Vladimir Enchev's blog

RadGridView for WPF performance compared to Microsoft DataGrid

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:53:35 GMT

Today I saw this blog post and I couldn't resist to test RadGridView for WPF using the same data :)

Looks like by default our grid will sort approximately 10 times faster - no need to build your own custom comparers.

Enjoy!

New Feature: Full EntityDataSource support in RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX

Vladimir Enchev — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:17:27 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that the next version of RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX will support natively EntityDataSource.
All operations like paging, sorting and filtering will be applied directly on the data-base server:

and of course you will able to insert, update and delete records completely codeless.

Enjoy!

[Download]

How To: RadGridView for WPF paging, sorting and filtering of 1mil. records with LINQ to SQL

Vladimir Enchev — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:01:37 GMT

I've made small example how to perform paging, sorting and filtering directly on the data-base sever using LINQ to SQL and RadGridView for WPF.

The data-base is not included however you can use the same code with any data-base with following modifications:

- change the connection string in the app.config file

- change the table name in BindGrid() method:

IQueryable queryable = new DataClasses1DataContext().[Your Table].AsQueryable();

- define desired total number of items per page and total page count

- change the filter expression in the filter button click event handler to desired (currently Contains for Name column)

Enjoy!

Download

How To: RadGrid hierarchy from objects hierarchy

Vladimir Enchev — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:06:07 GMT

Every once in a while we receive support about how to create hierarchical grid directly from objects hierarchy and I decided to post small example how to achieve this easily:

protected void RadGrid1_NeedDataSource(object source, GridNeedDataSourceEventArgs e)
{
RadGrid1.DataSource = MyList;
}

protected void RadGrid1_DetailTableDataBind(object source, GridDetailTableDataBindEventArgs e)
{
    e.DetailTableView.DataSource = MyList.Find(
         delegate(Master master)
         {
           return master.ID == Convert.ToInt32(e.DetailTableView.ParentItem.GetDataKeyValue("ID"));
         }
       ).Details;
}

public List<Master> MyList
{
    get
    {
        List<Master> items = new List<Master>();
        for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
       {
           Master item = new Master();
           item.ID = i;
           item.Name = String.Format("Item{0}", i);

           List<Detail> detailList = new List<Detail>();
           for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++)
           {
             Detail detailItem = new Detail();
            detailItem.ID = j;
             detailItem.Name = String.Format("Item{0}", j);
             detailItem.MasterID = i;
             detailList.Add(detailItem);
           }

           item.Details = detailList;
           items.Add(item);
        }

        return items;
      }
}

public class Master
{
   public int ID { get; set; }
   public string Name { get; set; }
   public List<Detail> Details { get; set; }
}

public class Detail : Master
{
     public int MasterID { get; set; }
}

...
        <telerik:RadGrid ID="RadGrid1" runat="server" OnNeedDataSource="RadGrid1_NeedDataSource"
           OnDetailTableDataBind="RadGrid1_DetailTableDataBind">
             <MasterTableView DataKeyNames="ID">
                 <DetailTables>
                    <telerik:GridTableView Width="100%" runat="server" />
                 </DetailTables>
             </MasterTableView>
        </telerik:RadGrid>
...

The key here is to handle DetailTableDataBind event where you can find easily desired item in your collection a get item details.

Enjoy!

Telerik RadGrid client-side data-binding to RSS and ATOM feeds

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:53:00 GMT

I've made small example how to bind RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX on the client to an RSS and ATOM feeds:

Enjoy!

Download

Telerik RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX client-side data binding to ADO.NET DataServices

Vladimir Enchev — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:28:04 GMT

We just extended RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX with native client-side data binding to ADO.NET DataServices. Now you can use getDataServiceQuery() method and the grid will construct ADO.NET DataService style query:

var northwindService = new Sys.Data.DataService("NorthwindDataService.svc");
var tableView = $find("<%= RadGrid1.ClientID %>").get_masterTableView();
northwindService.query(tableView.getDataServiceQuery("Customers"), updateGrid);

All operations like paging, sorting and filtering are automatically persisted using $top, $skip, $orderby and $filter parameters!

