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Our 2013 Q2 release is on the horizon, and as a sneak peek we’re releasing a beta for your immediate review. You can download the beta through this link, or through your Telerik account, as well as through the Visual Studio Extension updater.

The Windows 8 XAML Beta has both new controls and updated existing controls, but perhaps the most exciting announcement is the CTP of our Data Storage for Windows 8. With the Data Storage feature, you can implement both offline and occasionally-connected applications.

Full Release Notes Here.  Sample Demos Here

New Controls

We have three new controls in the beta: Numeric Box, Calendar and Data Storage

Numeric Box

NumericBox provides precise control over numeric values in your application. If you need to allow your users to change price, quantity or other numeric, especially data that should be changed in small steps, you will find the NumericBox to be just what you need. It provides increment/decrement buttons that allow the user to change the value with a predefined step. For example, if the user wants to choose the number of items in a purchase, he can use the buttons to select the proper value without having to type in the input area, as shown in figure 3,

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Figure 3

Calendar

RadCalendar offers an intuitive way for selecting dates; one that is fully compatible with our touch-centric Windows 8 design. With the RadCalendar, you choose your dates within a month view. The control allows you to navigate quickly between months, years and decades. An example, from our new Quick Start Framework demo, showing two RadCalendars working with each other to facilitate a hotel check-in/ check-out process is shown in figure 1,

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Figure 1 – Hotel Check-in/ Check-out

The RadCalendar adds the ability to indicate special dates such as national holidays, events, appointments, birthdays, etc., using icons to enhance the user experience. Some examples are shown in figure 2.

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Figure 2 – Special Indicators

Data Storage CTP

You can now create data-driven applications easily, and save your data locally on any Windows 8 device with our new DataLayer. Your application can store data while it is offline without your having to create your own storage engine and data serialization architecture.

The API for our Data Storage layer builds upon common standards such as LINQ and SQLite. This makes start-up with the Data Storage facilities easy and fast. You can perform any basic data (CRUD) operations: create or add new entries, read, retrieve, search or view existing entries, delete existing entries and so forth.

var context = new Telerik.Storage.Extensions.Context("CarsDB");
 
context.Insert(new CarOwners() { OwnerID = 1, Name="Paul Grohe", Age=33,    Alive = true, DateBorn=new DateTime(1980,7,23), });
context.Insert(new CarOwners() { OwnerID = 2, Name = "Alex Claude", Age = 33, Alive = true, DateBorn = new DateTime(1980, 7, 23), });
context.Insert(new CarOwners() { OwnerID = 3, Name = "Stephen Dred", Age = 33, Alive = true, DateBorn = new DateTime(1980, 7, 23), });
             
//Note: CarID primary key field is autogenerated incremental
context.Insert(new Cars() { Model = "BMW", RegistrationNumber = "ZD123DF", YearOfModel = new DateTime(2010, 1, 1), OwnerFK = 1 });
context.Insert(new Cars() { Model = "Lancia", RegistrationNumber = "WD4313FF", YearOfModel = new DateTime(2008, 1, 1), OwnerFK = 2 });
context.Insert(new Cars() { Model = "Audi", RegistrationNumber = "KD2233DD", YearOfModel = new DateTime(2011, 1, 1), OwnerFK = 3 });
context.Insert(new Cars() { Model = "Mercedes", RegistrationNumber = "PF123ML", YearOfModel = new DateTime(2012, 1, 1), OwnerFK = 1 });
context.Insert(new Cars() { Model = "Toyota", RegistrationNumber = "JD149KL", YearOfModel = new DateTime(2009, 1, 1), OwnerFK = 2 });
 
context.SaveChanges();

You can download the Data Storage for XAML solution separately under Your Account->Data Storage->Q2 2013 - XAML Data Storage CTP.

Enhanced Control: The Rad Data Grid

The RadDataGrid is one of our flagship controls and it has been enhanced even further in this beta release.

Data Editing

Insert, Update and Delete data with your fingertips. Anytime you need to change something in your “Contacts” table, part of your Dashboard, you will be able to do so easily with the new Data Editing support that comes out of the box. You can update cell values, delete rows, insert new rows and handle any CRUD operation both through the UI and programmatically through the rich API.

Filter, Group UI

Now you can enable your end-users to easily group and filter data with the built-in UI without having to spend additional time for implementing custom logic. The touch-friendly UI will provide a great and lively experience for your end-users when they need to filter for a certain criteria or group by a column. You can also make use of the API to filter and group programmatically when needed, as shown in figure 3 where we filter on flight duration of less than 8 hours.

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Figure 3

New Sample Design

With the Q2 Beta, we’re launching a brand new Quick Start Framework (QSF) to show off our demo applications, as shown in figure 4.

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The new QSF will be available in the store as well as through the off-line installer. The UI and overall experience has been significantly improved to help you to learn and navigate through all the features and controls that are part of the RadControls for Windows 8 release.

Summary

As you can see, the 2013 Q2 Beta contains both new controls and controls with enhanced features.  Our controls look natural with the out of the box Windows 8 controls and our RadControls for Windows 8 XAML will get your application up and running fast! Download it today.

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About the author

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Jesse Liberty

Jesse Liberty is a Technical Evangelist for Telerik and has three decades of experience writing and delivering software projects. He is the author of 2 dozen books and has been a Distinguished Software Engineer for AT&T and a VP for Information Services for Citibank and a Software Architect for PBS. You can read more on his personal blog and his Telerik blog or follow him on twitter


jesseLiberty
About the Author

Jesse Liberty

 has three decades of experience writing and delivering software projects. He is the author of 2 dozen books and has been a Distinguished Software Engineer for AT&T and a VP for Information Services for Citibank and a Software Architect for PBS. You can read more on his personal blog or follow him on twitter

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