DevTools 2014 Q2 Webinar Wrap up

Now, the important part of this post:  your questions.  We've collected the best questions from the event and put together answers for them.  Here, in no particular order, are responses to your questions:

Q:  If we are doing ASP.Net MVC can we use Kendo UI rather than the ASP.Net MVC components?
A:  We offer KendoUI wrappers for ASP.NET MVC - you can get best of both worlds  

Q:  Can you link the radpagelayout demo on the telerik site? I'd like to see more samples.
A:  Check the documentation for RadPageLayout

Q:  Why can you not just use bootstrap with UI for asp.net ajax controls? Does the Telerik Layout framework provide any additional functionality to bootstap?
A:  The Layout framework will allow you to omit content for device sizes that your browser doesn't support.  Why transmit large content when a phone is requesting.

Q:  What is the chrome extension that lets us use the mobile emulation?
A:  Its built in to the recent Chrome releases - its in the F12 Dev Tools, then press escape

Q:  Does the render mode = auto work in other Telerik controls? Like Radgrid, Radcalendar..
A:  We have demos and discussions of the render modes for all of our AJAX controls at:  http://demos.telerik.com/responsive-web-design-aspnet/default.aspx

Q:  Is the automatic render mode available in Q1 2014 as well or just in Q2 2014?
A:  Automatic rendering is available in Q1 2014 as well

Q:  Does bootstrap and UI for ASP.NET Ajax controls work together? Will the bootstrap and Telerik css work together or do they collide and cause issues?
A:  The layout CSS will not collide.  We are working on adapting our themes to interact better with Bootstrap colors and widgets

Q:  What formats are supported with RadsWordsProcessing?  DOCX, RTF, HTML and Plain Text (or .TXT). 
A:  You can see a feature / format matrix that breaks down what is supported in each file format here: http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radwordsprocessing-formats-and-conversion.html

Q:  Can PDFs be generated using HTML? Specifically, generated based on the user's current page they're viewing? 
A:  PDFs will need to be generated using the RadFixedDocument class as shown here: http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radpdfprocessing-model-radfixeddocument.html

Q:  With RadsWordsProcessing, will it be able to generate a PDF file from HTML?
A:  No, it currently only works with DOCX, RTF, HTML and Plain Text.

Q:  Where is the RadsWordsProcessing controls in this release? I don't see this as one of the Controls in the ToolBox? 
A:  The document processing controls have no UI, they are used entirely through the API provided and will be available once you install the suite.

Q:  Does RadPdfProcessing have the capability to view the PDF without having Adobe Reader installed on the client machine? 
A:  RadPdfProcessing allows you to create, import and export PDF documents. If you wish to display a PDF document, then you will want to use PdfViewer. http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radpdfviewer-overview.html

Q:  Will RadPDFProcessing support generating PDF/A and other archive compliant PDFs? 
A:  Not at the present moment, but we will investigate it for a future release. Feel free to add it to our feedback portal at http://feedback.telerik.com

Q:  In your PDF processing, can you take an existing fill in PDF document and fill in the fields and save to another PDF document?
A:  You can modify documents. However, form filling is not supported

Q:  Is RadPdfProcessing available in Silverlight?
A:  Yes, it is available in Silverlight

Q:  Where do we find the document bits? I don't see a choice under Account / Products and Subscriptions? 
A:  They are bundled with the control suite, no separate downloads or fees!

Q:  Can your PDF generator include data entry fields? This would allow our customers to fill-in parts of the PDF form.
A:  RadPdfProcessing does not support forms

Q:  Does RadWordsProcessing support find and replace, or document placeholders/properties?
A:  No, it does not.

Q:  How do you import a WorkBook? 
A:  Please see the document located here: http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radspreadprocessing-working-with-workbooks-create-open-and-save-workbooks.html

Q:  Is RadPdfProcessing able to retrieve a pdf document from a web service (or web API) and print the document on the client machine without first displaying the document to the user? 
A:  Again, RadPdfProcessing serves a document processing need. If you wish to do RadPdfViewer is better suited to do this. More information can be found here: http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radpdfviewer-printing.html

Q:  What kind of support does the RadSpread API have for Macro-enabled spreadsheets (e.g. .xlsm)? 
A:  No, it only works with XLSX, CSV and TXT

Q:  How does RadWordProcessing deal with importing and exporting HTML, is there any sample on the telerik site for the same?
A:  It uses the HtmlFormatProvider class. More details and code samples can be found here: http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radwordsprocessing-formats-and-conversion-html-htmlformatprovider.html

Q:  In RadSpreadProcessing, are we limited to exporting data from RadGridView?
A:  You can also export from XLS, CSV and TXT.

