of the Telerik Extensions. Custom-built Telerik UI Extensions not based on jQueryUI will be built for all MVC components, including TabStrip.
Q: Will the Telerik components be based on ASP.NET AJAX? Will they use the same rendering as the WebForms controls?
No on both accounts. The Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC will be built on jQuery, the popular JavaScript library supported (officially) by Microsoft. The new UI Extensions will have a brand new HTML rendering model that is a clean as possible and that exclusively leverages jQuery on the client. The skins will be crafted to look identical to the skins for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX (for consistency), but the renderings will be different. We are working hard to leave as much control as possible in the developer's hands over what gets rendered to the page.
Q: Can I use the Telerik Extensions in multiple ASP.NET MVC View Engines?
Absolutely! Since these UI Extensions are built from the ground-up to support ASP.NET MVC, they are fully desiged to work with any ASP.NET MVC View Engine. In fact, the downloads on Telerik.com include two sample projects showing the Telerik Extensions used in the Spark and NHaml MVC view engines, in addition to the default ASPX view engine.
Q: Where can I download the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC?
You can download the source, binaries, sample projects, and documentation from Telerik.com. The complete source (and the source only) is also published on CodePlex. You can submit contributions through CodePlex if you want to help extend this open source project.
Q: I don't see the MVC download in my Telerik.com account. How do I get it?
If you do not see the download for the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC on your downloads page on Telerik.com, it means you have not yet accepted the "community license" for this download. Simply accept the license and the download link will be added to your list of available Telerik downloads.
Q: Where can I offer my 2 cents on these new Extensions?
There are official forums on Telerik.com dedicated to the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC. We are eager to hear your feedback and get your suggestions as we start the push towards the first official release of this product. Speak now or...speak later. But we'd prefer you speak-up early and often!
Q: What's next for the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC?
We are now turning our full attention to building the first three UI Extensions that will be part of the official release this fall. There will be at least one more preview release before the first version ships, and that will be your first chance to see some of the Telerik Extensions in action. Stay tuned to Telerik Watch and the Telerik Blogs for updates.
New Telerik ASP.NET MVC UI Extensions CTP launched today
Ready for some big news? If you're on Twitter then you've probably already seen this announcement (hint, hint), but I know from surveys that many of you are not in to the whole "Twitter-thing" (and I don't blame you). So, on to the news...
Today Telerik announced (and released) the brand new Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC, a completely open source and purpose built UI "component" suite for MVC.
The announcement of this new product is significant for (at least) two reasons:
- This is the first UI "component" approach built natively for ASP.NET MVC. These are not WebForms controls "hacked" or "squeezed" in to an MVC environment. This is a brand new UI Extension framework that fully embraces the values of ASP.NET MVC - lightweight rendering, clean HTML IDs, clear separation of concerns, easy testability, etc.- while helping make you more productive building MVC views. Our UI Extensions will work in any ASP.NET MVC View Engine, too, and the downloadable samples include projects using both Spark and NHaml.
- This is Telerik's first open source product. As a small commercial company, it's obviously a big step to introduce a truly open source product. We have a strong desire to support the ASP.NET MVC community, though, and we know open platforms are important to many MVC developers. The source for the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC will be hosted on CodePlex (binaries on Telerik.com) and licensed under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL) - the same license that governs the ASP.NET MVC framework. That means these UI Extensions are 100% free to use, modify, and do with what you please.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Audio transcript of Advanced OpenAccess ORM Interview now available
We don't usually make audio transcripts for Telerik TV videos available. There is no easy, automated way to do that (yet). But for the recent Advanced OpenAccess ORM Question and Answers interview with Team Lead Jan Blessenohl and Telerik CSO / Microsoft RD Stephen Forte, we made the extra effort to produce a complete transcript of the conversation. The interview contains lots of good information about OpenAccess, including:
- How mature is OpenAccess ORM?
- How does OpenAccess compare to Entity Framework?
- How does the future of LINQ impact Open Access?
- How do the new "advanced" features in the Q2 OpenAccess release work?
- How does the learning curve of OpenAccess compare to NHibernate?
- And, of course, what is the future of OpenAccess ORM?
