At Telerik we take great pride in having the most comprehensible component suites on the market. We always strive to make our components easier and more pleasant to work with. When we first released the Visual Studio Extensions, we made a commitment to make being successful with our components as easy as possible.

Here are some of my favorite new features:

Keeping up to date

In the past we offered a possibility to upgrade your existing projects using the latest versions available through our website. In addition to that functionality, we now let you check for new versions whenever you are about to manage your RadControls related project references. In that way you can always be certain that the version you are currently using is the latest and greatest.

Let’s say you want to create a new project, powered by the latest version of RadControls, which you haven’t been able to download yet. Here is how it’s done:

1. Open the New Project dialog, just as you would, when creating any other project
   
2. Select one of the Telerik Project Templates
   
3. Click the Download button in the Project Configuration Wizard
   
4. Input your credentials and click Log in
    
5. Wait for the download to finish
   
   
6. Select the assemblies you wish to use and click Finish
   

And voila, you have a new project using the latest and greatest RadControls!

Scenario Templates

Just as for RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, we have added several Scenario Templates for our RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight products. Their purpose is to let you quickly start using RadControls in your existing projects. Here is how it’s done:

1. Open the Add New Item dialog, just as you usually do when adding a new Item to your project
   
2. Select the Telerik Scenario Item Template 
   
3. Select a scenario in the Telerik Scenario Wizard and click Finish
   

Currently there are three predefined scenarios:
Page – Creates a basic Page, ready to use with RadControls
RadWindow – Creates a new RadWindow item. RadWindow lets you create Child and Dialogs Windows, which can have their appearance and content customized.
RadPane – Creates a new RadPane item. RadPane is the main content unit of the RadDocking control.

The result will be:

1. A new item will be added to your project, depending on your choice in the Scenario Wizard
2. All necessary references will be added to your project

Please, comment and let us know what you think.

Cheers,
the Telerik VSXTeam