Kendo UI R3 2016 Release Webinar Wrap Up

We wrap up another exciting webinar for the Kendo UI R3 2016 release. This release features Kendo UI for Angular 2 as well as new Kendo UI for jQuery widgets!

Earlier this week, we hosted the Kendo UI R3 2016 release webinar. The webinar was hosted by John Bristowe, Todd Motto and Ed Charbeneau, who walked you through the latest and greatest features of Kendo UI. This release had a lot of new features and improvements worth highlighting. This blog post summarizes the event and provides answers to the questions that were asked by attendees.

Webinar Recording

If you were unable to join us for the live webinar, don't worry: we've posted the recording to our YouTube channel.

Prize Winners

We love prizes and giveaways. Who doesn't? A Kendo UI release webinar wouldn't be complete without some epic prizes! Here are our two winners:

Selected at random, our attendee winner is Anna Schmalholz. Anna, you have won an Xbox One S (2TB). Congratulations!

The best question was asked by Mike Hwang during the webinar. Mike, you've won an Oculus Rift. Awesome stuff!

Questions and Answers

Component Styling

Can you apply custom styles (SCSS-based) with Kendo UI for Angular 2?
Yes, the two themes provided (default and bootstrap) can be customised. More information can be found here: customizing the default theme and customizing the bootstrap theme.

Why must we include the CSS for Kendo UI components and they are not just included in the @Component that you created?
You can do both, including at component level will allow Shadow DOM (native or emulated) style encapsultion.

How may I use Kendo UI Angular 2 in Visual Studio 2015?
Documentation is available on how to set up Angular 2 with Visual Studio from the Angular team. Integrating Kendo UI for Angular 2 can be done via the steps outlined in the getting started guide we've provided.

Are Sass or Less files available for the controls styling?
Yes. We're also adding Sass themes for the next release of Kendo UI for jQuery and Kendo UI for Angular 2.

How can we theme/customize the styles for the widgets in Kendo UI for Angular 2?
You can customize using CSS overloads or using Sass.

Migrating to Kendo UI for Angular 2

How can I upgrade my existing Angular 1.5 and Kendo UI v2016.1.406 application to Angular 2 with the new Kendo UI for Angular 2?
I would recommend checking out ngMigrate to help you understand what's required when moving from Angular 1.* to Angular 2.

To what level we will require re-write if we have to move to Angular 2?
This is a difficult question to answer since it depends on what version of Angular you're currently targeting. We have created ngMigrate to help you understand what's required when moving from Angular 1.* to Angular 2.

Does Kendo UI for jQuery still support Angular 1.*?
Yes! Kendo UI for jQuery is the same product it has always been. The new name was given to identify it from Angular 2.

What is the recommended way to bridge the gap as we wait for new components to become available?
Targeting Angular 1.5 and Kendo UI for jQuery should position you well to move to Angular 2 and Kendo UI for Angular 2 at a future date.

Is the API of Kendo UI for Angular 2 similar/identical to the API of Kendo UI for jQuery?
We have documentation for each component and their APIs that we ship with Kendo UI for Angular 2. We've used similar/identical APIs where it makes sense to do so in Kendo UI for Angular 2. However, these products are quite different in terms of their approaches towards things like databinding, etc. Therefore, you should expect some differences.

Roadmap

Will everything you've shown be available for use in Telerik Platform?
The R3 2016 release of Kendo UI for jQuery should be available in the next version of AppBuilder. Going forward, our tooling will provide tooling and service integrations with Angular 2 for both hybrid and native apps. Currently, Kendo UI for Angular 2 is available as a beta release. At the moment, we haven't announced integration of Kendo UI for Angular 2 in Telerik Platform via AppBuilder.

Are you planning to extend current API for already implemented controls such as the Button and DropDownList components?
We're always looking to improve the APIs for existing components. For example, in the latest release of Kendo UI for jQuery, we improved the API for the Upload widget to support common use-case scenarios like drag and drop custom drop zones. We also added new callbacks to respond to events associated with user actions.