Friday, August 07, 2009
WinForms, Reporting Q2 2009 service packs now available
RadControls for WinForms (2009.2.9.729)
- 5 NEW events in RadDock, many new properties (giving you more control)
- New DocumentManager in RadDock (makes it easier to manage, manipulate Documents)
- New CommandManager in RadDock (register your own keyboard shortcuts)
- 8 NEW events in DragDropService, new properties
- 50+ bug fixes across all controls
There are 2 breaking changes, one in RadScheduler, one in RadTreeView. The TreeView change will not effect you immediately- it is simply a obsolete property that will be removed in Q3. The Scheduler change, though, is breaking. See the release notes for details.
Telerik Reporting (3.1.9.807)
- NEW! Medium Trust support (big improvement for shared environments)
- NEW support for hyperlinks in HtmlTextBox item (beginning of drill-down report support)
- Bug fixes in rendering, report viewers
- 15 bug fixes / improvements to Visual Studio design-time
The SP1s for the other suites are coming soon. The XAML service pack will likely ship next week and the ASP.NET SP will ship later this month. Also, for Q2 2009, we don’t expect to ship a second round of SPs. We were proud to find that our Q2 2009 release was very high quality, and the current SP round should address all reported issues. Make sure you use the Latest Internal Build tool to grab a hotfix if you need it between SP1 and Q3 2009 – which is now only about 3 months away!
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Code: SQL script for dropping all Sitefinity objects
Today I faced the challenge of upgrading an old Sitefinity site (v3.0 – used by my wife for her class website) to the latest and greatest v3.6 SP2. Like a new OS install, I wanted to start with a “clean slate” instead of trying to work through an upgrade, and to do that I needed to remove all Sitefinity v3.0 objects from my SQL Server database.
Should be easy, but I’ve got a couple of challenges I’m sure some of you face:
- My SQL Server is hosted, meaning I don’t have complete control over the server to drop and recreate entire databases
- More significantly, this database is hosting tables for multiple applications- not just Sitefinity. I need to leave my other DB objects in-tact and only remove my Sitefinity-specific objects.
To solve my problem, I need a SQL script that will go through my database and delete all Sitefinity tables, stored procedures, and relationships. Thankfully, Sitefinity prefixes all of the objects it creates with either “sf_” or “telerik_”, so we can us that fact to create a script that will delete all objects that meet our prefix search criteria.
Continue reading to see SQL solution
Based on a helpful “generic” script on Paige Cook’s blog, the following script can be used delete all (and only) Sitefinity objects in a SQL Server database:
-- Drop all Sitefinity stored procs DECLARE @name VARCHAR(128) DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(254) SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] = 'P' AND category = 0 AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) WHILE @name is not null BEGIN SELECT @SQL = 'DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[' + RTRIM(@name) +']' EXEC (@SQL) PRINT 'Dropped Procedure: ' + @name SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] = 'P' AND category = 0 AND [name] > @name AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) END GO -- Drop any Sitefintiy views (none in current default install) DECLARE @name VARCHAR(128) DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(254) SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] = 'V' AND category = 0 AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) WHILE @name IS NOT NULL BEGIN SELECT @SQL = 'DROP VIEW [dbo].[' + RTRIM(@name) +']' EXEC (@SQL) PRINT 'Dropped View: ' + @name SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] = 'V' AND category = 0 AND [name] > @name AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) END GO -- Drop any Sitefinity functions (none in current default install) DECLARE @name VARCHAR(128) DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(254) SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] IN (N'FN', N'IF', N'TF', N'FS', N'FT') AND category = 0 AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) WHILE @name IS NOT NULL BEGIN SELECT @SQL = 'DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[' + RTRIM(@name) +']' EXEC (@SQL) PRINT 'Dropped Function: ' + @name SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] IN (N'FN', N'IF', N'TF', N'FS', N'FT') AND category = 0 AND [name] > @name AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) END GO -- Drop all Sitefinity Foreign Key constraints DECLARE @name VARCHAR(128) DECLARE @constraint VARCHAR(254) DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(254) SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY' AND (TABLE_NAME LIKE 'sf_%' OR TABLE_NAME LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY TABLE_NAME) WHILE @name is not null BEGIN SELECT @constraint = (SELECT TOP 1 CONSTRAINT_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY' AND TABLE_NAME = @name ORDER BY CONSTRAINT_NAME) WHILE @constraint IS NOT NULL BEGIN SELECT @SQL = 'ALTER TABLE [dbo].