Column Animations for RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX

Coming with 2010.Q2 release of RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX is some eye candy for RadGrid users. In fact, never has an HTML grid been more interactive. RadGrid column animations will have your column headers fly around when you reorder columns or drag them over to the group panel.

To get an idea of what column animations really are, try reordering some columns in Windows Explorer on Windows 7:

What you get is a nice animation where headers move aside to make room for the dragged header. The idea is the same with RadGrid too. You drag one header to reorder the columns and the rest of the headers move aside.

Or, you drop the header over an area that does not trigger an action, and the header diligently moves back to its original place.

Both types of animation can be used together to make your columns flow, providing a visually appealing indication of the current column related action. If you enable column reorder, but do not have drag-to-group enabled, the dragged column moves along the X-axis inside the table header row only. If you have both column reorder and drag-to-group, you can grab a header and move it freely around. When it gets over the header row, the other columns step aside to open the place up for the dragged column. When the dragged column leaves the header row, the rest of the columns move back to their original place.

We havent's seen such nice HTML animations in a web grid recently, have you? RadGrid column animations are coming with the 2010.Q2 release of Telerik RadControls and the beta is really close, so you will be able to try them out in no time.