Angular UI Components - the Directors Cut

In January we announced the Release Candidate availability of Kendo UI for Angular - a comprehensive UI framework, written from the ground up as native Angular components. That's right no jQuery dependency, no wrapping old code and pretending it's new.

We've been hard at work getting ready for the full release, which will ship in May. We're excited to get these components into developer's hands and see what you build with them. In the interim we would like to share a list of components with you that didn't quite make it into the final release for whatever reasons.

1. kendo-hitcounter

No web page would be complete without a hit counter. This component lets your visitors know just how special your page really is. Simply add the component <kendo-hitcounter> for a numerical display of every visit ever. This robust component even comes with several built in themes, just set the [theme] property to one of the many gorgeous options.

<kendo-hitcounter [theme]="Analog"></kendo-hitcounter>

<kendo-hitcounter [theme]="Quake"></kendo-hitcounter>

<kendo-hitcounter [theme]="Windows8"></kendo-hitcounter>

2. kendo-blink

Users can be the worst! Sometimes it's almost impossible to get their attention. For years we've tried methods of attracting the users attention such as: JavaScript alert boxes, blockquote callouts, and modal dialogs, but nothing ever really worked as well as the <blink> tag.

Since this amazing piece of UI has been removed from the HTML standard, we felt it should be brought back for Angular. Just add the kendo-blink component and we'll take care of the rest. Customize your text with data binding, or take customization to the extreme with the (onBlink) event handler.

<kendo-blink (onBlink)="logBlinks">&lt;BLINK&gt;</kendo-blink>

class AppComponent {
    public onBlink() {
      console.log("Blinked");
    }
}

3. FaxExporter

Kendo UI for Angular has an awesome feature called the FileSaver. The FileSaver package allows you to save files on the client machine, awesome right?! But the user's needs probably go beyond a simple file save, so we thought bigger with the FaxExporter.

Go right from the browser to fax with a simple API call saveAsFax. Just like that government productivity just went up a notch!

import { saveAs, encodeBase64 } from '@progress/kendo-file-saver';

const dataURI = "data:text/plain;base64," + encodeBase64("Hello World!");
const faxNumber = 2017004001;
saveAsFax(dataURI, "test.txt", faxNumber);

4. kendo-under-construction

Nothing says "Our web team is really busy" like an under construction banner. Users and managers no longer need to guess what's going on behind the scenes on the dev team. Imagine how productive your team will be when all of those time consuming stand-ups, kanbans, and agile processes are eliminated. Simply add the kendo-under-construction component to your application and push the changes right to production.

<kendo-under-construction [animate]="true"></kendo-under-construction>

5. kendo-todd

Today, virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana are all the rage. Wouldn't it be great if there were a virtual assistant you could add to your Angular application as a component? That's what we thought, which is how Todd was created.

Todd is a next generation artificial intelligence virtual assistant you can customize for your application. Todd can do amazing things like help users write a document, navigate "back", or cheat at mine sweeper. Todd is always there for advice, just add him as a component kendo-todd.

<kendo-todd [alwaysVisible]="true"></kendo-todd>

6. Physical Dependency Management

We've heard that not all users love working with Node Package Manager (npm). Why fuss with the command line and npm when you can just "copy that floppy".

The Kendo UI for Angular 3.5" floppy installer is an easy way to manage your dependencies. This simpler more direct approach will help developers who really enjoy that physical interaction with their dependencies.

The Cutting Room Floor

These were a few of the ideas that hit the cutting room floor. It's too bad these didn't make it, but many other amazing components did. If you would like to find out more about what's coming in the Kendo UI for Angular release then join us for the May 9th webinar, Conquer Angular UI Faster and Easier with Kendo UI for Angular

If you enjoyed the holiday fun and want to share your own component idea, please post it in the comments section below.