allTheGoodNamesAreInUse
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allTheGoodNamesAreInUse
asked on 11 Jan 2011, 10:15 AM
Firstly let me state my problem, which has recurred a lot of times over several years of telerik product usage.
Because Telerik tools are so reliable, I seldom upgrade. I have never had a problem within telerik tools being created by installing a newer version. Maybe I am unique in this, but I doubt it.
So, this brings me into a situation where I download and evaluate new versions very seldom, in regard to the release cycles.
The problem, is that there is no place, as far as I can see, where I can download ALL release notes between versions X and Y. Not that by stating as far as I can see I am intentionally leaving the door open for flames, being semi-blind, and a moron. I willingly agree to all this to get the list I need.
Because frequently (every 6mo or so) I find myself needing a bugfix or feature, and googling will show that the fix has been implemented in version X.
Like today, I was looking for radeditor width fix in IE8 and FF4.
http://www.telerik.com/community/forums/aspnet-ajax/editor/radeditor-width-problem.aspx
So. Then I find that it is indeed possible to update, and my specific problem has already been fixed.
Now in order to evaluate my update from earlier versions, I can tell that the version I have is Y (Q2 2010) from the excellent version listing at:
http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/whats-new/release-history.aspx
In order to evaluate, I would need to find all applicable changenotes, in ONE GO, and then evaluate those against the used features in our current err 9 sites.
However, there is no apparent or easy way to find all radeditor only applicable release or change notes between Q2 2010 and Q3 2010 SP1.
I always go for the latest to alleviate my next need for a fix.
Without a means to do this, I manually have to compile a huge list of changes, then evaluate the radeditor specific changes against my sharepoint 2007, 9 existing sites and each of their used features. They all have separate custom editor toolfiles, skins, css files, everything.
Otherwise of course I won't get the stakeholders (site owners and editors) approval for the new version. By the time I get agreement there's probably a new version out again.
And, yes, this is in part due to our being a government entity.
Then there's deployment, testing, integration testing, QA testing and production.
So, please Telerik take into consideration a way to make documentation regarding changes available for customers with valid support contracts at least, where some page would pull change and fix notes from version X upgrading to version Y, for download or reading.
At least in customers with multiple stakeholders and formal approval processes, this would REALLY make my day. Err year. And next year too.
Because Telerik tools are so reliable, I seldom upgrade. I have never had a problem within telerik tools being created by installing a newer version. Maybe I am unique in this, but I doubt it.
So, this brings me into a situation where I download and evaluate new versions very seldom, in regard to the release cycles.
The problem, is that there is no place, as far as I can see, where I can download ALL release notes between versions X and Y. Not that by stating as far as I can see I am intentionally leaving the door open for flames, being semi-blind, and a moron. I willingly agree to all this to get the list I need.
Because frequently (every 6mo or so) I find myself needing a bugfix or feature, and googling will show that the fix has been implemented in version X.
Like today, I was looking for radeditor width fix in IE8 and FF4.
http://www.telerik.com/community/forums/aspnet-ajax/editor/radeditor-width-problem.aspx
So. Then I find that it is indeed possible to update, and my specific problem has already been fixed.
Now in order to evaluate my update from earlier versions, I can tell that the version I have is Y (Q2 2010) from the excellent version listing at:
http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/whats-new/release-history.aspx
In order to evaluate, I would need to find all applicable changenotes, in ONE GO, and then evaluate those against the used features in our current err 9 sites.
However, there is no apparent or easy way to find all radeditor only applicable release or change notes between Q2 2010 and Q3 2010 SP1.
I always go for the latest to alleviate my next need for a fix.
Without a means to do this, I manually have to compile a huge list of changes, then evaluate the radeditor specific changes against my sharepoint 2007, 9 existing sites and each of their used features. They all have separate custom editor toolfiles, skins, css files, everything.
Otherwise of course I won't get the stakeholders (site owners and editors) approval for the new version. By the time I get agreement there's probably a new version out again.
And, yes, this is in part due to our being a government entity.
Then there's deployment, testing, integration testing, QA testing and production.
So, please Telerik take into consideration a way to make documentation regarding changes available for customers with valid support contracts at least, where some page would pull change and fix notes from version X upgrading to version Y, for download or reading.
At least in customers with multiple stakeholders and formal approval processes, this would REALLY make my day. Err year. And next year too.
3 Answers, 1 is accepted
0
Hi Mats,
Svetlina
the Telerik team
We upload all the fixes, features and breaking changes specific for each release below:
http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/whats-new/release-history.aspx
In case you have already seen this resource but it does not work for you, please provide more details why and what is your suggestion and we will take it into consideration.
Svetlina
the Telerik team
Browse the vast support resources we have to jump start your development with RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. See how to integrate our AJAX controls seamlessly in SharePoint 2007/2010 visiting our common SharePoint portal.
0
allTheGoodNamesAreInUse
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answered on 13 Jan 2011, 07:46 AM
The indicated resource is useful in case a customer is interested in a specific version.
However, the problem I was trying to describe, even though it can be fixed by a technical solution, is not technical.
It is in fact a typical enterprise cross-domain technical and management problem.
