The “What’s New in ASP.NET” webinar was last week, and during the event you guys kept a pretty steady flow of questions coming in – which I like! Unfortunately due to time constraints I was not able to cover all of the questions live. However, I wanted to follow up with a blog post with all of the questions answered in written form. So, below you’ll find all of the answers to said questions that were asked during the webinar. Keep in mind that your exact question might not be in here, but that’s because I aggregated similar questions and removed duplicates.

Also, if you did not have a chance to attend the webinar you can watch the recorded version right here. I recommend giving it a looksee since these questions are related to content in that webinar!

RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX

• Q: Telerik keeps focusing on binding to OData services directly.  How do you recommend implementing business logic to determine what should be passed to the control?
  The business logic really depends on just how advanced you want to go. As with all Telerik controls we try to offer a range between simple & codeless and the more advanced & “codeful” approach. So, if you have some advanced business logic as to what service to subscribe to it might be better to take control over the data being sent back and forth, as opposed to just binding directly to a web service. This logic can range from just having different service URLs for different users (could utilize the simple binding) or querying the services for data after some requirement has been gathered – which can occur on both the client-side and/or server-side.
• Q: When working with the cloud, is there anything special that needs to be done with regards to Telerik?
  There really isn’t anything different that needs to be done to be honest. Both the ASP.NET Ajax and ASP.NET MVC components work just fine in the cloud without any additional tweaks. In fact, we have a few resources on this subject. This blog post starts a series regarding the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX in Azure – and we also have this Telerik TV episode. Similarly with the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC we have a blog post series that covers cloud development and deployment, as well as another Telerik TV clip.
• Q: Will the RadControls work the same in different browsers?
  Yes indeed! We offer support for all of today’s major browsers, as can be seen on our browser support page.
• Q: What was that about the CSS minification?
  Glad you asked! Telerik’s ASP.NET Ajax controls now take use of CSS minification to reduce the load times of pages using our controls even further. The best thing is it’s all out of the box :). Don’t you just love performance optimizations without any work from your end!? We have a more detailed blog post about the subject right here.
• Q: If you usually develop using Telerik’s ASP.NET controls, when would it be better to use your SharePoint WebParts?
  Well, we offer quite a selection of ready-made web parts for SharePoint (a demo site of our SharePoint items can be found here). What I would say is to take a look at the web parts that we’ve created and see if they include all of the features that you are looking for. If not, you can pretty easily create web parts utilizing our RadControls.
• Q: Are there any issues with upgrading to a newer version of the controls from a version that's a couple years old?
  While I would love to say “nope, you will not experience a single issue” it is a bit tough to estimate without a specific version. That being said, we try to be as backward compatible as we can be. What I usually recommend when upgrading to a new version is to check out the “What’s New” section of the components. From here you can see what is new in the latest version of the components. Any breaking changes would be announced here. Additionally you can take a look at the release history of the product and see what the differences are between your current version and the new version. Of course, if you’re brave you could just upgrade and try to resolve any issues that might pop up – just remember to back up your project :)
• Q: Any plans to create hooks to allow MVC/ASP.NET Ajax to use Kendo UI for the front end?
  Currently we are planning on creating ASP.NET MVC wrappers for Kendo UI, we even have a FAQ on the topic here, but there are currently no plans for ASP.NET Ajax wrappers. On that note, or well the note of HTML5, we have been, and will continue to, optimize and “HTML5-ize” (did I just coin that? ;)) our components as features are being implemented by major browsers.
• Q: Will you drop internal jQuery integration and allow it to be dropped in from NuGet?
  In terms of ASP.NET AJAX, we do not have plans to drop the internal version of jQuery. Actually, it probably isn’t really needed as we don’t conflict with an external jQuery library thanks to the internal version we use is exposed via the $telerik.$ alias. As for a NuGet package this is a bit tricky with our ASP.NET Ajax controls, and we do currently not offer them off of NuGet.
  As for ASP.NET MVC we are not planning on dropping the shipment of jQuery with our components. However, you can very easily disable jQuery and implement your own external version, as seen in this documentation article. Finally, we do already have a NuGet package available for the open source version of our Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC as you can see right here.
• Q: You mentioned earlier Firefox 8 support, website states Firefox 10 support - who's correct?
  We tend to support the latest and greatest version of all browsers. The Firefox 8 support was simply mentioned as what we did for Q3 2011 in the quick recap. Firefox 10 can be used just fine with our controls.
• Q: Where is the image gallery sample located?
  You should be able to access the new Image Gallery sample application right here.
• Q: In the RadEditor can comments overlap each other?
  This is currently not possible.
• Q: Where are these comments saved?
  If you take a look at our Comments in Editor demo you can see that all of these comments are actually saved in the HTML – allowing you to easily save and load the document (and all comments). These are of course not displayed in the Preview tab of the Editor. Additionally, you can just use some client-side API calls, or utilize the “remove all comments” button to get rid of the comments (and their HTML) once the content is finalized.
• Q: What does the comments in the RadEditor look like when exporting into PDF?
  The content should just be exported the way it looks in the Preview tab of the Editor. None of the comments will be displayed.
• Q: Is there any features in Editor to block spam/abusive words?