[' + RTRIM(@name) +'] DROP CONSTRAINT ' + RTRIM(@constraint) EXEC (@SQL) PRINT 'Dropped FK Constraint: ' + @constraint + ' on ' + @name SELECT @constraint = (SELECT TOP 1 CONSTRAINT_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY' AND CONSTRAINT_NAME <> @constraint AND TABLE_NAME = @name ORDER BY CONSTRAINT_NAME) END SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY' AND (TABLE_NAME LIKE 'sf_%' OR TABLE_NAME LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY TABLE_NAME) END GO -- Drop all Sitefinity Primary Key constraints DECLARE @name VARCHAR(128) DECLARE @constraint VARCHAR(254) DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(254) SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' AND (TABLE_NAME LIKE 'sf_%' OR TABLE_NAME LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY TABLE_NAME) WHILE @name IS NOT NULL BEGIN SELECT @constraint = (SELECT TOP 1 CONSTRAINT_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' AND TABLE_NAME = @name ORDER BY CONSTRAINT_NAME) WHILE @constraint is not null BEGIN SELECT @SQL = 'ALTER TABLE [dbo].[' + RTRIM(@name) +'] DROP CONSTRAINT ' + RTRIM(@constraint) EXEC (@SQL) PRINT 'Dropped PK Constraint: ' + @constraint + ' on ' + @name SELECT @constraint = (SELECT TOP 1 CONSTRAINT_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' AND CONSTRAINT_NAME <> @constraint AND TABLE_NAME = @name ORDER BY CONSTRAINT_NAME) END SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE constraint_catalog=DB_NAME() AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' AND (TABLE_NAME LIKE 'sf_%' OR TABLE_NAME LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY TABLE_NAME) END GO -- Drop all Sitefinity tables DECLARE @name VARCHAR(128) DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(254) SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] = 'U' AND category = 0 AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) WHILE @name IS NOT NULL BEGIN SELECT @SQL = 'DROP TABLE [dbo].[' + RTRIM(@name) +']' EXEC (@SQL) PRINT 'Dropped Table: ' + @name SELECT @name = (SELECT TOP 1 [name] FROM sysobjects WHERE [type] = 'U' AND category = 0 AND [name] > @name AND ([name] LIKE 'sf_%' OR [name] LIKE 'telerik_%') ORDER BY [name]) END GO
When this runs it will delete about 670 objects from your database, printing the name of each dropped object to the query output window. If you refresh your objects and still see Sitefinity objects in your database, just run the script a second time and that should fully clean your database. You now have a clean starting point to re-install Sitefinity in your database, and you’ve done your cleaning without touching any of your other, non-Sitefinity database objects. Hope this helps!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Survey Says: Silverlight 3 driving adoption, Many still on the fence
Another super scientific survey and- as usual- another set of interesting results. This time, the survey this blog asked you to indicate your plans for Silverlight. Are you using Silverlight 2? Have you been waiting for Silverlight 3 to get started? Or are you still on the fence waiting for a future version?
Almost two years ago, I ran a different survey asking about your plans for Silverlight 2 (then called Silverlight 1.1). At the time, 82% of respondents said they were waiting for Silverlight 2 to get started with Microsoft's RIA platform and only 11% had no plans to use Silverlight. Then, about a year ago, I tried to re-gauge Silverlight excitement and I asked you to indicate how Silverlight ranked on your list of new Microsoft technologies that you were going to use. A full 62% of you were most excited about Silverlight 2, and only 2% indicated they'd stick with what they know.
Fast forward to today, and the picture looks much different. It seems you have started to become much more aware of the limits of Silverlight and are now focusing on specific features before you adopt. Only 20% of you actually ended-up adopting Silverlight 2, but 30% claim they're jumping-in with the recently released Silverlight 3. Add to that the 14% that still want to use Silverlight but need a more mature platform, and we discover that 64% of you are currently- or will eventually- build applications for Silverlight. (Startling similar figure the 62% measurement from one year ago.)
Perhaps most interesting to me, then, is the "jump" in people deciding to not use Silverlight. More than a third- 36%- of respondents have no plans to do any Silverlight development. That's much higher than the 11% two years ago and the 2% that weren't looking to learn anything new last year. What happened? Did you evaluate Silverlight and decided that standards-based technology is "good enough" for your needs? Is the idea of building on a proprietary browser plug-in an issue for you? Sound-off in the comments and let us know!