Download

Telerik RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX Q2 2008 client-side edit using templates

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:34:32 GMT

I've made three demos on how to use RadGrid templates to build completely client-side edit and update:

- server-side GridTemplateColumn

- server-side GridTableView ItemTemplate

- client-side GridTableView ItemTemplate (ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 style)

Enjoy!

Download

Maximum performance using Telerik RadGrid client-side data-binding with LINQ to SQL

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:30:28 GMT

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts with RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX Q2 2008 you can access the grid sort and filter expressions on the client.

While filter expressions toString() method will create SQL syntax representing current grid filtering now you have toDynamicLinq() method which will create LINQ expression that can be used directly with Dynamic LINQ library.

With few lines of code you will get minimum transfer between server and client (pure JSON):

and on the server side LINQ to SQL will apply all requested operations directly on the data-base server:

Live Demo | Download

Telerik RadGrid Section 508 Compliance

Vladimir Enchev — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:32:12 GMT

Ever wonder how to make a pageable & sortable grid Section 508 compliant? Well with RadGrid this is trivial task! The tricky part is to tell the grid to not render or require any JavaScript on the page:

1. Inherit from RadGrid and override three methods:

    public class MyGrid : RadGrid
    {
        public MyGrid()
        {
            //
        }

        protected override void RegisterScriptControl()
        {
            // do not register as ScriptControl
        }

        protected override void RegisterScriptDescriptors()
        {
            // do not register script descriptors
        }

        protected override void RegisterCssReferences()
        {
            // do not register css references
        }
    }

2. Add the grid to your page, define header button type for all grid columns & pager template:

        <telerik:MyGrid ID="MyGrid1" Skin="Sunset" DataSourceID="LinqDataSource1" AllowPaging="true"
            AllowSorting="true" runat="server" OnColumnCreated="MyGrid1_ColumnCreated">
            <MasterTableView Caption="Customers" Summary="Customers">
                <PagerTemplate>
                    Change page: <asp:Button ID="Button1" ToolTip="Previous Page" CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Prev" CssClass="rgPagePrev" runat="server" />
                    <asp:Button ID="Button2" ToolTip="Next Page" CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Next" CssClass="rgPageNext" runat="server" />
                </PagerTemplate>
            </MasterTableView>
        </telerik:MyGrid>

    protected void MyGrid1_ColumnCreated(object sender, GridColumnCreatedEventArgs e)
    {
        e.Column.HeaderButtonType = GridHeaderButtonType.PushButton;
    }

3. Make the grid pretty:

Enjoy!

Live Demo | Download

Change Skins dynamically for all Telerik RadControls

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:04:20 GMT

I've spent few minutes to create small control called RadPageStylist which will style all Telerik RadControls on desired page with desired Skin. The control is fairly simple - you have Skin property where you can set your skin and ApplySkin() method which can be executed for particular ASP.NET Control. The method is recursive and will locate all child ISkinableControls to set selected Skin.

Other possible approach is "Global skin setting for the entire web site/web application project" however in this case the skin registration is static.

Live Demo | Download

Maximum performance with minimum output using Telerik RadDatePicker client-side API

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:35:43 GMT

Very often you need to use RadDatePicker inside a grid or list component and if you have lots of records the standard approach is not the best choice.

Example:
<telerik:RadGrid ID="RadGrid1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
<MasterTableView>
    <Columns>
      <telerik:GridTemplateColumn HeaderText="OrderDate" SortExpression="OrderDate">
        <ItemTemplate>
          <telerik:RadDatePicker ID="RadDatePicker1" DbSelectedDate='<%# Eval("OrderDate") %>' runat="server" />
        </ItemTemplate>
      </telerik:GridTemplateColumn>
    </Columns>
</MasterTableView>
</telerik:RadGrid>

In this case you will get new date picker component for every grid row. Possible improvement can be SharedCalendarID property similar to this example however even in this case you will get RadDateInput for every grid row.

