Top 10 Asp.net Controls for ASP.NET Developers
Top 10 Asp.net Controls for ASP.NET Developers:
In this post I want to list of some important Asp.net controls
that ASP.NET developers are most likely to need for the average development
project like navigation menus and ASP.NET AJAX. When we working in my projects then
we learn practically use of these controls more and more time. The .net framework
gives many types of asp controls for developing web and asp.net windows
Applications. Here we want to give some controls see these.
AJAX:
This is kind of a weird one. Most of the major third party
controls are AJAX enabled already. What I was looking for here was a way to
AJAXify any page whether it be with standard ASP.NET controls or third party
controls. It turns out there is really only one good option here RadAjax for
ASP.NET AJAX.
Menu:
Of all the basic controls that you could ever need for your
ASP.NET website, menus undoubtedly top the list. I had three major
considerations when reviewing menu controls. First, it needs to be easily
styled using CSS. Second, it has to have the ability to be databound. Lastly,
it has to be search engine friendly. Unfortunately, there were three controls
that met my criteria and have virtually identical features. So, ladies and
gentlemen, we have a three way tie between the ComponentOne Menu Control, ASPxMenu, and RadMenu for ASP.NET AJAX.
Sitemap
Let's face it, every site needs a sitemap these days in
order to be search engine friendly. Now, you can always use the built-in
ASP.NET sitemap features However, they are a bit cumbersome to use, especially
if you have a large number of pages. What I was mainly looking for was a way to
improve the standard page- full-of-links look while maintaining a search engine
friendly structure. I must say that when I went searching for a winner I was
surprised that sitemap controls were few and far between. Because of their
slightly easier development the winner in this category is RadSiteMap for
ASP.NET AJAX.
Tab Strip:
If you want a truly rich and intuitive UI you have probably
used or looked into tab controls. For the most part, tab controls consist of
the tab control itself that displays the tabs and handles clicks, a container
for handling the different panels that correspond to the tabs, and page view
panels that contain the actual content for each tab. Since most tab strip
controls function basically the same way I wanted a control that was AJAX
enabled, easy to develop, and easy to style. Again, this one was close between DevExpress,.
They both have similar features like hierarchical tabs, scrolling, databinding,
etc. However, I gave the nod to RadTabStrip for ASP.NET AJAX because of their
EntityDataSource and LinqDataSource options.
Graphs & Charts:
Charts and graphs are very popular among ASP.NET control
suites. Everyone has them and they all have the same basic functionality.
However, there is one chart & graph package that I have found to be more
complete than the rest, Dundas Chart for .NET. This package has everything you
need to make beautiful charts and graphs. It has more chart types than you will
probably ever use including pie charts, bar graphs and even animated graphs.
This, however, is a stand-alone software package. Unlike most of the other
winners on our list this one is not part of a suite. Dundas only makes a few
specialized controls for.NET, so what they do offer is very focused and
complete. If you don't use charts and graphs that much in your development or
you just don't want to shell out the cash for a stand-alone control package
then both DevExpress and it also have excellent chart and graph controls in
their suites.
Scheduler:
Another close one here between DevExpress and talrik. Notice
a trend? The nod for this one goes to the DevExpress ASPxScheduler Suite. While
the features and style options are virtually identical, better performance and
ease of development gave the edge to DevExpress.
Editor:
This is for sites that need any kind of web-enabled content
editing. Here I like the RadEditor for ASP.NET AJAX. The control is intuitive
and feature rich. Deployment is as simple as drag and drop. It has excellent
spell checking capability as well as customizable toolbars. It is an all-
around good editor that is versatile enough to apply to a broad range of
situations.
Data Grids:
Control developers have been looking for way to improve the
data grid ever since ASP.NET was first released. It has become a cornerstone
for ASP.NET development and probably carries more weight when considering
controls than all the others. Based on features, performance and ease of
development the winner is the DevExpress ASPxGridView with Editors Suite hands
down.
Reporting:
This was an interesting one. I'd venture to say that just
about everyone that reads this article does not have any great love for
creating reports. Therefore, I gave a lot of consideration to ease of
development, just out of shear sympathy for anyone that has to develop reports.
Ease of development coupled with the fact that reporting is a separate suite
with DevExpress gave the win to the DevExpress XtraReports Suite.
Input:
This one is kind of unique in that it encompasses multiple
controls like input boxes, combo boxes, list boxes, date pickers, color
pickers, sliders, etc. Since all controls that fit in this category are almost
feature identical, it came down to pretty much just a numbers game. That means
that RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX gets the win.
Conclusion
You should know that all of the four major players in third
party ASP.NET controls industry, ComponentOne, DevExpress, Infragistics, all
sell their controls in suites.
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