  This is not a built-in feature of the Telerik ASP.NET Editor. A way to handle the abusive words would be to filter through the content on the client-side utilizing the client-side API and warn the user somehow that the content does not pass your requirements.
  As for spam, you can utilize the RadCaptcha control to ensure that a page which contains the RadEditor does not get spammed.
• Q: Can we have two of the exact same word in different places with their own comment?
  This is possible. Give it a try in our demo.
• Q: Can we use the Telerik RadToolTip to display editor comments highlighted word instead of the default control?
  Currently this is not possible.
• Q: Why would I use the RadTreeListView instead of a hierarchical RadGrid?
  There are several advantages to displaying hierarchical data for the RadGrid. One of the immediate ones that pop up in my head is the ability to have sorting/filtering/grouping in your sub-Grid, while this is not possible in child items of the RadTreeListView. Additionally, you have the ability to define templates for your child items. The RadTreeListView allows for an unique approach though, combining the look of a TreeView with the column-structure of a Grid.
• Q: In the RadTreeListView is there a way to specify the name of the exported document?
  Yes indeed there is! We have a quick and easy FileName property that you can use to specify the name of the exported document. More information can be found right here.
• Q: How does the RadTreeListView performance compare to the RadGrid for the same information?
  Honestly I would say that they end up being pretty much on par. When comparing these two controls the important item is what do you want the control to actually do? Look over the various features of each control and see which makes the most sense in your application. They are pretty different once you dive into them, so the features and design should definitely be the deciding factors.
• Q: Can the RadOrgChart be exported?
  This is currently not supported, but could be looked into. I recommend submitting this to our Public Issue Tracking System (PITS) so other customers can vote in the feature.
• Q: Can you explain how the RadOrgChart is stored in a database?
  It’s actually not as complicated as it might seem. All that you need in the database is a field for DataFieldID (the primary key of our data) and a DataFieldParentID field (representing the parent item). You’re most likely already familiar with this setup when utilizing other hierarchical data sources.
• Q: Will RadOrgChart have an orientation property in the future (i.e. Horizontal and Vertical)?
  I recommend submitting this question to our Public Issue Tracking System (PITS) so that you and other customers can vote on this feature.
• Q: Can the RadOrgChart bind to Active Directory?
  While it cannot bind directly, you could of course utilize some business logic to extract information from Active Directory utilizing C# or VB.NET and then data bind this collection to the Org Chart.
• Q: Does the RadOrgChart have any functionality to add nodes at runtime?
  Currently there is no way to add or remove nodes at runtime, but I recommend submitting this feature request to PITS.
• Q: Will Telerik consider expanding the RadOrgChart functionality to allow a data-driven flow chart?
  A flow chart would most likely be a completely separate control. This is a perfect item to submit to PITS though, as it gives us ideas for future controls!
• Q: Can the RadOrgChart support hyperlinks to show related info about each item?
  Sure it can! We offer the ability to specify templates, as seen in this demo. You can specify hyperlink elements within these templates.
• Q: Can you do client-side filtering on the RadGrid?
  If you are data binding on the client-side you can take use of client-side filtering without any issues. Please refer to this demo for more information.
• Q: Is it possible to export the RadGrid data into Excel template?
  Currently the RadGrid can export to PDF, Excel (HTML), Excel (ExcelML), Word and CSV, as seen in this documentation article. 
• Q: Are there any plans to export to Excel 2007 or higher from controls like the RadGrid?
  All of the controls that can export to Excel should be able to export in the ExcelML format, which should be targeting Excel 2007 and higher.
• Q: Are the beautiful charts that are available in ASP.NET MVC available in ASP.NET Ajax?
  While we do not have immediate plans for this, it has been discussed previously. I recommend keeping an eye out on future releases on our roadmap page to see what we announce for upcoming releases.
• Q: Hi, Does the SPRadScheduler have the ability to have a 5-day week e.g. Mon-Fri with Sat & Sun hidden?
  Currently this is not possible out-of-the-box, but submit the feature request to PITS!
• Q: We are mostly using Oracle Databases. Do we need to use Open Access in order to bind controls with oracle database?
  While utilizing OpenAccess is definitely one way to go since it does help quite a bit when dealing with database calls (I love ORMs – lets me stay out of the database :)) it’s not necessary. .NET has a lot of ways to work with Oracle databases and I believe that the declarative SqlDataSource works with Oracle. Of course, you can use a code-behind approach as well as C# and VB.NET both have hooks into Oracle databases.
• Q: Have you considered creating a control that allows a user to work directly with Word documents?
  Interesting control(s) idea! Submit it to PITS so that others can express their opinion on it! :)
• Q: Is there any chance that these videos might be available for download? Sometimes the website is very slow and stops to buffer.
  Unfortunately we currently do not have the ability for you to download the recorded version of the webinar. We’ll see what we can do in terms of sprucing up the streaming service!
• Q: What would be the best way to populate a table with a RadGrid with more than 800,000 records?
  A very open-ended question, but I’ll try to provide a general approach. First of all, do your users (and yourself) a favor and take use of paging! There’s absolutely no need to have 800,000 records display at once. Additionally, it might be a good idea to try to do some client-side binding and implement caching, like in this demo. This way if a set of data has been displayed previously the Grid will just go to its cached data and find it there.
• Q: Did bug “X” get fixed in this release?
  Honestly the best place to check is the release notes offered for the release. This has a list of the major bugs that were resolved. Of course, a very easy way to check is to upgrade and see if the issue still persists. If it does, please let us know by submitting a support ticket so that we can look into it!

Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC

• Q: Will you support MVC 4?
  This question was actually asked quite a bit, and I did answer it during the webinar, but I’ll answer it again here :) The short answer is: yes, we will support MVC4. If you take a look at the Telerik Extensions release history you can see that we’ve supported MVC since MVC1, and we do not intend to stop supporting the latest and greatest of the UI platform. Once MVC4 is officially released you can count on a Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC version supporting MVC4!
• Q: Is a pivot grid for MVC on the Roadmap?
  We do not have plans for the Pivot Grid currently, although we are aware of users requesting one. I recommend checking out our Public Issue Tracking System (PITS) and submitting the control idea.
• Q: Does this release have something that forces OnSubmitChanges event to fire even if there is no change in the MVC Grid?
  Currently this event will only fire if there are changes that have been made to the Grid. I’m a little unsure as to how/why this event should be triggered otherwise. If you have some functionality in the OnSubmitChanges you want to utilize elsewhere I recommend refactoring your JavaScript code.
• Q: Do you have any plan to match MVC controls to RadControls for ASP.NET Ajax or Silverlight or WPF?
  This question does get asked quite a bit, and I believe I have seen it since the first webinar I conducted for ASP.NET MVC :) The short answer is that while we are trying to expand our MVC component list we are also heavily relying on feedback from our users to shape the future of the component suite. This means that we might have components completely unique to ASP.NET MVC. Will we try to close the gap between the suites? As much as we can, but certain components do not make sense (RadAjax for example) to have equivalents of in MVC so that one-to-one mapping might not exist.
• Q: With the introduction of Web API in MVC 4, do you think that the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC should be discontinued and instead embrace Kendo UI?
  I don’t think that the Web API drops the need for the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC – it’s just a different approach to creating ASP.NET MVC applications. You can still utilize the components within ASP.NET MVC and you do not necessarily even have to create a Web API application. In fact, you never know what we might implement in terms of the Web API and our components once MVC 4 is officially released! :D
• Q: Does the MVC upload component allow for multiple file uploads?
  Yes indeed it does! Check out this demo to experiment :)
• Q: Do you have any plan for a RadScheduler type of component for ASP.NET MVC?
  While we do not have plans for a MVC Scheduler component currently – it’s definitely something you can submit to PITS!
• Q: Is the FileExplorer planned for MVC?
  As of now we do not have plans for a MVC FileExplorer component – it’s definitely something you can submit to PITS though!
• Q: Will the charts be able to handle zooming and scrolling for situations when the data is too large to view in chart area?
  Currently the charts themselves do not have zoom capabilities, but you should be able to scroll an element that contains a large chart.

All Done!

Whew, that was quite a lot – wasn’t it? Keep in mind that we do have the recorded webinar up on Telerik TV – right here – so you can feel free to watch it if you missed it, or re-watch your favorite parts!

So, after playing around with the controls for a bit what do you guys think of the Q1 2012 release of the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and the Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC? Feel free to leave your comments below in the aptly named comments section! :D