With our RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Q2 2008 Futures we added small and powerful example how to enable date pickers for hundreds and thousands traditional TextBox controls with just few lines of code. You can check the example here:

http://www.telerik.com/demos/aspnet/prometheus-futures/Calendar/Examples/DatePicker/SharedDatePicker/DefaultCS.aspx

One picker to rule them all!

Enjoy :)

Page Request Manager Parser Error with ASP.NET AJAX 1.0

Vladimir Enchev — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:53:06 GMT

How many times you get this in your ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 applications?

After several support tickets we manage to isolate this to very simple case - standard UpdatePanel and a Button writing in Session. How weird?

Here is the code:

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

To reproduce this every time you can simply change something in the web.config file - single space will do the trick.

Now run the application and you will get famous "Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerParserErrorException":

So what now?

Well the resolution is even more weird... just add a Global.asax file to your application and you are ready to go!

Weird, isn't it?

What will come with RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX Q2 2008?

Vladimir Enchev — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:21:00 GMT

In a series of posts I will walk through some of the new features for RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX Q2 2008. Here is the first part:

- global cancelable client-side Command event which will be raised for all grid post-back commands (paging, sorting, filtering, group/ungroup, etc.). Example:

    
            <script type="text/javascript"> 
        
            function RadGrid1_Command(sender, args) 
        
            { 
        
              alert(String.format("CommandName:{0}, CommandArgument: {1}", args.get_commandName(), args.get_commandArgument())); 
        
              args.set_cancel(true); 
        
            } 
        
            </script> 
        
            <telerik:RadGrid ID="RadGrid1" PageSize="2" Skin="Sunset" runat="server" AllowPaging="true" AllowSorting="True" AllowFilteringByColumn="true" GridLines="None"> 
        
             <MasterTableView AllowMultiColumnSorting="true" /> 
        
             <PagerStyle Mode="NextPrevAndNumeric" /> 
        
             <ClientSettings> 
        
               <ClientEvents OnCommand="RadGrid1_Command" /> 
        
             </ClientSettings> 
        
            </telerik:RadGrid>

- client-side sort expressions. Example:

    
            function RadGrid1_Command(sender, args) 
        
            { 
        
                args.set_cancel(true); 
        
                // collection of Telerik.Web.UI.GridSortExpression 
        
                var sortExpressions = sender.get_masterTableView().get_sortExpressions();  
        
                // GridSortExpression properties: 
        
                if(sortExpressions.length > 0) 
        
                { 
        
                    var expression = sortExpressions[0]; 
        
                    var fieldName = expression.get_fieldName(); 
        
                    var sortOrder = expression.get_sortOrder(); 
        
                    // Telerik.Web.UI.GridSortOrder (enum): 
        
                    //      Telerik.Web.UI.GridSortOrder.None 
        
                    //      Telerik.Web.UI.GridSortOrder.Ascending 
        
                    //      Telerik.Web.UI.GridSortOrder.Descending 
        
                } 
        
                // toString() will create coma separated string of all expressions  
        
                alert(sortExpressions.toString());  
        
            }

- client-side filter expressions. Example:

    
            function RadGrid1_Command(sender, args) 
        
            { 
        
                args.set_cancel(true); 
        
                // collection of Telerik.Web.UI.GridFilterExpression 
        
                var filterExpressions = sender.get_masterTableView().get_filterExpressions();  
        
                // GridFilterExpression properties: 
        
                if(filterExpressions.length > 0) 
        
                { 
        
                    var expression = filterExpressions[0]; 
        
                    var fieldName = expression.get_fieldName(); 
        
                    var fieldValue = expression.get_fieldValue(); 
        
                    var columnUniqueName = expression.get_columnUniqueName(); 
        
                    // enum Telerik.Web.UI.GridFilterFunction 
        
                    var filterFunction = expression.get_filterFunction();  
        