To be brief, the situation is this:
Our CIO office provides the publishing systems platforms and server farms for various domains (intra, extranet, publishing).
We provide Telerik components as part of the package.
However, for sanity reasons we provide a standardized singular version.
As upgrading Telerik components requires the management approval of business stakeholders for all our sites, as well as the technical content creation personnel approval, and our press office approval, we upgrade telerik as little as possible, even though we have for 3 years now full purchased support contracts. Typically we upgrade once per year.
The problem, which I in fact would need to solve, is:
1. When upgrading across multiple versions of telerik (skipping a generation or several), the CIO office needs to provide per affected telerik component being used, the effectual changes.
2. These changes, need to be approved by the content management folks, so they can then endorse the upgrade to the business stakeholders.
So I need, at various intervals, a list of all upgrades, changes, and bugfixes, to a certain set of telerik products, from say version X - version Y.
Currently, the only way for me to do this, is to manually gather all the change/release notes, and then compile a list from them. This is quite time-consuming, and I would imagine other customers who use the products in a sense of business more than technical, would have the same needs.
From a management perspective, I would expect the software ALM folks / architects at Telerik to also be interested in change deltas over parts of the product suite over time. This is usually seen as a good way of measuring expected work versus architecture changes versus selected software development approach, against actual implemented work amounts, against actual results. Or if you're doing RUP then seeing the golden point.
Anyway, I do realize that many customers do not look to technical solutions for solving cross-domain, partially non-technical problems, but personally I see this as an actually quite unusually easy way of solving a very difficult and expensive (timewise) problem that actually gives a Telerik customer company's business folks a really good way of pushing upgrades internally, for what I would expect to be low cost for Telerik.
So from a business analysis or gap analysis point of view, there actually is currently no easy way to see what buying say version Q1 2011 would give you over say having an old non-contractually-supported Q1 2010 for instance. So it's also a sales tool, both for telerik and the customer's internal organization.
I hope this clarifies the need, and also I hope this clarifies why I would want a technically perhaps illogical / odd solution, which is to say that it would be a solution to a non-technical problem.
However, the problem I was trying to describe, even though it can be fixed by a technical solution, is not technical.
It is in fact a typical enterprise cross-domain technical and management problem.
To be brief, the situation is this:
Our CIO office provides the publishing systems platforms and server farms for various domains (intra, extranet, publishing).
We provide Telerik components as part of the package.
However, for sanity reasons we provide a standardized singular version.
As upgrading Telerik components requires the management approval of business stakeholders for all our sites, as well as the technical content creation personnel approval, and our press office approval, we upgrade telerik as little as possible, even though we have for 3 years now full purchased support contracts. Typically we upgrade once per year.
The problem, which I in fact would need to solve, is:
1. When upgrading across multiple versions of telerik (skipping a generation or several), the CIO office needs to provide per affected telerik component being used, the effectual changes.
2. These changes, need to be approved by the content management folks, so they can then endorse the upgrade to the business stakeholders.
So I need, at various intervals, a list of all upgrades, changes, and bugfixes, to a certain set of telerik products, from say version X - version Y.
Currently, the only way for me to do this, is to manually gather all the change/release notes, and then compile a list from them. This is quite time-consuming, and I would imagine other customers who use the products in a sense of business more than technical, would have the same needs.
From a management perspective, I would expect the software ALM folks / architects at Telerik to also be interested in change deltas over parts of the product suite over time. This is usually seen as a good way of measuring expected work versus architecture changes versus selected software development approach, against actual implemented work amounts, against actual results. Or if you're doing RUP then seeing the golden point.
Anyway, I do realize that many customers do not look to technical solutions for solving cross-domain, partially non-technical problems, but personally I see this as an actually quite unusually easy way of solving a very difficult and expensive (timewise) problem that actually gives a Telerik customer company's business folks a really good way of pushing upgrades internally, for what I would expect to be low cost for Telerik.
So from a business analysis or gap analysis point of view, there actually is currently no easy way to see what buying say version Q1 2011 would give you over say having an old non-contractually-supported Q1 2010 for instance. So it's also a sales tool, both for telerik and the customer's internal organization.
I hope this clarifies the need, and also I hope this clarifies why I would want a technically perhaps illogical / odd solution, which is to say that it would be a solution to a non-technical problem.
0
Hello Mats!
Thank you for your opinion. We really appreciate it!
I will log this as a task for review in our TFS system so we can implement it as soon as we have a resource.
I agree that it will be beneficial to lots of customers who have difficult approval process on upgrades.
It may however take a while as it will require not just coding but some design and usability first.
Once again thank you for sharing your opinion!
All the best,
Pavel
the Telerik team
Thank you for your opinion. We really appreciate it!
I will log this as a task for review in our TFS system so we can implement it as soon as we have a resource.
I agree that it will be beneficial to lots of customers who have difficult approval process on upgrades.
It may however take a while as it will require not just coding but some design and usability first.
Once again thank you for sharing your opinion!
All the best,
Pavel
the Telerik team
Browse the vast support resources we have to jump start your development with RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. See how to integrate our AJAX controls seamlessly in SharePoint 2007/2010 visiting our common SharePoint portal.