What are the general thoughts on the 2008v1 release so far? We have just started to use it and don't really see much new or improved. Are there any massive improvements?
Right now we are tryign to decide to renew our subscription or move on to another suite such as Telerik.
The Infragisitcs controsl have been ok and we have usedthem for years but overall they are very heavy for web use and more complex than they need to be. Support and sample code is also weak in our view.
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Hello there. I've been working with Infragistics tools for about two years now. The one thing I have seen over and over again, on just about every control, and most recently on the Web Schedule set of controls, is the complete and utter lack of real world examples and help documentation on creating applications that require customization of your controls. Below is the current, frustrating example.
We're creating a calendar application. I started with the month view. I installed your sql scripts to create the database, and delved in to your examples. You had a vb.net example, which used to be rare and was nice to see, but then I quickly realized you had done the usual IG thing and nearly all of the example was in javascript. The codebehinds looked like a ghost town, devoid of code. Javascript is notoriously hard to follow when it gets in to the amount you use, but I gave a big sigh and started in on it anyway. After a week of trying to customize it to what I need, I realized it was useless. First of all, your example uses older versions of some of the controls. Second, I needed to add additional fields to the Add Appointment dialog. The forums were more helpful than your documentation on that, which is common, but even they weren't able to fully explain it. You have one example in the knowledge base, but it describes only half the process. The other half you have to wing it and pray. I had to extend your appointment object, which is fine, but then using that extended appointment object in the custom data provider I had to create was difficult. I had to call your support multiple times. Thankfully, you have a wonderful man named Nainil that apparently knows the WebSchedule stuff inside out. Even he was stumped a couple of times. But eventually I managed to get it all worked out. I have been progamming for 9 years. The other people on my time have been doing this for just as long, or longer. It took us over a month to get this all working correctly. In hindsight, I would rather have just coded my own calendar system than use your control simply for the length of time it took to figure it out, and customize it. At least if I create it myself, I know how the thing works. But I use third-party controls because I want to save time. This is completely unacceptable. By comparison, any new control from Microsoft we can usually figure out and fully impliment, with customizations, in a few days or less. Telerik controls take a little longer, but nowhere near as long as yours.
It's not the controls. Once you figure them out, they're wonderful. It's the samples and documentation, and severe lack of dev presence in your forums (unless they're trying to defend themselves). I know you want to charge everyone for good help, but what you're going to end up doing is just losing customers that would have bought another subscription.
That's my opinion and experience. Others may vary. Have a good one.
Michael J. CollinsAlston & Bird, LLPApplication Development
Exactly. Share working small sample codes right here!
I saw IG staff spending tons of time in talking here and old forum. Please provide one page sample web application with short description.
When we evaluated WinForms component packages 2 years ago, we communicated with Customer Support to ask whether various features we wanted were implemented. Of all the features, Infragistics supported basically everything except for a document export and printing capability. Now, we have it (as of 2007 v3 I think). This is a great step forward.
I started with the Developer’s Guide > The Toolset > Code Libraries > Infragistics Document Engine section in Help. Here are some roadblocks I found –
I list this not as a list of specific things to be fixed, but rather as symptoms that Infragistics needs much higher quality documentation and support. The Infragistics WinForms product itself is excellent, although more emphasis is needed on fixing bugs in a timely way.
Hi Ambrose,
If the snippets are considered very small then yes the forums would be a good place however I hope this is in addition to the knowledge base where larger solutions can be demonstrated and downloaded.
Also I think a top x FAQ of some sort for each control of the forum questions as most often would be helpful by not having to answer the same questions over and over on the forums. Maybe update it per release or quarterly.
Thanks,
Nick