Codeless Development Experience
RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX significantly simplifies the control deployment by providing:
• Codeless databinding
• Codeless insert, update, delete datasource operations
• Codeless paging, sorting, selecting, filtering
• Codeless grouping and hierarchy
• Codeless interface styling
Powerful Databinding
RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX supports codeless binding to all ASP.NET 2.0 declarative datasources (AccessDataSource, ObjectDataSource, SqlDataSource, SiteMapDataSource, XmlDataSource) as well as the new LinqDataSource. The control can also be bound to business objects, sub-objects and nullable objects. You can also bind RadGrid to pivot tables if you need to reverse the data order but still keep the same presentation and structure in the source table.
Unbeatable Performance
Thanks to a very optimized databinding logic, RadGrid provides swift behavior of all key capabilities such as paging, grouping, sorting, etc. You can also tune RadGrid performance by controlling the balance between client-side load and speed. Thanks to the three available modes (Server, Client and Ajax on demand) as well as the ControlState feature you can choose the most optimized balance for your scenario.
Extensive VS.NET Design-time Support
RadGrid provides rich design-time support functionality, making customizations and configurations very easy. Some of the key capabilities are:
Applying skins in design-time and easily switching between them - the Choose Skin command in RadMenu Smart tag automatically detects the preset skins
Design-time support for declarative ASP.NET 2.0 datasources
A rich Smart Tag and Property Builder dialog for customization of all key grid features.
Hierarchical Grids
RadGrid allows presentation of related DataSets as hierarchical structures of tables. A unique feature of the component is the ability to have more than one tables in the same level of hierarchy. RadGrid also supports self-referencing hierarchy - building multiple levels of hierarchy from a single table in the datasource by specifying relations inside the same level. Hierarchy can be expanded on the server, the client or in mixed mode providing you unlimited customization options.
Outlook-style Grouping
You can easily implement multilevel Outlook-style grouping of data from a single table - just drag the column header(s) to the group panel, which defines the groping order and hierarchy. You can also programmatically group the data using the group-by expressions. When using grouped data, you can even have grouping by two columns and at the same time use all sorting features of Telerik RadGrid (e.g. group by one/two column(s) and sort by another column). Groups can be expanded on the server, the client or in mixed mode providing you unlimited customization options.
Variety of Data editing modes
With RadGrid you can codelessly Insert/update/Delete data though auto-generated In-Place and Edit Forms editing. UserControls and Templates as Custom Edit Forms are also supported.
Rich Data editing controls
RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX allows you to codelessly edit data through the integrated RadEditor, RadDatePicker, RadInput and RadComboBox editors. With the help of these controls, you can manage various data entries - text, numerical, dates, etc. Depending on the column data type, a relevant Editor allows you to edit content in a friendly environment.
Command Row Item for Custom Functions
GridCommandItem can be used to add function buttons in the content area of the RadGrid, such as [Add New Record], [Refresh], [Delete Selected], etc.
Extensive Client-Side Functionality
RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX has a rich client-side API and comprehensive set of events guaranteeing full control over various functions performed on-the-fly client-side: expand/collapse, delete, resize, reorder, select, scroll (with option for static headers and static columns). With Q2 2008 RadGrid gets significant enhancements aiming at boosting performance and facilitating client-side experience. As a result, users receive blazing speed that does not come at the price of stability:
- Shared Date Pickers - Very often users need to use RadDatePicker inside a grid or list component and in case there are lots of records the standard approach is not the best choice. With this improvement you can enable date pickers for hundreds and thousands of traditional TextBox controls with just a few lines of code.
- Global cancelable client-side Command event which will be raised for all RadGrid post-back commands (paging, sorting, filtering, group/ungroup, etc.)
- Client-side sort and filter expressions
- Client-side properties for current page index, virtual items count and multi column sorting
- Client-side property for grid data source and dataBind() method
- FindControl(id) method for GridDataItem on client now provides similar developer experience as the one you have on the server. Users can also take advantage of the toDynamicLinq() method which will create LINQ expression that can be used directly with Dynamic LINQ library.
Filtering
RadGrid allows you to filter data by applying filter pattern on a per column basis (for all columns that support filtering GridBoundColumn, GridCheckBoxColumn, etc.) For each column RadGrid will create a filtering dropdown menu with the expressions applicable for the respective data type. The default filter boxes can be customized and replaced with other controls for richer user experience.
Multi-column Sorting
In addition to the simple one-column sorting Telerik RadGrid allows you to sort data by several columns just like in Microsoft Excel. Furthermore, you can define column sorted color for better user experience.
Extended functionality through integrated controls
All the controls included in the ASP.NET AJAX suite are now incorporated in a single assembly, which results in an extremely flexible architecture and unlimited customization capabilities. The controls from the ASP.NET AJAX suite can be easily integrated among each other, facilitating the development process. For example, RadSlider is now integrated in RadGrid for enhanced paging and scrolling experience. RadMenu is also embedded as a rich filtering menu.
AJAX
Through Integration with RadAjax and loading indicators RadGrid dramatically improves responsiveness, simulating a desktop-like behavior and minimizing the traffic to the server. AJAX-based virtual scrolling mode is provided for fast navigation in large data structures.
Exporting Data
With RadGrid you can easily export data to Microsoft Excel/Microsoft Word/CSV/PDF. The export functionality empowers you to customize the appearance of your exported document prior to exporting.
Scrolling with Static Headers and Frozen Columns
Besides scrolling with static headers, RadGrid also supports frozen columns. This feature allows you to freeze a pane in your Grid datasheet/document, such that the rest of the Grid scrolls and the frozen cells stay in place, thus bringing Excel-like functionality. It's very useful for very wide tables with many columns of data.
Search Engine Optimization
RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX completely follows the principles of Search Engine Optimization. When detecting search engines, RadGrid allows crawlers to follow and index the whole content page by page, thus improving data visibility. Furthermore, a search engine hit would take you directly to the particular grid page.
XHTML and Accessibility standards compliancy
RadGrid is compliant with the XHTML 1.1 requirement. The control satisfies the requirements of "Section 508" for software accessibility, as well as those of "Level AAA" (in accordance with the W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines 1.0). RadGrid also has full support for keyboard navigation.
Appearance
RadGrid is shipped with a rich set of skins that allow you to easily build slick interfaces with the look-and-feel of Windows Vista, Office 2007, Outlook, etc. The skins can be easily switched using a single property. RadGrid also enables you to apply conditional formatting to grid elements for enhanced readability and usability of the displayed data.
Client-side databinding with LINQ to SQL
The new Q2 release introduces further enhancements on client-side databinding. By combining pure server-side data operations with JSON transfer between client and server developers can boost the speed and overall performance of their web applications. In addition, all requested operations will apply directly on the data-base server thanks to the LINQ to SQL client-side databinding.
See demo.