On API Reference FX I can read that the effects are: fade, zoom, slide, slideIn, expand.
- I have some problems using the "slide" effect. Does it really exist?
- The demos also show some more effects: flip, transfer, pageturn, tile. Why aren't they listed here?
Michael G. Schneider
8 Answers, 1 is accepted
I am sorry for the confusion caused - you are correct, there is space for improvement here.
The article in question is meant to document a legacy API (which we have to still maintain) - the kendoAnimate jQuery plugin. Several of our navigational widgets still use its signature as part of their configuration.
The new FX API is documented in the FX sub-section of the API section. A good getting started article is also available.
Petyo
the Telerik team
Rank 1
thanks a lot for the answer. This information is really new to me. I did not know that from reading the documentation.
- Would you please say something about my "extensible toolset" question. Suppose I want to extend the list of available effects. Where can I find some information on how to do that?
- The term "legacy API" sounds like "deprecated, do not use it any longer". Is that correct?
- For example, the Window widget's configuration has an animation object. Can this also be used with the new FX API? Or do we have to use the legacy API? If yes, do you plan to support the new FX API with the widgets' configuration?
Up to your questions:
- The extensible toolset refers to the ability of combining and customizing several effects together to form a new one (this is documented and demonstrated in our demos).
- Creating a new effect is not a complex task, however it is not documented currently (mostly due to no demand from our customers). If you feel comfortable with the source code of our library, you may look through the kendo.fx.js, and the createEffect calls, which define the current set of effects.
- You are correct, we do not recommend the usage of kendoAnimate.
- Supporting the new FX API for our current widgets is not supported currently, and (although a good thing to do) we do not have any concrete timeframe for it. While the new API offers most of the features available in the legacy (+ some cool new ones), there are several customization options which we decided not to support. Should we decide to replace the old one, we may break (without an alternative available) some of our existing customers.
Petyo
the Telerik team
Rank 1
thanks a lot for the answer. Some remarks...
- Maybe I misunderstood the documentation. I really thought that customers were enabled to create new effects. In my case I just needed a "move" effect.
- I am no friend of reading others' sources for extending a framework. If a feature is not documented, it will probably break with your next release.
- I appreciated if you discussed this FX situation in the team. Customers do not want to use the old FX, as it is a deprecated technique. At the same time they cannot use the new FX, as it does not work with the existing widgets. This might lead to not using the Kendo FX at all.
The simple move effect can be implemented using lightweight (and, in fact, quite simple to implement) CSS transitions, which most modern browsers support. I would not recommend resorting to JavaScript implementations for such tasks.
I am not sure if the design of the current FX library is suitable for integration into the widgets configuration settings, as its starting point is the DOM element itself. In most widgets, the DOM structure and the elements being animated is not accessible to the consumer developer. If you have any ideas or suggestions on how such integration would work, feel free to share them.
Petyo
Telerik
Rank 1
thanks a lot for the answer. I am not sure, whether I am an average customer of Kendo UI...
If the environment forces me, I will do so. However, I actually do not want to dive into CSS transitions, and I do not want to write Javascript code for moving objects around. There are enough problems to be solved in the business layer.
I appreciated if a framework like Kendo UI offered a single technique for animations. And if this framework replaces an old technique with a new technique, it should do so by completely throwing the old technique out of the framework. I do not see a need for a new technique, if it is difficult to be integrated into the widgets configuration. It seems as if both techniques will be around for a long time.
Once again, maybe this is not the typical scenario. However, in my case I wanted to have a Window widget which should be minimized into some kind of taskbar (combined: move effect, fade out effect, shrink effect). Maybe I could have done this with CSS tranistions. However, then I would have had to take care of old browsers myself - which I definitely do not want to do. So I installed "jQuery UI Effects" and used that. Maybe they use CSS transitions, maybe they use Javascript, maybe they use one or the other based on the browser. I simply don't care. I just wanted to have a nice effect, which is no key point in the application. It just had to work without much effort on my side.
Michael G. Schneider
Thank you for your feedback. As I already mentioned, we do realise that the current state (having one generic FX framework, and a second, legacy syntax which is used for the widgets animations) is far from perfect.
As per your sample case, you can achieve it using the syntax described in our kendoAnimate article - the window accepts this as its animation configuration option.
Petyo
Telerik
Rank 1
thanks a lot for your answer. I do know that kendoAnimate would allow me to do what I want. However, it is based on a deprecated technique. So I don't want to use it.
Michael G. Schneider