Thanks again to everyone for voting. Don't forget to vote in the next survey running on Telerik Watch now...
Friday, July 24, 2009
Silverlight 3 is official, Official Telerik support coming soon
As I'm sure most of you know by now (and you would know if you were following my "strictly-ish business" Twitter account - no "lunch reports," I promise), Microsoft officially released Silverlight 3 on July 10th. That's right. Less than 10 months after the official release of Silverlight 2, we have Microsoft's 3rd revision of its headline-grabbing RIA platform. Microsoft is clearly working fast to add features to Silverlight and in the process is releasing new versions of the platform at a record pace. At this pace, we may have Silverlight 4 release candidate bits around the time of MIX this March!
Telerik is working fast, too, to keep the RadControls for Silverlight in-sync with the platform. As a matter of fact, you can already download the RadControls for Silverlight 3 from the Telerik.com Latest Internal Builds tool. This version of the Silverlight controls makes Telerik the first vendor to ship support for Microsoft's updated platform. We will ship our "official" support for Silverlight 3 in the forthcoming Q2 2009 SP1 release for the RadControls for Silverlight (due in the next week or so).
If you're not ready for Silverlight 3, don't worry. We will still ship Silverlight 2 and Silverlight 3 binaries for the next few updates. As we ramp-up development for the Q3 2009 release, though, we will start to leverage the powerful new features in Silverlight 3 to ensure you get the most performant and feature-complete controls available.
If you are a Silverlight 2 developer, what are your plans for Silverlight 3 development? Is there any reason you would not upgrade right away to the latest version? The platform is fully backward compatible, so it's hard to imagine a scenario where you wouldn't upgrade your development environment to Silverlight 3. If you are in this predicament, though, let me know! I'm very curious to discover how developers are dealing Silverlight's rapid evolution.
New Q2 WPF & Silverlight videos on Telerik TV
So far I've highlighted all of the new videos for the Telerik RadControls for WinForms and the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX that have found their way to Telerik TV in support of the recent Q2 2009 release. If you're a XAML developer, though, there are also lots of new videos to support you, too! Our XAML evangelist Evan Hutnick has been hard at work preparing new videos to help you get started with the RadControls for WPF and the RadControls for Silverlight, and there are more videos in the pipeline that will be online soon. For now, check out these freshly minted videos:
Getting Started with RadWindow for WPF
Getting Started with RadToolBar for WPF
Getting Started with RadCombobox for WPF
Getting Started with Telerik Drag & Drop for WPF
Getting Started with RadScheduler for Silverlight
Getting Started with RadChart for Silverlight (including 3D charting!)
We hope you enjoy these "bite size" training videos and that they help you get the most out of your RadControls. Telerik TV is regularly being updated with new videos, so don't forget to subscribe to the Telerik TV RSS feed to catch all of the new videos as they're posted.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
OpenAccess ORM Advanced Q & A, with Stephen Forte
We know that there are still a lot of good questions out there about Telerik's OpenAccess ORM. In fact, you asked a lot of those good questions during our Q2 2009 Release Week Webinar for OpenAccess. To help provide some answers and to introduce you to some of the smart people working on OpenAccess ORM, we recorded an "Interview with the Telerik Experts" featuring Jan Blessenohl, Product Lead for OpenAccess, and Stephen Forte, Telerik Chief Strategy Officer and Microsoft RD. This interview-style Q&A covers a range of questions including:
- How mature is OpenAccess? What version is the product on now?
- How hard is it to switch database providers with OpenAccess? Is there support coming for databases like VistaDB?
- How do you use OpenAccess with web services and Silverlight?
- How does OpenAccess compare to Entity Framework? What are the main advantages / disadvantages?
- What is the future of LINQ and how does that impact OpenAccess?
- What is the future of OpenAccess ORM?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Telerik Wins Big in 2009 SD 100 Awards, Visual Studio Magazine Readers' Choice
I've always said that you can never trust a single poll, survey, or judged result in isolation. Statistically, there are always "outlier" results, so you need to aggregate results from a variety of sources to create accurate assessments of anything subjective. That's why it's especially significant that Telerik has been recognized by not only the 2009 SD Times 100 Awards, but also the 2009 Visual Studio Magazine Readers' Choice Awards. Combine that with our strong showing the 2009 aspnetPro Readers' Choice Awards and the 2009 Code Project Members' Choice Awards, and it becomes clear that it is no fluke that Telerik is continually recognized as the best in industry awards.