Q:  Does the RadPdfProcessing use the GDI graphics engine?  i.e. Does it work on azure websites (not web role or vm)? 
A:  RadPdfProcessing does not use GDI graphics engine. We have not tested if it works on azure websites but it should work because there are no external dependencies. There could be a problem using the fonts that are installed on the machine but there are standard fonts that still can be used.

Q:  Do any of the Document Processing controls support XAML? 
A:  All of the demos presented today were shown in WPF.

Q:  Does Telerik have a control for viewing word docs (.DOCX) or pdf documents in a viewer type of control for WPF?
A:  You may use RadRichTextBox for DOCX and RadPdfViewer for PDF files.

Q:  Can I use custom shapes/connectors in Diagram control?
A:  Yes - customs shapes & connectors are both supported in the Diagram control. Here's how: http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/diagram-custom-shapes-and-connectors.html

Q:  Can the Gantt control load data from MS Project export file?
A:  The RadGantt control can be data bound on the server side (SQLDataSource/XML) or client side (WebService); essentially it is looking for a collections of Tasks & Dependencies. Tasks detailed @ http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/gantt-structure-tasks.html and Dependencies explained @ http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/gantt-structure-dependencies.html. The Gantt control will support import/export from MS Project files in DevCraft Q3 2014 release.

Q:  Google or ESRI maps support in RadMap?
A:  Telerik RadMap allows developers to plug & play with any mapping service that adheres to the OSGeo standards. Bing, OpenStreetMaps and several other providers are supported. However, Google and ESRI provide final products that can be used in web environment. Their services are built-in and further interactions with the internal API to use requested data to populate the RadMap control with Tile Images, Markers or Shapes is a matter related to the legal terms of Google and ESRI. So, RadMaps supporting these mapping providers is pending upon availability of services & legality of licensing constraints.

Q:  Will there be upcoming controls for Win RT/Store type apps?
A:  Yes, coming in DevCraft Q3 2014 release. We're very excited!

Q:  Can the RadGantt control only show the tasks & their dependencies?
A:  The layout of the RadGantt control is detailed @ http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/gantt-structure-layout.html; it is made up of the Treelist view & the Timeline view. You can easily hide the TreeList portion of the RadGantt by:

                1. Set the ListWidth property to "0px"

                2. Add the following CSS to hide the splitbar:

This will leave only the Timeline portion of the control visible on the page.

Q:  Are there plans on bringing the ASP.NET Ajax Map & Daigram controls to UI for Winforms?
A:  Not in the short term, but we will take it into consideration as the Feedback items for the Map (http://feedback.telerik.com/Project/154/Feedback/Details/111848-add-map-control) and Diagram (http://feedback.telerik.com/Project/154/Feedback/Details/111906-newcontrol-diagraming-control) get more votes.. You can see upcoming UI for Winforms roadmap @ http://www.telerik.com/support/whats-new/winforms.

Q:  Can I bring in custom images as Shapes on top of RadMap?
A:  You can custimize every shape object placed on a RadMap layer by listening in on the shapedCreated event; Fill and Stroke settings allow for adjusting the color, shape, opacity, width etc. Details on customizing Shapes @ http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/map-shapes.html. However, custom images cannot be used as Shapes on top of a RadMap layer.

Q:  Can the RadMap control have a background image?
A:  Yes, just like any other DOM element; markup is entirely up to the developer. We do caution against aggressive background imagery which may impact readability.

Q:  How would I integrate Bing maps directions if using Bing as service provider for RadMap?
A:  The Bing Map REST services (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff701713.aspx) provide the Routes API that is used to calculate a route from one point to another. To use such service with the Map you should further implement a logic that extracts the points of the route and the GeoJSON formatted path and render them as shapes in the Map A simple demo that shows how a Shape can be rendered to look like a path is available in the Cross-Layer Integration demo (http://demos.telerik.com/aspnet-ajax/map/examples/functionality/cross-layer-integration/defaultcs.aspx). Further functionalities to show the e.g. driving directions are not related to the RadMap and you should use further custom techniques to illustrate this data.

Summary

Thank you to everyone who attended our webinar.  Download the bits from the latest release, grab a trial download if you currently do not have a license and get it a try.  Write some cool code and share it with us!  We're excited to see what you can do with the cool new features available.