OT (?) - Software Tool Help

OT (?) - Software Tool Help

Old forum URL: forums.lhotka.net/forums/t/1644.aspx

SonOfPirate posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006

I am in need of some advice from anyone who has found a superior web-based "grid" control for ASP.NET applications.  I have spent the last two weeks using hammer and nails to try and get the functionality we want out of a DataGrid, GridView, Infragistics UltraGrid, Office Web Component Spreadsheet and a handful of others that I found online but have not been able to achieve the desired result.  I find it hard to believe in this day and age, especially with AJAX marching forward, that this should be this difficult to find.  But...

In a nutshell, we are looking for a grid control that emulates the type of dynamic editors you can find in win apps.  More specifically, we need to be able to do inline editing (which I was able to accomplish using the proper template design in the aforementioned controls), with "immediate" deletion and addition of new rows.  These seem to be the two sticky points.

The best example I can give is working with a resource file in Visual Studio.  To delete a line, simply select the line and hit the delete key or click the toolbar button.  To add a line, simple start typing in the empty row at the bottom of the list.  When you do so, another new line is added to the list.

Our goal is to NOT have to use "edit", "delete" and "add" links or buttons to accomplish the task.  The users of this application have thrown a fit over this as, in their words, " it reminds them that they aren't using Office."  (Gotta love customers!)  Anyway, since I have yet to find myself inventing anything new, I hardly believe that is the case here as well.  So, I am hoping that given the breadth of knowledge in this forum, someone has come across a better grid and can direct me where to look.

Thanks in advance.

 

pelinville replied on Tuesday, October 31, 2006

http://demos.devexpress.com/ASPxGrid2Demos/CS/
 
Try that one.
 
Telerik supposedly has a good one also.

ajj3085 replied on Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Well, the main problem is that the web was never intended for this kind of rich application interface.  It reminds the users they aren't using office because they aren't; they're using a web browser.  If your interface must provide a 'rich' experience, you're better off doing a winforms app with click once deployment.

That said, I realize its probably not an option for you.  You can do what you want, but its going to be lots of DHTML and Javascript.  And its not going to work quite right across different browsers... which is probably why you're having a hard time finding a prebuilt component (although there may be some out there..).  We did this before targeting only IE as the browser... and it was messy and tough.

Good luck.
Andy

pelinville replied on Tuesday, October 31, 2006

I use the devexpress one.  It does just about every thing you can think and I know it works with Mac Safari at least.
 
Words of warning.  It uses alot of client side script so it can be very slow, especially on older machines.
 
I found the control to have a bit of a learning curve as well.  Devexpress support can be horrible.  Sometimes I get the help I need other times it seems I get nothing but canned responses and they don't even read my question.
 
But it does act alot like a spread sheet does. 

pandelaras replied on Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I dont have a specific answer, but i know where to search for an answer. At least that's the most active components market i know of.

www.componentsource.com/

DavidDilworth replied on Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I'll have to recommend Telerik.

Their controls are all AJAX enabled and their technical support is excellent.  There are plenty of good working examples on their website as well.

As to whether you can get exactly the behaviour you are describing, I'm not 100% sure.

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