Our most recent awards are for similar recognitions: creating the best web and desktop components for .NET. Specifically, we are the winner in the "Component Suites for .NET - Desktop and Web" category in the 2009 Visual Studio Magazine Readers' Choice Awards (along with a handful of other "2nd place" awards) and we are recognized as one of the leading vendors in the SD Times 100 "Components and Libraries" category. Combine that with the recent "casual" survey that shows Telerik as the leading 3rd party Ajax suite for .NET, and you start to paint a picture of quality you can trust.
Of course, as with any of our awards- Readers' Choice or not- we must thank you for our continued success! Your votes and your feedback help make us great and we focus on that everyday, renewing our commitment daily to make tools and components that make your developer lives simpler. Thanks for helping make the first half of 2009 a great year. We can't wait to make the second half (with your help) even better!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Telerik Silverlight Contest, Win $500
Are you disappointed you did not win during the recent Telerik Q2 2009 Release Week contests? Don't fret! Your next chance to win prizes from Telerik- this time in the form cold, hard Amazon Gift Cards- is already here. Telerik has kicked-off a brand new "Silverlight Contest" where you can show-off your work with the RadControls for Silverlight in-exchange for prizes. All you have to do to enter this contest is:
- Build an application with the RadControls for Silverlight (you can even use the trials)
- Create a 1 - 2 page case study describing your project
- Submit the case study by September 14th, 2009
- 1st Place - $500 Amazon Gift Card
- 2nd Place - $300 Amazon Gift Card
- 3rd Place - $200 Amazon Gift Card
- Top 15 - 5000 Telerik Points
- Everyone - Cool Telerik T-Shirt
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
New Q2 WinForms videos on Telerik TV
Just because the "official" Q2 2009 Release Week is behind us does not mean that the new resources for the Q2 bits will not keep flowing. For example, today we released four new videos to Telerik TV that will help jumpstart your work with the RadControls for WinForms Q2 2009 release. Specifically, the videos help you get started with the new RadDock for WinForms and some of the new features in RadScheduler for WinForms. You can catch the "Getting Started with RadDock" video embedded in this post, and then catch all of the Q2 WinForms videos (released so far) on Telerik TV in full, high-quality resolution: Getting Started with RadDock for WinForms Saving and Loading RadDock for WinForms Layouts Codeless Data Binding with RadScheduler for WinForms Adding Custom Fields to RadScheduler for WinForms Appointments Validation with RadGridView for WinForms
Monday, July 13, 2009
Twitter Contest winners announced, Thanks for the Q2 tweets
One of the contests we ran during last week's big Q2 2009 Release Week was a fun "Twitter Contest." To play, all you had to do was tweet with the #telerikq209 hashtag between Monday the 6th and Friday the 10th. And boy did you tweet!
There were well over 300 tweets last week (excluding Telerik-generated tweets) from 150 unique tweeters with the contest hashtag. The tweets ranged from the simple, "just enough to play":
"#telerikq209" (7 people came-up with this creative tweet all on their own)
To to the much more original tweets, like this one from @jbrahy:
"Here's my entry into the telerik sweepstakes. #telerikq209 and I have to admit, they have great products if you want a cool webapp."
Or this one from @iioshius:
"How about a non-#dnd post? I just saw the #telerikq209 3D chart - whoa. Just whoa. Can't wait to drop it into our upcoming Silverlight app."
In fact, there were many very cool original tweets, and I'll try to compile some of my favorite in to a list later this week. A big thanks to everyone on Twitter for helping Telerik spread the news of the Q2 2009 release. We work hard to make the best tools and components possible for .NET and we are always happy to see such positive feedback on public forums like Twitter. We hope you enjoy working with the Q2 bits for the next 4 months (and then get ready for the Q3 2009 bits!).
