Where can I find the 'real' documentation that tells me some/any key information I need to code enterprise level web applications with the NetAdvantage WebDataGrid, WebGrid or UltraWebGrid? (Still trying to figure why I have 3 datagrids)
It seems all I can find is overly simplistic help about how to use the WebDataGrid designer followed by a few line code example. It seems to me that I am missing the 'technical' manul for these controls.
The Developers Guide section covers minimilistic information about the WebDataGrid and webGrid each has an API reference links which show object hierarchy and nothing else? How do I learn Infragistics 'domain' from this?
Further down in the docs I see API reference which has an UltraWebGrid but find nothing about it in the Developers Guide section.
I'm sure a product that seems to have such a good feature set and has been around this long should have documentation for enterprise level developers..........doesn't it? ......please point me to it.
Hi Mike,
Let me address your question about the three grids...
We basically have two Grids
Let's talk about the Help system. I just want to make sure you are referring to the correct areas of our help.
We cover our controls in the Developer's Guide section of the help. We try to cover all of the available functionality that a control offers, as well as several use cases. You can get that info in the "Using WebDataGrid" section.
We try to write topics in ways that should address most product guidance scenarios, however, if you have any additional questions about how to accomplish your tasks, you can always get in touch with our Developer Support department as they are more than happy to assist you in accomplishing your mission. In addition, if you have any requests or feedback about the Documentation, you can always click on the links that you find at the bottom of each of our help topics. We always welcome feedback as well as requests for topics.
Tom,
I've spent a number of hours looking thru the help, been thru many more sections than you mention above.
This help is pretty much worthless to an experienced developer. Whats a Band do? Where do I find details on methods and properties of the objects? I don't beleive I've seen a single line of help on the HTML markup for a control.
I'm stunned that Infragistics would expect someone to make a support call to do more than D&D programming. Did we buy the wrong tool? Does Infragistics not expect enterprise level developers to use their product?
cisarjr, this is a great story--thanks for sharing! Specific feedback is very helpful.
mikeschellenberger, thanks for highlighting that we can improve our docs. There is indeed room for improvement, and we have recently made more investments both in product guidance staff and strategy. These things will take a bit of time to come to fruition, but know that we are working on them right now. As Tom mentioned, our dev support staff would be happy to help you overcome your immediate needs while we work to improve the docs. I do understand your frustration, and I hope you can reconsider.
We have a ton of ideas on how to improve and things we're already working on, but hearing specific stories from customers about how they are actually using our controls in real life is even better. We'd love to hear more from both of you and get more stories about what you are trying to achieve. This helps us nail down where we're missing the guidance you desire so that we can fill those gaps.
We heard what you said here, but if you have more to tell, please do message me (my details are in my sig).
Cordially,
I read this thread with interest and agree 100% with the frustration expressed here.
It's nice that your dev support staff would be happy to help, my experience is taht it takes 3-4 days to get a response. My development schedules just do not allow me the luxury of waiting that long to get straightforward answers to simple questions.
I am fully aware that the controls are very complex, but that is all the more reason to have real documentation and sample code and markup available.
Hello All,
Your personal case response time is based on your service level agreement. I can comment on your personal account, cases and service level directly.
I will email you seperately, but you can always email me at the following address:
DSManager@infragistics.com
Thank you,Stephani
I fully agree with the previous posters, here we are also struggeling with the documentation. We are just trying to convert a UltraWebGrid to the new WebDataGrid. The documentation is simply useless, only reasonable source of information are the samples and the forums. Unforunately when the feature we try to use is not in the samples we are lost. Support is helpfull but simply to slow.
The last few weeks where very frustrating and I am getting close to the point to drop infragistics.
Lex
Again, I agree 100% with Lex's post. If there were no forums I wouldn't be able to do anything.
Infragistics: I suggest that the documentation and non-trivial samples would deserve the same or even more attention now as fixing the remaining bugs and working on new improvements and objects! You are doing this to be used by developers to cover some basically standard application needs.
In general: Companies sell tools to make your work "rapid" -- Then learning them actually takes some considerable time -- Then you really save some time setting up the basic solutions -- But then you basically loose all of the saved time to fight the "black box", its bugs, to workaround some above basic extensions -- Then you think you are going to re-use the stuff as the marketing guys said, but you can almost forget it due to the new versions of everything comming all the time (re-usability basically does not exist). I could have dropped SharePoint for 1000 (a million) times, I could have dropped the whole Microsoft 1000 times, I could have dropped Infragistics 1000 times. But when you recount the time, throught all the frustration you have actually still saved a day or two per year. Sad, but not the worst. I hope the companies do improve over time, they actually do, though it's slow. That's why I write this.