Will Kendo UI Builder will be updated to work with Angular 2?
Currently, Kendo UI Builder supports Angular 1.5. We have not announced plans to support Angular 2 at this time.

Is Less supported in Kendo UI for jQuery? Or, has it been abandoned in favor of Sass?
We support both. In the R1 2017 release, we plan to introduce two new Sass themes for Kendo UI for jQuery: Default and Bootstrap v4. These will be integrated and available for Kendo UI for Angular 2 in the RC.0 release.

I'm eager to see a NumericTextBox in Kendo UI for Angular 2. When are you planning to release such a control?
The NumericTextBox component will ship in the RC.0 release, which is scheduled for January 18, 2017. You can read more about the next version of Kendo UI for Angular 2 on our roadmap page.

Roadmap-and timeline-wise, when will Kendo UI or Angular 2 reach some level of feature parity with the Kendo UI for jQuery that we've been using with Angular 1.*? We depend on features like the Grid's ability to export to Excel. When can we expect this level of maturity and completeness in the new Angular 2-based components?
We have published the roadmap for Kendo UI for Angular 2 and will maintain this page for future releases.

Are the components in Kendo UI for Angular 2 broken up into base (free) and premium (paid)?
Kendo UI for Angular 2 is a new addition to the Kendo UI family of commercial products. When the product is officially released in 2017 it will be backed by the same level of professional support & scheduled updates that you’ve come to expect from the Kendo UI team.

Have you considered supporting Vue.js?
We don't currently have support for Vue.js on our roadmap. If you would like to see support, please visit the feedback portal for Kendo UI and let us know.

Where is the roadmap of remaining components of Kendo UI for Angular 2? I'm interested in the MaskedTextBox and DatePicker components.
We've published the roadmap for the RC.0 release, which is scheduled to ship on January 18, 2017. This release will include the MaskedTextBox and DatePicker components.

npm and Package Management

How do we use npm within an organization? We can't have our users passwords stored in source control.
npm Enterprise allows you to run npm's infrastructure behind your company's firewall.

Why did you decide to use only npm as package manager for shipping Kendo UI for Angular 2? What about Bower?
The Angular 2 team does not support Bower (#4018). Futhermore, npm is used by many frontend communities. Along with other reasons, this is why we decided to use npm.

Where can we track new releases of Kendo UI for Angular 2?
New releases that are posted to npm can be tracked via hooks. We'll also make sure to publish readme documentation and/or blog posts for future updates.

How can I find out when new releases are published to npm? (i.e. @progress/kendo-angular-grid)
You can received notifications via hooks from npm.

Kendo UI for React

Can you give more information on the roadmap for Kendo UI for React?
Petyo Ivanov (Product Manager for Kendo UI) published a blog post that summarises our current position on Kendo UI for React. I would recommend reading it.

Will a Kendo UI for React package be standalone like Kendo UI for Angular 2?
At the moment, we have a set of React wrappers for Kendo UI for jQuery. Petyo Ivanov (Product Manager for Kendo UI) has summarised our current position on Kendo UI for React.

Grid Component

Can you do groupable on the Grid component in Kendo UI for Angular 2?
Not at this time.

Does the Grid in Kendo UI for Angular 2 allow for server-side sorting/paging?
Server-side operations are supported through the Angular Http client and endpoints that accept query string options. Please refer to our data binding example that shows the Grid component using server paging/sorting via an OData service.

Does the Grid component in Kendo UI for Angular 2 support the same attributes (i.e. header attributes, row templates) as the one in Kendo UI for jQuery supports?
No, there are features that are currently missing from the Grid component in Kendo UI for Angular 2. These features will be added once prerequite components (i.e. DatePicker) are built.

How soon do you expect to have support for all features/functionality for the Grid component in Kendo UI for Angular 2? Specifically, I'm looking for features like filtering.
The RC.0 release of Kendo UI for Angular 2 will add components that are required for the Grid component to support operations like filtering. This is scheduled to ship on January 18, 2017.