Which brings us to our Twitter Contest Winners! Selected at random (using the convenient Random Line Picker tool) with only one entry per person, the winners are... [Click to reveal winners]
@coridrew and @MitchellMc
Congrats and thanks one last time to everyone for joining in the fun. If you didn't win during the Q2 Release Week, don't worry! Q3 is only a few short months away and it will bring a whole new set of chances at winning!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Q2 2009 Release Week Wrap-up, Resources, Winners
Did you guys enjoy that? The Q2 2009 Telerik Release Week was huge- not only because we shipped updates to all seven product lines, but because we filled the week with live webinars, new videos, and a lot of fun contests that we hoped you enjoyed. By now, you should be very familiar with what's new in the Telerik Q2 2009 release, and you should have a good idea of how to get started working with the latest Telerik bits. If you don't, don't worry. All of this week's webinars have been recorded and posted to Telerik TV for your on-going review and study:
What's New in Telerik Q2 2009 Overview
What's New in the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and WinForms in Q2 2009
What's New in the RadControls for OpenAccess ORM in Q2 2009
What's New in the RadControls for Silverlight and WPF in Q2 2009
Literally hundreds of you joined us for the live events, and several of you have already won some great prizes. Congrats again to Gary Hanken, Tarik Souirji, Richard Clements, Travis Spencer, Lachezar Balabanski, and Eric McVicker! We hope you guys enjoy your free Telerik licenses and the new Q2 bits.
That, of course, leaves us with one more winner to announce this week: the Webinar Week Grand Prize Winner. This person is taking home a prize pack valued at over $3000 that includes a Telerik Premium Collection developer license and a pass to the 2009 PNP Summit.
But before I announce that winner, let me highlight a few more resources that will help you in your "post Release Week" learning. While the big release event is over, the learning is not. There are already almost 10 new videos on Telerik TV showing you how to work with the new controls in the various Telerik product suites. By next week there will be more than 20. Continue to check Telerik TV regularly for more videos and more resources as we try to make it easier than ever to get started with the Telerik Tools.
And while the Q2 release was big, Q3 is going to be even bigger. I wish I could share more now, but that would spoil the Q2 fun. Let's just say there are some very exciting and big announcements to watch for in the coming months and you definitely don't want to miss what's coming in Q3.
I think that wraps things up for this week. Thanks again to everyone that participated in all the activities. We hope you enjoyed them and enjoyed the release. As always, send us your feedback and let us know how we can improve. We're here for you, so your feedback is very important.
And without further ado, the Grand Prize Winner is... [click to find out]
Chrysa Clahane!
Congrats and thanks again to everyone for "playing." We will announce the Twitter Contest winners on Monday. You've got 'til midnight Eastern Time tonight to get those #telerikq209 tweets in! You can still win and win big.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Survey Says: Twitter not for everyone- including devleopers
Twitter addicts, brace yourselves. This news may come as a bit of a shock to the system. While I'm sure your tweets are the creative equivalents of a brilliant novel written one sentence at a time, more than half the world- the developer world- is not listening. According to the most recent poll run on Telerik Watch, which serves a diverse .NET developer audience, almost a full half of poll takers (46%) never use Twitter. That doesn't mean they tried it and quit (another 10% of poll takers did that). No, this half apparently has no interest in the Twitter phenomenon, bucking the conventional wisdom (by some accounts) that "everyone" (especially in the developer community) is on Twitter.
In fact, according to the poll results, only a quarter of developers (24%) are actively engaged in Twitter. And "actively" is a loose term here. The poll asked people to consider themselves "active" if they make occasional tweets to their Twitter accounts. The final almost 20% of developers use Twitter in "read-only mode," only reading others tweets and contributing none of their own.
And while the snapshot results here represent a smallish sample size (about 70 people), they are very consistent with "straw polling" I've done as a speaker at events around the world with .NET audiences. The conclusion seems to be obvious: Twitter is popular for a very specific "segment" in the developer audience, but it clearly is not universally appealing.
It would be fascinating to conduct additional studies to try to find any links between those people that do and don't enjoy Twitter. Is it a factor of age? Region? Job type? Observational logic does not supply any sound support for those theories.
Perhaps the reason more than half of the people polled don't like Twitter is mismatched expectations. The majority of "tweeters" seem to treat Twitter as an unfiltered megaphone of their life activity. There's no crime in that, but unlike other written medium (including blogs), that diarrhea of the keyboard tends to create a lot of "noise," and not a lot of "signal." It's easy to be turned-off by Twitter after reading for the 10th time about some other relative-strangers "fascinating" lunch menu. I expect many people- self included- don't have the time or desire to keep-up with thousands- or even hundreds- of people's daily details, and that group instead chooses to keep the "signal clear" and stick with less polluted communication channels.