                    /*
        
                    Telerik.Web.UI.GridFilterFunction.prototype = 
        
                    {
        
                        NoFilter                : 0,
        
                        Contains                : 1,
        
                        DoesNotContain          : 2,
        
                        StartsWith              : 3,
        
                        EndsWith                : 4,
        
                        EqualTo                 : 5,
        
                        NotEqualTo              : 6,
        
                        GreaterThan             : 7,
        
                        LessThan                : 8,
        
                        GreaterThanOrEqualTo    : 9,
        
                        LessThanOrEqualTo       : 10,
        
                        Between                 : 11,
        
                        NotBetween              : 12,
        
                        IsEmpty                 : 13,
        
                        NotIsEmpty              : 14,
        
                        IsNull                  : 15,
        
                        NotIsNull               : 16,
        
                        Custom                  : 17
        
                    };
        
                    */ 
        
                  // toString() will create SQL syntax representing this expression: 
        
                  var asString = expression.toString();  
        
                } 
        
                // toString() will create string of all expressions with AND 
        
                alert(filterExpressions.toString());  
        
            }

- client-side properties for current page index, virtual items count and multi column sorting. Example:

    
              // get MasterTableView 
        
              var tableView = $find("<%= RadGrid1.ClientID %>").get_masterTableView(); 
        
              // get/set current page index 
        
              tableView.set_currentPageIndex(1); 
        
              var currentPageIndex = tableView.get_currentPageIndex(); 
        
              // get/set virtual item count 
        
              tableView.set_virtualItemCount(100); 
        
              var virtualItemCount = tableView.get_virtualItemCount(); 
        
              // toggle multi column sorting 
        
              tableView.set_allowMultiColumnSorting(!tableView.get_allowMultiColumnSorting());

- client-side property for grid data source and dataBind() method. Example:

    
            // get MasterTableView 
        
            var tableView = $find("<%= RadGrid1.ClientID %>").get_masterTableView(); 
        
            // set data source 
        
            tableView.set_dataSource(myDataSource); 
        
            // data bind 
        
            tableView.dataBind();

Enjoy!

The Telerik TechEd 2008 Crew is finally back!

Vladimir Enchev — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:59:09 GMT

After more than fifteen hours of flights across half of the world, I finally had a chance to get some sleep. After a few cups of coffee, I am finally catching up with e-mail and everything else that happened in the office during TechEd.

It was a great week and I want to say a big "THANK YOU" to all of you who attended the Telerik booth at TechEd 2008 in Orlando. The positive feedback we got from you guys was incredible! It was great fun to see how many people were wearing .NET Ninjas and Geekettes and I was really surprised to discover that some of the attendees were wearing even our last year .NET Superstars and Geekettes v1.0. :-) If you didn't manage to get a Ninja or a Geekette please stop by to see us at PDC conference in LA later this year! We won't let you down - I promise ;-)

The event was a great success. Our new booth was really cool and shiny and attracted a lot of attention.We had a really nice dinner with Microsoft guys from the MSDN team which implemented RadEditor, RadChart and some other Telerik ASP.NET AJAX controls and Steven Forte (our Chief Strategy Officer) was invited to have lunch with Bill Gates.

Despite the fact that there is not much adoption for WPF and Silverlight yet we had huge success with our Resort Explorer and Snowboard Store demo applications. What was most striking for me was to see how much traction we got for our Winforms stuff and for our Reporting product. While we were late entrants into those two markets, it seems that many of our customers are already using our tools and, what's most important, are very very happy with them. I guess everyone's going to get even more excited once we release everything that's in store for 2008.

People were really excited by the new RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX (former Prometheus) and we received lots of compliments for their blazingly fast performance, style, slickness and convenient API. I had most fun demonstrating the client-side capabilities of RadGrid and some of the other controls. In fact, everything was happening in real-time like in a desktop application and a few customers were wondering whether anything happened at all? It was just after a second look at the app that they saw that the data had actually changed. From all conferences so far, this one we got the most positive feedback about the quality of the products, documentation and support. Knowing that we are going in the right direction, after TechEd 2008 we will be even more motivated to continue delivering the most capable products on the market.

A HUGE THANK YOU and stay tuned - more will come!

Client-side edit, update, delete and insert with RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, WebServices and LINQ

Vladimir Enchev — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:12:43 GMT

Continuing my previous post regarding RadGrid client-side data-binding, I've made small example on how to perform edit, update, delete and insert using web services, LINQ and RadControls.

Live Demo | Download