When will edit functionality be supported for the Grid component in Kendo UI for Angular 2? Is there going to be a new roadmap for further widgets developed with Angular 2?
Features like editing will be added to the Grid component once additional components are added. Please refer to our getting started guide for Kendo UI for Angular 2 for future updates.

Are all features/functionality available for the Grid component in Kendo UI for Angular 2?
No. Features like filtering for the Grid component are not currently available in the beta release of Kendo UI for Angular 2. This is because we're missing prerequisites like the DatePicker component. Note: The DatePicker component is scheduled to ship with the RC.0 release in January 2017.

Miscellaneous

Instead of waiting for all of the Kendo UI Angular 2 to be completed, can we combine Kendo UI for ASP.NET Core in our application with Kendo UI for Angular 2?
Yes, this is an approach that works well for developers wanting to use ASP.NET Core and Angular 2 with Kendo UI.

When will Kendo UI support Visual Studio Code? I'd like something similar to what's supported with NativeScript.
You can use Kendo UI in Visual Studio Code today. Features like statement competition are supported through Kendo UI for Angular 2 through TypeScript.

What is Todd's development environment? (i.e. editor)
Todd uses Atom, which is an excellent editor. Visual Studio Code is a great option as well.

What are the steps to set up Kendo UI for Angular 2 on an angular-cli scaffolded project?
Please refer to our getting started guide for Kendo UI for Angular 2 to see the steps that are necessary.

Does the beta release of Kendo UI for Angular 2 cover all of the components? Or, only a subset?
The beta release of Kendo UI for Angular 2 is our initial offering. More features and widgets will come in the RC.0 release, which is scheduled for January 18, 2017.

Is it easy to use single code base to target desktop and mobile platforms using Kendo UI and Ionic?
Angular 2 faciliates the use of the “underlying plumbing” for your application that would be used across platforms. However, we advocate the use of NativeScript to target mobile and have provided guidance on how to migrate from hybrid and native.

Any plans on allowing native component scrollbar skinning?
The Grid widget for Kendo UI relies on the built-in browser scrollbar. This question on Stack Overflow details how to style the scrollbar in Internet Explorer, WebKit (Safari, Google Chrome) and Opera.

How can I get autocomplete to appear when I press the dot in Visual Studio?
This feature is called IntelliSense. You will see this when using UI for ASP.NET MVC or UI for ASP.NET Core HTML helpers. These are essentially Kendo UI wrappers.

Are the default dialogs culture aware?
Yes, the dialogs are culture aware.

Do you have a tutorial or link for integrating the JSDO JavaScript library with Kendo UI for Angular 2?
The closest reference we have currently is our whitepaper, Using the Progress JSDO with Kendo UI.

When will the JSDO be support by the DataSource component of Kendo UI?
It's supported now. Please read through our whitepaper entitled, Using the Progress JSDO with Kendo UI to learn more about this.

Is it possible to import all components in one go?
No. You have to import each component separately.

Does the DropDownList component support OData?
Yes, databinding for the DropDownList is supported. If you're implying the use of the DataSource component from Kendo UI for jQuery in Kendo UI for Angular 2: we do not plan to have a DataSource component in Kendo UI for Angular 2. We believe that having a DataSource component—like the one in Kendo UI for jQuery—does not fit in the Angular 2 context. The framework already provides most of the DataSource functionality such as ability to fetch data, change tracking etc. Also there are plenty of libraries and patterns for working with data. Thus, having a single component to handle all of those seems more of a unnecessary constraint.

If I were to bind to (filterChange) of the ComboBox component in Kendo UI for Angular 2 with an event handler that will debounce, query an API and update the member bound to [data] with the results, would that give me AutoComplete-like functionality? Is the planned AutoComplete component going to do more on top of that?
The ComboBox component supports a primitive AutoComplete-like functionality as well as binding to an asynchronous source. You could get close to implementing something to what you've described.

Thank You

Thanks everyone again for joining, we’ll see you next time! If you have any feedback, please feel free to leave it in the comments section below.