What do you think? I intentionally kept this poll off of the "Twitter radar" to avoid skewing the votes, but I'm curious to get all opinions on the results. Why do you think such a large chunk of .NET developers stay away from Twitter? Are you among them? And if you do use Twitter often, how do you manage the signal-to-noise problem? Sound-off in the comments and then don't forget to tweet about the Telerik Q2 2009 release (#telerikq209)! <rimshot />
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
New videos for new controls in the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX
Looking for more help getting started with the new controls in the Q2 2009 release of RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX? Then you may want to check out six new videos posted to Telerik TV today. These videos cover all four of the new controls in the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX- RadListBox, RadCaptcha, RadBinaryImage, and RadXmlHttpPanel- and they are a quick way to jump start your understanding of these controls. The videos are quick and to the point, so you don't need an hour to watch them- a few minutes and you'll be on your way! Here are direct links to the new videos:
- Intro to RadListBox [6:10]
- Getting Started with RadListBox [12:26]
- Intro to RadCaptcha [3:55]
- Intro to RadBinaryImage [2:20]
- Intro to RadXmlHttpPanel [6:15]
- Getting Started with RadXmlHttpPanel [16:07]
Q2 2009 Webinars: RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and WinForms
Another Q2 2009 Release Week Webinar is in the can and ready for your immediate on-demand viewing on Telerik TV (and just above in this post). This webinar covers in more depth the new controls and features in the Q2 2009 RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and RadControls for WinForms releases. We cover the new controls in ASP.NET AJAX (RadListBox, RadCaptcha, RadXmlHttpPanel, and RadBinaryImage) and we cover the performance improvements and new RadDock in WinForms. This is a great way to get started with the new bits for these two Telerik suites in Q2, so I hope you enjoy recorded resource. For the hundreds of you that attended live, once again a big thanks for your time! You are all in the running for the two licenses being given away today, and you've earned another entry in Friday's Grand Prize drawing. Watch for today's winners to be announced soon on my "generally strictly business" Twitter feed. Watch on Telerik TV in Full Resolution
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Q2 2009 Release Overview Webinar re-cap
Did you miss it? The first of four Q2 2009 Release Week Webinars is now complete and it was a great time! Hundreds of people showed-up to learn about the new stuff in the Q2 2009 release, and one lucky winner (to be announced soon on Twitter - @toddanglin) will be taking home a Telerik Premium Collection license (valued at $1300)! The webinar is also already available on Telerik TV (and embedded above this post) for your on-demand viewing pleasure, and you can watch for even more Q2 videos to start hitting Telerik TV soon as the other webinars unfold. Otherwise, thank you very much to those of you that attended live and asked great questions! I hope you enjoyed the content and we look forward to sharing more with you, starting again tomorrow at 11 AM Eastern. Watch Q2 2009 Whats New Webinar on Telerik TV in Full Resolution
Monday, July 06, 2009
Q2 2009 released!
In what is arguably the most "on time" release in Telerik's history, the Q2 2009 officially shipped today! And that's no small feat considering all seven of Telerik's developer product lines received updates in Q2 2009 and all shipped on time today. There has been a lot of coverage leading-up to Q2- on Telerik Watch, on the Telerik Blogs, and on Twitter- so by now you probably have a pretty good idea what's in the Q2 2009 release.
With a huge release like this, though, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the new stuff. If I had to draw your attention to a few "important" highlights in the Q2 2009 release, I'd encourage you to focus on:
- WebAii Testing Framework - Free automated UI testing framework for ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight shipping with the RadControls for Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX. Learn more
- 3D Charting in Silverlight - An industry first, Telerik's "true" 3D engine for Silverlight delivers the first 3D data visualization solution for Silverlight (and by extension, .NET web developers). Learn more
- RadScheduler for Silverlight - Joining the scheduler components for ASP.NET, WinForms, and WPF, Telerik now ships a full-featured, Outlook-like scheduler control for Silverlight. Learn more
- 4 New Controls for ASP.NET AJAX - ListBox, CAPTCHA, XmlHttpPanel, and BinaryImage controls join the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX suite
- View Support - OpenAccess ORM now has powerful support for mapping Views, and additional support for Stored Procedures in Oracle and MySql. Learn More
- RadDock for WinForms - After a comprehensive re-do of Telerik's docking control for WinForms, RadDock has emerged as the most complete (i.e. best) docking control available for WinForms in Q2. Learn more
- Webinars Contest - Prizes given away everyday to live attendees. One Grand Prize winner at the end of the week wins Telerik Premium Collection and pass to PNP Summit 2009 ($1900 value). Attend more webinars live for more chances to win.
