OT:Just how good is Infragistics NetAdvantage?

R

Richard Myers

Hello,

O.k so we're looking to "outsource" all our control development. Off the
shelf is simply too easy and comparatively inexpensive to continue to
ignore.
Infragistics have been on the radar for quite some time. Who out there is
using their toolsets for UI in their dotNet apps, and what are your
thoughts?

Obviously the trial has been downloaded, installed and played with. Ive
spoken with a couple of people i trust.
Licensing seems pretty straight forward (especially when compared with
Microsoft), any snags or gotchas?

But im still interested in a wider (international) perspective. Im
interested in both pros and cons.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Richard
 
M

MPF

I've been using Infragistics for about 3 years now and have had no real
complaints.

WinForm:
1. Awesome looking controls; always current with MS look-and-feel
2. Expanded event handlers
3. Included Active-X controls for those still working in VB6.

ASP.Net
1. DataGrid is sluggish when compared to native datagrid. But it's
extensible beyond belief.
2. Shaves hours of javascript development time with their input mask
controls.
3. Tab control is tops, even compared against the VS2005 tab control.

I looked at ComponentOne, but their quality control is atrocious, dropping
builds ad-hoc and sometimes breaking previously fixed bugs (as seen in their
newsgroups). I'm sure Infragistics has had some of the same issues, but not
to the degree that I've seen with C1. The biggest problem with Infragistics
is the learning curve. The samples all look nice, but most lack the "how-to"
instruction needed to achieve some of the look-and-feel in the samples. The
documentation is getting much better with each release, but is still
somewhat lacking when considering the complexity of their
components/controls.
 
E

Earl

I do not have the NetAdvantage components, but I do have a license for the
Infragistics COM controls. I can second the opinion about the relative
quality of the components, with the downside being the complexity and weak
samples. Took me awhile just to get up to speed with the Ultragrid, but it
runs laps around any of the plain vanilla MS grids.

I too am sitting on the fence about which direction to go for 3rd-party .Net
controls, and IG would've already gotten the nod if they only supported the
Compact Framework.
 
M

Mark Jones

I have been working with their stuff since it was Sheridan. (threed :)
Anyway, it is my opinion that with the advent of .net, Infragistics has
finally come of age.

I use their components in just about every winform app I create.
Good stuff. It takes a little getting used to but it's worth the effort.

GL
 
R

Richard Myers

Everyone i speak with is pretty positive on their offerings; I just cant
seem to dig up any dirt on them?
From the sounds of it, i am glad we have held out this long as it seems
everyone else has had to deal with
some growing pains but the consensus appears to be that that is behind
them.

There was a good point raised earlier by Earl about how compact framework
support is lacking but
I see they have reasonable support for the tablet PC, so i guess for a
$1000 dollars a seat we shouldn;t
expect to be completely "hands free".... what fun whould that be?

Richard
 
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