- Twitter Contest - Tweet with #telerikq209 between Monday and Friday for a chance at winning one of two Telerik Premium Collection licenses.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Telerik Watch Minute: Q2 2009 Release Week News
The "official" Q2 2009 release date is getting closer, and to help you stay on top of all the exciting release news, I've prepared a quick Telerik Watch Minute to get you started. There will be many ways to win prizes during next week's Q2 2009 Release Week, and many more opportunities to learn about the new controls and features in the release. You can find most of the details for the "contests" right here on Telerik Watch, but if reading 'aint your thing, this quick 3-minute Telerik Watch will tell you everything you need to know. Watch in full resolution on Telerik TV
Tweet This: Telerik Q2 2009 Twitter Contest
As you know by now, Telerik is hosting an exciting week of webinars during next week's big Q2 2009 release. There will be a webinar everyday and prizes everyday, too (with a lucky Grand Prize winner taking home a free pass to the PNP Summit and a Premium Collection license). But if attending webinars isn't your thing- or if you just don't have the time- there is now another way for you to get in on the Q2 2009 release fun.
Next week, Telerik will be running a "Q2 2009 Twitter Contest" and two lucky winners will take home Telerik Premium Collection licenses. The rules to play are simple:
- Between 12:01 AM July 6th and 12:00 midnight July 10th, tweet about the Telerik Q2 2009 release
- Include the "#telerikq209" tag in your tweet for your tweet to be entered in the contest
- Sit back, enjoy the release, and wait for the winners to be announced on Monday, July 13th on my Twitter account (@toddanglin)
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Telerik Q2 2009 Webinar Week, Prize Details and Schedule (update)
Smell that? That's a freshly baked release from Telerik that's just about ready to "officially" launch. The Q2 2009 release is one of the biggest releases in Telerik's history, again delivering simultaneous updates to all 7 Telerik product lines at one time. An update of this scale is bound to have lots new and interesting stuff, and we can't wait to put it in your hands so you can start playing with it. The official launch of Q2 2009 is Monday, July 6th, and to help you jump-off with the new bits and maximize your productivity with the Telerik tools, we'll be running another release "Webinar Week."
But before I reveal the schedule for the Webinar Week, let me tell you about the prizes!
There will be two ways to win prizes during the Q2 Webinar Week:
- Every webinar will award 1 or 2 (depending on the products covered) individual product suite licenses to the people that attend the live event. All you have to do to enter is show-up to the live event and you will be in the pool for a randomly selected winner at the conclusion of the webinar (winners will be notified via email, so don't register with a spam address unless you don't care to claim your prize).
- For every live webinar you attend during the webinar week, you will also be entered in the drawing for the Webinar Week Grand Prize: a Telerik Premium Collection license (valued at $1300) and a pass to the 2009 PNP Summit (a $1900 value)! The more webinars you attend live, the better your odds are at winning the prize valued at over $3000.
- Tuesday, July 7th - Q2 2009: What's New? Join me for a general overview of the Q2 release and high-level intro to what's new PRIZE: 1 Premium Bundle Collection license Register for webinar now
- Wednesday, July 8th - RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and WinForms Join me again for a more in-depth look at what's new in the RadControls for WinForms and ASP.NET AJAX PRIZE:1 RadConrols for ASP.NET AJAX license, 1 RadControls for WinForms license Register for webinar now
- Thursday, July 9th - OpenAccess ORM Join Telerik DE Gabe Sumner for a closer look at what's new in Telerik OpenAccess ORM PRIZE: 1 OpenAccess ORM license Register for webinar now
- Friday, July 10th - RadControls for Silverlight / WPF Join Telerik DE Evan Hutnick for a closer look at what's new in the RadControls for Silverlight and the RadControls for WPF PRIZE: 1 RadControls for Silverlight license, 1 RadControls for WPF license Register for webinar now
